Detroit Public Schools Community District often gets a bad rap due to declining enrollment issues or longstanding challenges that led to the historic takeover of the school system before voters returned it to an elected board.
And in many cases, that is the lens through which the school system’s performance is examined and viewed across the state. But there are hidden stories of progress within a school system that is still struggling to define itself and to give young Detroiters hope for a meaningful future.
I saw that first-hand last week at Denby High School, part of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, on the city’s east side, where hundreds of young Black and Brown male students gathered in the basketball gym for the annual policing and prosperity forum.
The annual event initiated and led by tenacious Detroiter Sharlonda Buckman, the district’s assistant superintendent for family and community engagement, is one of the hidden jewels of the public school system and brings together male students from various high schools to discuss their interaction with law enforcement. On the panel were senior and junior police officers from the Detroit Police Department, as well as the district’s public safety chief, Labrit Jackson, all of whom took hard questions from the students about how to navigate the complexities of the criminal justice system.
Before the start of the forum, I met three students: 17-year-old Justin Montgomery, 17-year-old Exavier Ward and 16-year-old Wesley Lewis, all students of Denby.
The three of them live on the east side and are serious and determined students who believe they have an obligation to be worthy ambassadors of their communities.
“I just got a scholarship from Cleary University for track and field and cross country and I just signed the papers so I can be committed,” Ward told me. “I am excited for the new year and I’m ready to live my adult life.”
His parents are also joyful about his future because, “out of all of my siblings, I’m going to be the first one to go to college. I want to major in cybersecurity,” he says.
Montgomery is scouting Oakland University or Central Michigan University and is also interested in a trades school. He’s keeping his options open.
“I have been here for a while and I’m ready to get out of high school. The experience has been good for me,” he says.
For Lewis, graduating in 2027 will make him the first in his family to be committed to college. That alone keeps him upbeat for the new year as he prepares for the challenges and the pressures of being an 11th grade student.
“I’m really ready to go to college. I’m looking at Kentucky State University, Wayne State University and Michigan State University,” he says. “I probably would major in music in college because I currently play the piano. But sometimes I get nervous about college because I feel like it is going to be harder than high school.”
These impressive young men speak to the vitality of the school system and the need to continue to nurture and support them.
The forum on policing and prosperity reinforces that need.
“This forum is so important because we give the students an opportunity to have a voice and talk about the things that are important to them and how they interact with law enforcement,” says Marty Bulger, the district’s senior director of male mentoring.
“Even a more dynamic piece is the fact that because the city has seen a reduction in violent crime, we believe as we reach our young people, we will continue to see a decline. These young men are our future leaders.”
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Bankole Thompson’s columns appear on Mondays and Thursdays in The Detroit News.
