One "school week" ago, James Logan High School student Vernon Matthew Eddins was shot down on the Barnard-White Middle school campus in what’s rumored to have been in the name of gang violence, although no one is saying that Vernon was in a gang.
This tragic event has not been the first that the James Logan High School area has seen in the past few months. There have been other shootings, robberies and threats from rival gangs, which endanger the students as well as the surrounding community. The threat of gang violence has become more of a problem now more than James Logan has seen for many years.
Over my time at Logan, I’ve come to notice that the students have always had a fear of gang violence, but that fear was at a distance. Everyone was aware of it, but it rarely had a personal affect on the students as a whole, but now, as these violent outbursts draw closer and closer to our attentions, fear is beginning to get the best of some of us. Some families are afraid to keep their children enrolled at Logan, while others are attempting to combat the violence with meetings and rallies. The community is beginning to move out of courage or fear.
I would be a fool to tell my fellow Logan students not not to be fearful, because you have the right to be. What I instead would recommend is to be vigilant.
In times such as these, some allow fear to get in the way of their everyday lives. Fear is something that can easily take control of us and quickly grow out of our control, but to have courage is to conquer that fear. As long as we are careful and in control of our fears, we can be safe without running away from the issue.
So I implore the students and staff of James Logan High to be courageous, because with the strength of courage we can control our fear and fear is the first battle we must fight.
“Courage is not to be without fear, it is to conquer it.” –David Collins
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