AMIRRON'S STORY...
About the same time that we started the fish fry in 2015 after we bought the Mackin building from Bobby, we starting having open gym every day. At the time I was still working full time in the office with Humana, so Shawn would open the gym every day at 2:30 when the school busses would drop off out from and then I would come home around 5:00 and together we would close up the gym around 8pm, walk across the parking lot to our house, have dinner, go to bed and get up and do it all again the next day. One of the very first days that we opened the gym, a group of 10 and 11 year old boys showed up, curious about who we were, and wanting to “shoot ball at the Mackin.” They were precocious and street smart well beyond their young years. They would cut up and laugh like 10 year old boys do, but there was always an undercurrent of life experience you could tell prematurely aged them emotionally. They had varying degrees of natural family so they bonded with each other and created a family of their own. You could tell that the leader among them was a boy named Amirron. Even as a young kid he had a presence. The others listened to him, even though he was just 11 years old, he had the same air about him as an old battle worn general, conscious of the cost of leadership and the sacrifices it required.
Over the years this bonded group of boys that had chosen each other as their family started to adopt gang language to describe themselves. Placing weight on the words respect and loyalty, perverting their true meaning to create this concept of family and love that was ironically rooted in fighting as a way to stay safe. As they grew older around ages 13 and 14, they started to have access to guns and drugs, which was not uncommon. They would continue to come to open gym almost every day, knowing it was a safe place away from whatever drama they were involved in the rest of the day. Amirron in particular was always careful to keep anything that the group might be involved in, out of the Mackin. He loved Shawn, and respected him, and made sure anyone involved in his group was respectful and kept all that stuff out of the Mackin.
Shawn with Amirron on the right, John John in the center, and Emanuel (Man Man) on the right, in 2016 when we started open gym.
Over the years we just continued to love on Amirron and all the boys and girls that came to Mackin. Amirron brought his sister with him who was only a year younger than him, and his little brother Robert who was just 7 years old at the time. In July of 2019 tensions that didn’t use to come into the Mackin building were starting to circe outside. Amirron hadn’t been to the Mackin in a few months. Some of the other kids that we also knew that hung out with him started talking about some sort of conflict between groups of kids that had started over at Westonia Park. The kids involved started talking tough and making threats toward one another. Then one day Remy, who was 16 at the time and had also been coming to the Mackin for years was chased down by a car while he was riding his bike. He managed to not get hurt, but the man driving the car had threatened him and it was all in relation to the conflict that had started between Amirron’s group and another group at Westonia Park. Whenever we heard the kids at the gym talking about the conflict, we tried to love on them, and advise them to not escalate but find a resolution. For a few weeks it seemed like things would blow over. Everyone involved kept to themselves but the tension in the neighborhood was still there.
On Friday morning August 2, 2019, I got up, took a shower and poured myself a bowl of cheerios, in preparation for a busy day of summer camps and the fish fry at Love City. Shawn was still in bed when I came in eating my bowl of cereal. “They got Amirrion last night,” he said to me as I walked in. “What?” I said, but I instantly knew what he meant. “Tresean texted me last night and told me they shot him down at the corner of 26th an Bank St,” he said. I didn’t know quite what to feel, it seemed surreal, he was just 15, and as more information came out about what happened, it was a 13 year old and 15 year old that were charged with his murder. He was shot sitting in the back seat of a car that had pulled over at the corner. The shooter walked up and shot through the window 6 times, shooting Amirrion in the face and killing him. The more details that emerged the more it sounded like a highly organized mafia style hit, not something young teenagers should be capable of.
Amirron and his little brother Robert, about a month before Amirron died.
Later that evening there was a vigil held on the site where he was shot. Shawn and I and the whole Love City team walked down the street from the Mackin to show love and support for Amirron’s family as well as all the kids we knew from the gym, and countless neighbors who showed up to mourn the fallen 15 year old. Amirron’s sister, Paradise stood in the middle of the street just screaming that she was never going to see her brother again. Some of the kids started to form a circle and the mother of one of Amirron’s closest friends, Daylon, came and found Shawn. “Shawn,” she said, “they want you to pray.” So Shawn walked into the middle of the circle, surrounded by so much grief, and pent up anger that was balancing on a knife point almost tipping over into hostilities and began to speak. He acknowledged their grief, and acknowledged their anger. And then he focused on the community, coming together, loving one another and how important that was, especially at this time. After the prayer, the crowd started to disperse.
The next day as we drove through the neighborhood, we happened upon Amirron’s aunt, Mee Mee, who we had met a couple of times before. She had with her Amirron’s grandmother, Jackie, who had basically raised Amirron and Paradise. Their mother, Jackie’s daughter, Amanda, was in prison in northern Indiana at the time, so Amirron and Paradise lived with her. Shawn went over to talk to her and said, if there was anything they needed to let us know. Later that day, Jackie called and asked Shawn if we would meet them at the funeral home. We met them at Ratterman’s on Market street to help plan out the funeral. It was determined that the visitation would be at Ratterman’s and the funeral would be at St Cecilia church and Shawn would officiate.
Shawn met Jackie at Ratterman’s the next day as they prepared the body for the open casket, his face had been put back together so they could have the open casket, and Shawn held Jackie’s hand has she braided her grandson’s hair for the last time. On the day of the visitation we stayed there most of the day with the family. Shawn sat in the visitation room as people came and went, just looking at the body, praying and willing for his chest to suck in a huge breath of air and come back to life, but this time that didn’t happen. The next day we had the funeral at St Cecilia. It was a packed house. Probably close to 500 people came.
The drive to the cemetery after the funeral was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The procession of cars were decorated with Amirron’s colors of black and red, kids were hanging out the windows and sunroofs, music blaring, shouting as they drove down the street. In my hometown in northern Virginia, we did that for homecoming parade, not a funeral procession. To me it looked like a combination of a celebration of and desensitization to death, but to them, they were showing honor and love to the one who had died.
In the weeks that followed things somewhat got back to normal. Paradise switched to homeschooling, unable to face going to school everyday with her brother not there. Jackie started coming around Love City more, volunteering and helping out, and a few months later, even decided she wanted to get baptized. We baptized her at St Cecilia church. Amirron’s aunt Mee Mee, came to work for Love City, working check in for open gym up until COVID forced us to close the gym. And Amirron’s cousins, Serenity and Raqueah enrolled at Mighty Oak Academy when we opened this past fall of 2021. Shawn was right, God used Amirron’s death, as hard and incomprehensible as it was, for good in the end.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Preparing for training with the MOA staff starting tomorrow morning.
One of the key components of Mighty Oak Academy is social emotional learning. We take a lot of time and investment in our educators to train them on how to help students affected by trauma build their skills and know that they are safe and loved and can learn. We also take time with our students to help give them space to learn to self-regulate, and build skills that are no longer just coping mechanisms, but adaptability to handle adversity. We take the first six weeks of the school year, something we call Unit 0, to establish routines, safe spaces, and predictability so students can thrive and learn.
We use a variety of methods, from reading books about social emotional learning to more individualized interventions. In order to have all the tools we need, we need some items to use in the school. The list in the link below is our high priority needs to be able to start our social emotional learning program in the fall. Anything you purchase on this list will be sent directly to the school and used by our teachers and our behavior interventionist to help our students learn and grow. If you feel led to join in this aspect of Mighty Oak Academy and Love City, please click the link.
https://a.co/d6eYC8q
MIGHTY OAK IS HIRING!
We have made progress on our hiring goals for this coming school year. We filled a couple of key roles this week and are excited to have them start next week.
Our biggest need still is we need teachers for our Elementary classrooms. Here are the list of positions we are looking to fill:
Elementary School Teachers
Receptionist
Athletic Director
Digital Media Instructor/Specialist
Below is a summary of the teacher job posting. You can find a full description of the teacher job, as well as links to all of the additional jobs we have open on indeed and our website. If you or anyone you know might be interested in joining the MOA team this year, please forward them the job posting. You can find the job postings on Indeed by searching Mighty Oak Academy.
TEACHER JOB POSTING AT MIGHTY OAK ACADEMY
The Teachers report to the Instructional Coach and are responsible for leading their own instruction as well as collaborating on a teaching team to facilitate learning across multiple elementary classrooms. Teachers are tone setters for the school and responsible for high quality instruction, culture building within and across classrooms. Teachers will also need to be able to deeply integrate academics, socio emotional learning and health in our classrooms daily. Mighty Oak Academy is a new school, and as we learn and grow, we respond and adapt to the needs of our students and staff. This year we will have teachers working on teams across 2-3 grade levels to address different subjects, integrate project-based learning and adjust classes to skill level rather than grade level.
Some highlights from the job responsibilities:
Annual, weekly, and daily instructional planning tailored to the needs of each child
Instructional delivery in large group, small group, and individualized formats
Collaboration with other teachers to practice skills and jointly problem solve
Partner with instructional support team, behavioral support team and other related service providers to provide personalized supports for students with identified needs
Create a safe and enjoyable educational environment that encompasses project-based learning.
Use the school’s social emotional learning techniques for encouraging the social emotional development of children that builds a healthy, safe, loving school environment.
Manage classrooms effectively so that children feel loved, safe and want to learn.
Some highlights from the job qualifications:
You have a bachelor’s degree
You have a minimum of 3 years of experience as a classroom teacher and hold deep and diverse instructional competence
Your work demonstrates a practice of creating transformative classroom culture for all kids. You take proactive steps to build an equitable classroom practice
You have a parent- and family-centered mindset
You recognize the multidimensional needs of children and families, because in your own way, you’ve been trying to weave education, health, and family support services together for your students
For the full job posting and to see all our other open positions please click on the following link:
Job Postings at Mighty Oak Academy
If you are interested in volunteering or to find out more information about supplies needed please email: info@lovecityinc.org or call (502) 272-078.
Please consider partnering financially with Love City. We are looking for sponsors for students at Mighty Oak Academy as well as partners to help fund construction of our new preschool. Click the button below to donate today.