Not too long ago, a young Genesee County mother beat her 18-month-old child with a belt for what most of us would consider a typical toddler's action.
Ed Minardo, director of Genesee Justice, was recently injured while attempting to break up a fight between two high school girls -- both cheered on by nine other youths -- outside of one of Genesee Justice's satellite offices.
In November 2005, Lisa and Bill Fickel were settling in for a typical Thursday night at their Oakfield home, when suddenly a truck pulled into their driveway; the driver then pulled out and parked across the street. Thinking that perhaps this person was interested in buying their van (which Lisa said they were trying to sell at that time), Bill went outside to meet him/her.
After a while, Lisa realized she had waited an awful long time for him to come back. She hadn't heard any conversation outside the whole time -- just the sound of the truck backfiring. Impatient to have her husband back inside so that they could watch "Survivor," she stepped out into the night...and found that the truck was gone.
She saw Bill's flashlight lying on the ground -- which was unusual, because Bill was always very careful with his tools and such. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught something lying on the side of the road. She looked closer, and saw that it was Bill.
At that moment, she knew that the noise she had mistaken for the sound of the truck backfiring was the gunshot that killed her husband.
Yes, Genesee County is better off than other places -- particularly urban communities -- when it comes to community violence; but clearly, violence is a very real and pressing concern for Batavia and the surrounding area.
A newly formed "Coalition," which has not yet chosen a formal name, has resolved to address and rectify this problem. The Coalition's members include:
William Privett, the regional coordinator for the international Catholic peace movement Pax Christi.
Left to right: Captain Robert Kurtz of the Salvation Army, Fickel (who is GCASA's Drug Free Communities coordinator) and Minardo.
Jackson Elementary School Principal Shawn Clark, Batavia High School Assistant Principal Julia Rogers, and Genesee County District Attorney Lawrence Friedman.
The Coalition held its first community forum last night at the Batavia YWCA. Privett started by identifying the group's mission, which is to develop and implement their shared vision of Genesee County being the first explicitly nonviolent -- "peaceful" -- community in the U.S.
"We're not naive, though," Privett said.
To prove this point, he proceeded to read the State Division of Criminal Justice Services' statistics on the county.
In 2008, the county had:
• 113 violent crimes
• 1,329 property crimes
• 14 robberies
• 1,031 larcenies
• 43 stolen vehicles
In addition, reports from the YWCA indicated 751 cases of domestic violence and sexual assaults in 2009.
"Each of these incidents represents a person, a story," Minardo said. "Sooner or later we have to ask ourselves, 'How dare we not get involved in this?'"
The type of involvement the Coalition calls for is not the kind of pedantic finger-wagging you might think of. One of their objectives is to reach out compassionately to both the victims and the perpetrators of violence.
During the question-and-answer session, an attendee stressed the importance of support systems for stressed parents and others who might be at risk for violent behavior instead of "targeting" them as enemies. This is one example of the type of outreach the Coalition wants to adopt and inspire.
Another is, in Minardo's words, to "develop a clearer image of what it means to be a nonviolent community.
"This takes the ability to navigate through the complexities of conflict, and to understand and respect people who commit acts of violence," Minardo said.
The Coalition understands "acts of violence" to be a broadly inclusive term. Privett offered the following definition of violence (in roughly these words): "Any physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, institutional/structural, or spiritual action that violates the dignity and value of others."
In his testimony, Captain Kurtz talked about how he literally "poured violence down (his) throat and put it up (his) nose" during his days as an alcoholic and a drug addict. He considers his alcohol and drug usages to have been acts of violence toward himself, and his journey of recovery has motivated him to help perpetrators and victims alike.
Of major importance to the Coalition is early intervention -- that is, targeting thinking patterns and influences that lead to violence and nipping the problem in the bud.
As school administrators, Clark and Rogers are especially privileged in that regard. Both have been involved in implementing programs to promote positive behavior in a generation of children who, in Clark's words, "are exposed now more than ever to violence in the media, and just in general."
One tool that Rogers and Clark have found useful is V.A.D.I.R. -- Violent and Disruptive Incident Reports -- which keeps track of different types of violence in the schools. In Batavia, V.A.D.I.R. data has pointed to certain commonalities in each school building. These form the starting point for administrative interventions.
"I believe that if we address the little things, the big things will take care of themselves," said Clark, who started serving as principal at Jackson last year.
He has spent most of his career working with underprivileged children in the Rochester schools, and has worked closely with students, teachers and parents on topics such as gang awareness, bullying, etc.
"What I find," Clark said, "is that a small group of children are bullies, a small group of children are the victims of bullies, and then the majority are kids who want to help the victims of bullying but don't quite know how. The problem is that empathy drops over time, so we really have to get to them early."
One of the interventions Clark has implemented in the past year is the Peaceful School Bus Program. Jackson has the largest population of bus riders in the Batavia City School District, and last year Clark received 120 referrals for problems that occurred on the bus. This new program for students, teachers and bus drivers has helped the children learn how to help each other and solve problems they may encounter on the bus.
"It's had a huge impact," Clark said. "I've only had 52 referrals for bus incidents, which is less than half what I had last year."
Rogers, who has also worked closely with faculty, staff, families and students on promoting positive behavior, talked about the challenge that modern technology presents in this area.
"When I was in school, we used to pass notes," she said. "Now you have kids texting each other and communicating on online sites. They can badmouth their schoolmates on these sites, and the kids they're talking about will have no knowledge of what they're saying about them. So parents really need to be monitoring what their kids are doing on the computer."
Privett echoed Rogers' call for parent involvement in his invitation to the whole community, including schools, churches, nonprofit organizations and ordinary citizens. Likewise, Minardo stressed that the coalition is about getting involved with the problem of violence at all age levels and at every stage of its progression -- whether prevention, response, or otherwise.
"The schools can't do it alone," said Privett. "We all need to make this of the highest priority. Otherwise, what will things be like 10 years from now?"
This is actually the reason the Coalition did not give itself an official name. They wanted to wait for people to join them, so that the public could help to determine their mission and their title.
The Coalition's next meeting will be held at 4 p.m. on May 10 at the First Presbyterian Church, 300 E. Main St. in Batavia. Please call William Privett at 599-3366, or e-mail <wprivett.paxchristi@gmail.com>, for more information.
