THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410270462
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARC TIBBS
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Something is woefully wrong if a suspended high school student thinks he can take an assault weapon and go gunnin' for his principal.
We don't know if that's what 18-year-old Hakeen Sanford had in mind when he was arrested outside Salem High School on Tuesday. Police said they found him cruising the school parking lot with a 40-ounce beer at his side, a beeper on his hip and a military assault rifle in the trunk of his car.
Such a weapon, described by police as having a detachable magazine, a flash guard, and loaded with 12 rounds, could have instantly made martyrs out of a host of students or school staff.
Sanford was arrested. There wasn't any gunplay.
But why would anyone drive around with a rifle like that?
The circumstances surrounding this case, and a thousand others like it, illuminate a more widespread pathology: the plight of young, urban black males.
``Surviving the Odds: Young Black Males - Dead or Alive'' is an upcoming WHRO-TV special that aims to offer insight into this pressing social issue.
The first of several episodes airs at 8 p.m. Monday, and Joe Pitts, one of the producers, hopes it will start a dialogue that will lead to some solutions.
In early spring, WHRO brought together community leaders from all over Hampton Roads to preview the series and come up with plans to address this dilemma.
``We're trying to reach people before they can take an AK47 to school,'' said Pitts. ``Instead of bringing in experts, we're getting people who are part of life and have something to say.''
The series is composed partly of frank conversations with a spectrum of young black males. There are 7- and 8-year-olds in a Philadelphia elementary school class taught by a black male teacher who plays jazz music for his class because it makes them feel ``comfortable.''
They can instantly identify Rodney King, and they shun the lyrics of Ice T's ``Cop Killer.''
The camera also goes inside a Pennsylvania prison where black male inmates talk repentantly about ``looking inside of one's self'' for solutions, and ``education as the only way to fight oppression.''
Rap artists and street gang members also talk about the enmity between black males and the police, and police talk about how some officers dehumanize black males.
A group of black male college students ponders the effects of ``gangsta rap videos,'' and a young black male graffiti artist talks about how his ``Rest In Peace'' T-shirts are the latest rage in memorializing slain black youth.
The centerpiece of the series will be a televised town meeting with panelists from the fields of education, image and self-esteem, and the criminal justice system who will field questions from an areawide audience.
``There has been a cycle of things that has kicked off this program,'' said Pitts. ``The lawsuit by blacks at Norfolk Naval Shipyard; no parole, the increase in juveniles being tried as adults . . .
``We hope it will generate something other than just this television program,'' Pitts said.
So do the students and faculty at Salem High. by CNB