For Star Spencer High School Assistant Principal Rodney Cox, seeing is believing.
After he watched Barack Obama become president for the first time, he let himself dream on a national scale. He said his ultimate goal is to become Secretary of Education.
Cox said he keeps miniatures of the White House and national monuments on his desk so every student who comes into his office sees how big they can dream.
Cox overcame a lot to get where he is today. When he was in eighth grade, both his parents were arrested. He said his football coach interrupted his class to show him a newspaper with his parents' faces and tell Cox he’d grow up to be just like his dad.
“I just remember having a conversation with my grandma saying, regardless of what I do in my life, I never want a kid to feel the way that I felt that day. And so did I know it would lead to this position? No, I just knew I never wanted a kid to feel the way that I felt that day,” he said.
Cox said student discipline issues are like an iceberg. Educators usually only see the top, not the complex, underlying reasons a student may be struggling or acting out. That’s why he and his team at Star Spencer have built a network of organizations to support students holistically.
For example, if students and their families are struggling financially, Cox turns to local churches like Northeast Missionary Baptist Church. If students get into fights or are at risk of becoming involved in gangs or gun violence, he calls the staff at the new violence intervention organization LiveFree OKC.
This approach seems to be working. Last year, Star Spencer reduced school suspensions by 86%.
A new violence intervention resource in Oklahoma City
LiveFree OKC was co-founded by activist Jess Eddy and local rapper Jabee Williams. The organization’s staff work directly with people who have been or are likely to become involved in gun violence. They do long-term and short-term counseling and life coaching. Their clients are mostly adults who want to change their lifestyle and live more positively, but they also take the power of mentoring young people seriously.
For the past year, LiveFree OKC has worked with students at Star Spencer and Frederick A. Douglass High School. Not many students have been long-term clients of LiveFree, but its staff visit schools to mediate between students, speak with some who are struggling and be a visible, positive presence at school sports events.
One of those students was Tre Butler, a recent Star Spencer graduate. Butler’s teenage years were tumultuous, but he said working with Cox and LiveFree changed his life. He became a role model for younger students, telling them, “Don’t fight, don’t smoke and vape and stuff at school, all that. … Don’t do all that gang-related stuff.”
Butler’s mom said she saw him change. “I seen a big turnaround,” she said. After working with Cox, “I seen a whole different kid.”
Lynn Hall, the mental health specialist at Douglass High, said LiveFree has filled a gap in resources for her students. She said its staff provides a safe way for certain students to express themselves and feel understood for the first time.
“As far as gun violence, or somebody in the family being killed by gun violence, you really don't have a lot of resources. So they are the really first resource that I had that talks and acts on those certain areas for the family,” said Hall.
Hall said she asked LiveFree to work with a few male students. She said she’s seen impressive results like students fighting less and becoming involved in sports. She said her students benefit from having older role models from their community to speak to without feeling judged, and if she has a student who’s struggling, she calls LiveFree.
“Before that day is over, they have shown up to talk to that kid,” Hall said. “So then it kind of de-escalates whatever that kid has on their mind.”
Co-founder Jabee Williams said the LiveFree model focuses on replacing negative behaviors with positive opportunities and goals.
“We always say that, if you take the gun out of somebody's hands, you got to be able to put something else in it,” Williams said.
LiveFree’s first art night
Last month, that “something else” was a paintbrush.
Artist Erica Nkechi with Heart Studios led a multi-generational art therapy night. Step by step, she helped each participant paint an ocean landscape.
“We're here just to create and just to have a good time. You don't necessarily have to be an artist to paint,” she said.
The three youngest participants were students from Douglass High and teenage nephews of Brandon Banks. Banks is Lead Peacemaker at LiveFree OKC, heading the organization's team of community mentors. His nephews aren’t clients of the organization, but he said he brings them to LiveFree events to give them a chance to be around positive role models.
“It's always good for them to come up here. And then they hear somebody else say the same thing that I've been saying. So now it kind of makes it make sense,” he said.
Banks said he and his coworkers have a lot of power as role models because of their connection to their community.
“We're not your teacher, I'm not your principal. I'm not the police. I'm none of that,” he said. “I'm you at an older age, you know what I'm saying?”
One of Banks’ nephews, Marcel Gates, is starting 11th grade. He said after spending time with LiveFree, he’s learned to stop and think before making decisions.
“I kind of like, watch what I do, instead of making the move off the bat. Because I know some stuff can lead to danger,” he said.
Gates said he recommended LiveFree to his friends.
While LiveFree OKC isn’t a youth-centered organization, for some kids in the city, it has become a key resource they didn’t have before.
Douglass High Mental Health Specialist Lynn Hall said she hopes more schools in the Oklahoma City school district can work with the organization.
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