Path of a Bullet

Carl Cohn is at Wilson High School on a student-free teachers' workday, and teacher John Crutchfield spots an opening.

“Have you heard about the Peace Colors program we've got going?” Crutchfield asks.

Everywhere Cohn turns these days, it seems somebody's talking anti-violence.

In five years as superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District, Cohn has gained a reputation for breaking new ground and caring passionately about youth handgun violence.

Three years ago, that combination spurred Cohn to implement a school uniforms policy for kindergarten-through-eighth grade-students. That policy was hailed by Attorney General Janet Reno last year and President Bill Clinton this year as a positive move to curb gang violence in and around schools.

Cohn was also the catalyst for Dr. Doug McConnell's harsh video about the effects of a gunshot wound (see the related story on this page). The video project inspired this special section.

“You know, we're not going to stop gang violence, but we might save the lives of a few youngsters,” Cohn said.

When the video is completed, it will be shown to students in grades 7 to 12, probably in a social science class. Parents will have the chance to see the video before it is widely shown, so they can decide whether they want their children to see it.

It's part of what Judy Seal, vice-president for education for the Long Beach Community Partnership, calls, “repeated inoculation to the virus of youth crime.” Seal has been working closely with Cohn and McConnell on the youth violence problem.

“When we look at issues of youth violence, we can quickly become reactionary,” she said. “But that's not going to carry us to where we need to be.”

Seal says the idea is to provide better counseling and support services in middle schools and high schools, bring reality-based education -- such as McConnell's video and this section -- into classrooms, and develop school-based centers for at-risk middle school students to provide them tutoring and expose them to successful adults.

Exposure and expression are two key words.

Cohn points to the work of Wilson history and English teacher Erin Gruwell as an example of what he'd like to nurture in the schools. Gruwell teaches students about tolerance by exposing them to survivors of the Holocaust and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. And she encourages students to write their feelings about the violence they experience in their lives.

Some of their essays will be published in a book Gruwell is putting together called “An American Diary: Victims of an Undeclared War.”

“The bottom line is spending more time on academics,” Cohn said. “More time on academics means less time on violence. If we can get youngsters excited about learning, and teach great poetry and great literature and outstanding history, for me that's a better way to go than relying on some magic (anti-violence) course.”