School Leaders Seek Justice For Three KIPP Metro Atlanta Students Killed In Five Months

ByKinnari Patel-Smyth, Mini’imah Shaheed
Secoriea Turner Billboard

In a guest column, two leaders of KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools talk about the three students from their schools killed by guns since July. They make a plea for the violence to cease.

Kinnari Patel-Smyth is the executive director of KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools, and Mini’imah Shaheed is the chief schools officer. KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools is a network of public charter schools and a partner school in Atlanta and East Point.

Our community is still mourning the loss of a beautiful, brilliant, and bold fifth-grade student, Tyrell Sims. Tyrell attended KIPP South Fulton Academy in East Point and was killed after being shot in the head while he was playing with his friend in the front yard of his home. While investigators are reviewing the case, no arrests have been made. This grief is deep, this sorrow is heavy, but tragically, these emotions are not new to our schools.

Tyrell is the third KIPP Metro Atlanta student who has been killed by gun violence in the past five months. On July 4th, our 8-year-old student from KIPP WAYS Primary School, Secoriea Turner, was killed while in the car with her mother near the Wendy’s location where Rayshard Brooks was killed just a few weeks earlier. While Secoriea’s death brought national attention, and thousands mourned with her family, there has only been one arrest made and police suspect that there are as many as three additional individuals who remain at-large.

Read the full article here.

Photo credit: Channel 2 Action News