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Youth Violence: A Reflection
"What I've seen over the past couple of years is a growing trend of youth getting killed- and a growing number of youth killers."
View photos from Meleia's memorial site
By Gabriel Long
Meleia Willis-Starbuck exemplified what it meant to be a leader who wanted to make a difference in the community.
Smart, outspoken and ambitious, the 19-year-old youth traveled to Cuba and Vietnam as part of a social justice program in high school. After two years on scholarship at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, she returned to Berkeley this summer for a coveted internship, helping homeless women and children.
But on Sunday, Willis-Starbuck's life was cut short by a senseless shooting just 3 1/2 blocks south of the UC Berkeley campus.
Berkeley police are investigating whether the 1:45 a.m. homicide was related to an argument that had started only minutes earlier, between a group of young men and a group of Willis-Starbuck's friends, including Willis-Starbuck.
Meleia spent Saturday night with a group of girlfriends from her old high school. The group was outside a UC Berkeley dormitory just across the street from her apartment. Inside the dormitory, a dance for the Summer Bridge program, which helps at-risk students prepare for their first year of college, had ended.
As Willis-Starbuck and her friends left the dance, a group of young men approached them stating that they were Cal students, and asking the women to party with them, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. When rejected, the men called the women "bitches" and an argument ensued. A short time later, an unknown gunmen got out of a car on Dwight Way and fired several shots in the direction of the group, killing Meleia Willis-Starbuck.
Meleia Willis-Starbuck's story is one of the many heart-wrenching accounts that plague the Bay Area: a promising student who is expected to do great things is cut down before fulfilling her full potential. What I've seen over the past couple of years is a growing trend of youth getting killed- and a growing number of youth killers. Just last month in Richmond- which judging by its latest news reports sounds as if Richmond is a city in Iraq rather than in California- a 14-year-old boy was shot and killed at a gas station.
Even though I've heard about young people getting killed before, its still hard to swallow. When I think about my peers getting killed before they reach adulthood, it really shows the direction our society is head towards. There's a complete lack of respect for life, and unless we begin taking more responsibility in children's lives, things are only going to get worse.
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