Reflections from PartnershipLA

Partnership Student to be Recognized in Washington, D.C. for Anti-Violence Poem

Gompers Middle Schools Student, Kentrell Riley, Wrote Winning Poem as Part of the "Do the Write Thing Challenge"

For many Gompers Middle School students, violence in their community is an unfortunate fact of life. Yet in spite of this, there are the voices of the strong who refuse to allow their circumstances to define them.

One such student is entering 8th grader, Kentrell Riley. Last semester Kentrell's AP English teacher Ms. Talley, introduced her students to the "Do the Write Thing Challenge," a contest by the National Campaign to Stop Violence that gives middle school students the opportunity to examine the impact of youth violence on their lives and challenges them to live a more peaceful existence.

Being an avid writer, Kentrell accepted the challenge and jumped at the chance to submit an entry. The honor student's poignant poem captures the emotional and physical scares of domestic violence as experienced by his brother. Through his writing, Kentrell posits what the world would be like without violence.

We are excited to announce that his poem, entitled "Numb," was selected as one of the winning entries out of 2,000 national submissions. This weekend Kentrell will be traveling to Washington D.C. with Ms. Talley and his math teacher Ms. Parsee as one of two Los Angeles representatives. Kentrell, and representatives from cities across the country, will be honored during a ceremony at the Supreme Court Building as part of National Recognition Week.

Kentrell will have the opportunity to present his views on youth violence to such leaders as the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of the Interior, the Attorney General of the United States, the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as well as Members of the Congress. In addition, a book containing the students' writings will be placed in the Library of Congress. 

We applaud Kentrell for this outstanding accomplishment! To follow is a copy of his winning poem.

  

NUMB

By Kentrell Riley

I go numb emotionally when you call me dumb

I go numb physically when you bruise my back and then after that laugh in my face Like you’ve done nothing wrong

I go numb when you beat me because after that first day, it became a daily routine

I go numb period, because I’m scared to go to people telling it

Your violence has effected my life so much that the only feeling I have is pure fright

It’s a shame but I choose you to blame

Youth violence is all around

Most kids should have happy faces

But instead you see a frown

I pray to god that those frowns would turn upside down

I close my eyes and hope for it to end, but when that belt slashed me, I say to myself...Here we go again

When you beat me it feels like it never will end, that’s when I look up crying where is god then?

  

I’m not the person you saw before, I was together then, but the puzzle pieces have its ways of kicking in

   

Remembering things that aren’t to be remembered

Can make me wanna surrender

But no, people would think I’m insane

I don’t recall you being there when I was getting beat every day

I go numb

Shame on you for playing with my mind 

I know a place for those of your kind

I know some day you’ll get your due

Had a conversation with the devil and he is waiting for you

You know what you did was wrong

I have withstood your physical and emotional abuse for way too long

    

If I could see anyone die it would be you, I know its rude but it’s the honest truth

So when I look at the scars on me that you put there

All I can see is your face and its like forget you

I go numb

You beat because it made you feel like a bigger man

Now I write these words of truth and justice because I know I can

You were illiterate in your ways and beat me out of spite

But a passion for justice and rights you did ignite

You beat me out of convenience or perhaps I will never know

But from this numbness I am determined to grow

Inspiration of this poem:

The neighborhood I live in is not the best. In fact it’s nothing to be proud of. Everywhere you look there’s fighting, shooting, bullying, and tagging. But most of all violence. There are different types of violence. In my poem I focus on abusive violence. What inspired me the most to write this poem is what my brother has been through and things he told me about how he felt. Being abused is not easy. I haven’t been through it but I can just imagine how I would feel. I wonder how the world would be without violence? Therefore, I wrote this poem to try to stop violence and hope it will come to an end one day.

If you would like information on how to paticpate in the "Do the Write Thing Challenge" next year, please contact Ted Nguyen at Ted.Nguyen@lausd.net or (213) 241-2689.