Deadly violence in Indianapolis has stabilized or gone down in nearly every way this year, except one: Youth homicides.
Fourteen people, 17 years old or younger, have been killed nearly eight months into the year. In all of 2022, 19 teens and children were killed.
IndyStar asked seven Indianapolis high schoolers their thoughts about what’s driving students their age to violence, and how to stop it. The teens are all part of a fellowship program with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office that aims to curb juveniles from becoming tangled in the criminal justice system.
Here’s what they said:
Sydnei Beene, 14, Cathedral High School
“Many children have rough lives at home and at school and the only way they can express themselves is through violence,” Beene said. “Counseling in schools will be a really big thing. At home, most kids don’t really have anyone to talk to or anyone to listen to them. Maybe more resources for children to learn how to cope, and things like that. So they can learn the importance of not using guns.”
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Queen’Ya Thomas, 14, Crispus Attucks High School
“A lot of people use guns to make them feel safe. So they bring it to school. It’s just becoming more popular,” Thomas said. “You don’t have to have a permit to own a gun … I just feel like that’s just reckless.”
Jayda Mixon, 15, Cathedral High School
“Youth violence is mostly posted on social media,” Mixon said. “I feel like sometimes people do that because they don’t have anybody to talk to, or like they don’t have anybody that they can like relate to.”
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Kyven Smith, 15, Indiana Math and Science Academy North
“Youth violence is a big thing, especially with teens around my age: sophomores and juniors. They look up to other people like the seniors. They see what the other seniors are doing, they see other people out of high school and they look up to them and they might want to do the same thing,” Smith said. “People just getting out of high school (can) set examples for the people that are still in high school.”
Elle Orr, 16, Purdue Polytechnic High School – Englewood
“A lot of us do not know how to properly get out our emotions. So we go to the Internet. We’re on our phones, we’re on social media, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok. There, you typically see a lot of people fighting to solve a problem,” Orr said.
“Kids will get caught up in the behavior. Kids will get guns and they’ll start flexing them online in order to prove that they’re tough.”
“It’s a big part of not really having role models who say ‘I also went through this, and here’s how I did. Here’s what I’m doing now, and it’s a positive thing.'”
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Rosalena Duncan, 17, Cathedral High School
“It’s kind of easy to forget that while violence has gone down, children have still grown up in that violence their entire lives. It’s gonna affect their brain and transcend to their actions as adolescents and teenagers,” Duncan said.
“You’re seeing more shooting threats and you’re seeing more danger and weapons being brought in and that’s scary. I think those feelings are transcending into wanting to protect, more than fight.”
“Organizations are working in silos. They’re really not interconnected. And I think that in order to combat violence, you have to bring back a sense of community.”
Alex Cardenas, 17, Herron-Riverside High School
“The kids who are engaging in youth violence are kids who feel like they’ve been repeatedly failed,” Cardenas said. “They’re selling drugs, but those drugs are paying for the food on my plate. They’re trading guns with people and selling guns, those guns are paying for the clothes on my back.”
“At my age, I can’t do anything about this. It hurts, even more, to speak to city council people and have them say, there’s all these barriers in our way … go talk to your legislator and talk to the senators, but if the majority votes no, then there’s really not much you can do about it.”
“It’s frustrating because you really don’t know where to go from here. It really just feels like you’re just watching the cycle repeat.”
Contact Sarah Nelson at 317-503-7514 or sarah.nelson@indystar.com.
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