Students, organizations, and faculty filled the multi-purpose room in Stevenson Hall Tuesday to hear the panel discussion on violence in Chicago and the murder of Chicago high school student Derrion Alberts. The panel discussion included the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.S., S-Plan, NAACP, and Minorities Inspiring Teachers Education.

The panel opened with a statement from a member of the NAACP, Kevin Chambliss, who said that people excuse these violent acts because they are accustomed to them in our daily lives.
“I was not shocked by the details of what happen to Derrion Alberts,” Chambliss said. “These violent situations happen often and we’re used to it now. As a society it almost seems as if we are used to death.”

Lametra Curry, coordinator of recruitment services, encouraged people to start attending S-Plan programs and try to become a mentor to the younger students on campus.

During the panel discussion, there was a PowerPoint slide that displayed the death rates chronologically by years and months from 2005-2008 in Illinois.

Mike Anderson, senior health education major and a member of B.R.O.T.H.E.R.S., noted from the slide that the number of homicides increase when the weather is more nice and warm out.
“It almost seems like as if people have nothing to do when it gets hot outside,” Anderson said. “In the months of January and February, the numbers are not quite as high but once it reaches April and May the number of homicides rise.”

Many responses from the panel and the audience stated that people in the society have to step up if they really want to put a cease on the homicides and take these communities back.

“Since the death of Derrion, it’s crazy to see how people now want to help but the problem is still one that is ours,” said Alex Buckles, sophomore sociology major and member of the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.S. “We come here to campus and just forget about our friends and family in the inner-city and while we read books here, they read obituaries there.”

Many people in attendance agreed that the problem is that society is not active enough in implementing the change they are looking for.

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