‘I no longer feel safe.’ Fatal stabbing at Southeast Raleigh High prompts calls for change
The family of a 15-year-old student killed at Southeast Raleigh High School last week demanded answers from Wake County school leaders on Monday night.
On Nov. 27, Delvin Ferrell, 15, was fatally stabbed during a fight in the school gym. At a community forum Monday night hosted by the school, several of Ferrell’s family members questioned the response to the stabbing.
Jeremaine Cotton, Ferrell’s older brother and a student at Southeast Raleigh High, told the audience of nearly 500 people that packed the school auditorium that he witnessed his brother’s stabbing.
“I no longer feel safe in the school,” Cotton said. “I’m a junior and I’ve seen my fair share of violence in the school. I don’t think people really care about us like they say they do.”
Wake County school leaders and Raleigh Police Chief Estella Patterson said Monday they’re limited about what they can say about the incident due to the ongoing investigation. The district has promised to review its security protocols.
Did the school get advance warning?
Laura Grimes, Ferrell’s grandmother, attended Monday’s forum and said she heard that the school received a call ahead of time that something was going to happen on Nov. 27. She said her grandson’s death was a tragedy that should have been avoided.
“When that call was made, something should have put in place,” Grimes said. “I’m grieving.”
The mother of the 14-year-old suspect has said that she warned the school on the day of the stabbing that her son was going to be attacked.
Behavior of students questioned
Video posted on social media by multiple students show a fight breaking out in a hallway before 11 a.m. on Nov. 27. In the melee that spilled into the gymnasium, Ferrell and a 16-year-old were both stabbed. The 16-year-old suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Shamara Morgan, a Southeast Raleigh High parent, said people who’ve seen the videos have unfairly blamed Principal Eddie Harden for what happened. Instead, Morgan said blame should be placed on parents for not modeling good behavior for their students.
“When I think of the kids who were filming this and inciting this and laughing at this, my concern was where were the adults?” Morgan sad. “The teaching of the adults who raised these children because I do know for sure that mine know they better let not me catch them in a video, hearing their voice or laughing at some foolishness like that.”
The fight led to the school being placed on a Code Red lockdown for most of Nov. 27. Audio of 911 calls released by police show students and staff in a state of fear as they waited for more officers to arrive on campus.
Classes were canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday before resuming on Thursday with extra security on campus.
Police filed a murder charge against a 14-year-old student. In addition, Harden told parents that several other students involved in the brawl were disciplined.
Elizabeth Gary, a longtime teacher at Southeast Raleigh High, said the school board needs to support Harden’s efforts to bring discipline to the school.
“I’m going to ask you to untie his hands and let him do what he needs to do for our kids,” Gary told school leaders.
Defending Southeast Raleigh High’s image
Harden told the crowd at Monday’s forum that additional staff are now at the school to help supervise the students. He said the school will focus on lessons on conflict resolution and getting students to report information that could impact the safety of the school. Students can anonymously report tips at 919-856-1911.
“We have to move beyond being silent due to past norms,” Harden said.
Harden was among multiple people who said the school and community is being unfairly painted with negative stereotypes.
“You’re not going to talk about my students, you’re not going to talk about certain neighborhoods,” Harden said. “You’re not doing that. We can’t accept it.”
News reports have pointed to the crime rate and academic performance of Southeast Raleigh High compared to other Wake County schools. But Wake County Superintendent Robert Taylor said the successes of the school also need to be pointed out.
“If people want to talk about student data, then they need to talk it about in the sense that tells a true story,” Taylor said to applause from the hundreds of people at the forum.
But Teddie Martinez, Ferrell’s uncle, told the crowd that the only statistics that matter are that his nephew’s body is in a funeral home and another young man is in jail.
Martinez urged the school system to spend more money on restorative justice and students’ social and emotional learning.
Martinez said the school’s students are still traumatized that a fellow student was killed at the school. He said more needs to happen to help the students, or “the next bloodshed will be on your guys’ hands.”
Should the school have reopened so soon?
The forum was expected to end at 8:30 p.m. but a long line of speakers prompted Taylor to extend the forum another hour. It ended around 9:50 p.m.
Parents voiced other concerns, including that the school shouldn’t have reopened so soon after the stabbing. They said the school could have offered online classes, which became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They should have shut the school down,” said Melanie Harris, a Southeast Raleigh High parent and Wake County school bus driver. “They have Chromebooks.”
Harris said the school wouldn’t have reopened so soon if the stabbing had happened at Panther Creek High School in Cary. Panther Creek has a largely white student enrollment. Southeast Raleigh High has a largely Black and Hispanic enrollment.
Taylor took responsibility for the decision to reopen Thursday.
“That was my decision and I take the ownership and the criticism that goes with it,” Taylor said at the end of the forum.
Calls for more volunteers at school
Harris drew applause when she said parents should be more involved in their children’s education. Harris said the adults in the Southeast Raleigh community need to step up and serve at the school.
Multiple speakers met the challenge on Monday by offering themselves and their groups to become mentors and volunteers.
“How can we come together to mentor these young girls and boys to instill self-esteem, to teach them self-worth, to teach them self-love and self-respect so that they can project that out into the atmosphere and cause a change around them?” said Morgan, the Southeast Raleigh High parent
Kimberly McGee said she was willing to come back and get involved after stepping away when her son graduated.
“I am heartbroken,” McGee said. “I need to be re-educated. I’m sure a lot of us need to be re-educated about what we need to do.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2023 at 9:49 PM.
