Many young people have been mourning the loss of Lance Zarders, one of my former students at Oretha Castle Haley Elementary School. I promised to post the link to his Guestbook where friends and family can express their sentiments. Lance was the second teenaged son to be murdered in the Zarders family. His brother was shot to death after leaving school in 2005. http://obits.nola.com/NOLA/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=105966497&PageNo=1.
We have to work harder with our middle school students. I’ve started working with someone to develop a stronger program for next year. Lance made 17 in January. There are a group of students in our elementary school who are 15 and 16 years old. Some of them knew Lance. One says he saw Lance dead on the ground on Frenchmen St. where he was shot. I mentioned this to the school’s social worker and the principal last week. I’m not sure what else I should do.