Life lessons in Ferguson, Mo.
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There'll be no school this week in the Ferguson, Mo., school district, as efforts to quell violence related to a police shooting fail to stop the unrest.
The announcement appears on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website:
"We believe that closing schools for the rest of this week will allow needed time for peace and stability to be restored to our community," the district said in a statement.
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Classes had been scheduled to begin Aug. 14, but have been repeatedly postponed. Some parents are giving children life lessons, writes Tim Lloyd of St. Louis Public Radio:
Bobby Lee Brown, no relation to Michael Brown, walked along Canfield Drive on Monday morning. The tall man with a full beard has his hand on the back of his son Donovan. Brown’s off of work today and planned on taking Donovan to his first day as a fifth grader at Robinwood Elementary School.
“This morning he didn’t understand why there wasn’t any school,” Brown said. "So I had to sit him down in front of the TV and tell him to look at the news.”
With schools closed, National Guard members deployed, and reporters from around the world publishing dramatic accounts and photos, some Ferguson residents are concerned about how the violence paints the community.
Luke Taylor, a digital producer here at MPR, writes in an email:
This video was shared with me by my wife's cousin, who has a friend who lives in Ferguson, Mo. It's an insider's view of the community; a community many people could see themselves being part of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue9nDQEGmsc
As unrest continues, New York Times reporters Monica Davey, John Eligon, and Alan Blinder write that residents seem puzzled and frustrated by changing approaches to law enforcement.
“It almost seems like they can’t decide what to do, and like law enforcement is fighting over who’s got the power,” said Antione Watson, 37, who stood near a middle-of-the-street memorial of candles and flowers for [Michael] Brown, the 18-year-old killed on a winding block here.
“First they do this, then there’s that, and now who can even tell what their plan is?” Mr. Watson said. “They can try all of this, but I don’t see an end to this until there are charges against the cop.”
Related story:
The emotional and economic toll on Ferguson, Missouri [Marketplace]