Bancroft Elementary School students start their own newspaper, weigh in on big issues

A new student newspaper at Bancroft Elementary School in Wilmington is giving students a voice this spring, letting them write essays and draw pictures to share with their classmates in the Bancroft Banner once a month. 

"We have this to express ourselves and be unique," fifth-grader Debra Smith said. "You can express how hardworking you are and how dedicated you are to a subject."  

The students say the newspaper also lets them add their voices to the narrative of shootings and crime in Wilmington's East Side. Bancroft students have witnessed gun violence, drug abuse and homelessness but don't often get a chance to tell people how those things make them feel. 

Kids are more likely to be shot in Wilmington than any other U.S. city, The News Journal has reported time and again. But so many of the conversations about gun violence in Wilmington take place between adults, not the children living with that reality. 

"There's a lot of shootings around here, kids getting hurt, and I wanted to express my feelings," another fifth-grader, Ka'neesa Noel-Munce, said. "There's a lot of things going on in the community that we have to stop. 

"I would go up to a person that shoots and say 'Would you stop?' It's too much. People just don't want kids to be hurt." 

The newspaper is run by Debra Ka'neesa ; and three of their classmates, Da’shana Banks, Jazmin Brown and Jamir Wright. Community member and volunteer Vanessa Jones serves as their adviser, along with teachers Lisa Currie and Steven Welch.  

Jones, whose relationship with Bancroft started with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Delaware, came up with the concept for the newspaper. Principal Harold "Butch" Ingram had approached her looking for suggestions for improving literacy at the school, she said. 

"We thought a newspaper would be the easiest and have the biggest impact," Jones said, adding that "school shouldn't be a warehouse where kids are just there from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. These kids want to have an impact in the world, and if you can impart that consciousness to the whole school, you have 300-plus kids out there, trying to change the world." 

The students meet at least twice a week, she said. The first edition of the newspaper came out in March and is based on the theme: If you could change the world all by yourself to make it better, what would you do?

"To make the community better, I would want to give homeless people food and stop the shooting and take the drugs out of the community and neighborhoods," Ka'neesa wrote in an essay. "The new world would have clean communities, no shooting and no drugs. Kids will stop getting hurt around the community." 

Jazmin theorized that a lack of education contributes to the city's problems. 

"The reason I say lack of education is the main problem is because of the people on the street," her essay said. "They have no education and people selling drugs have no education. If they had an education they would be able to get a job instead of selling drugs that are hurting people." 

Da’shana wrote about the effects of poor nutrition. 

"Sugar candies can make us hyper and unable to listen in class," she wrote. "Some junk foods make us sick and stay out of school a lot." 

Jamir  is the paper's art director and drew a picture of a man surrounded by flowers for March's newspaper. 

In April, the students will take submissions from the rest of the school and select the best ones to include in the new edition. For grades 3 through 5, students will be asked the following questions. If you were a superhero: 

1. What would your name be? 
2. What superpowers would you have? 
3. What would you fight against? 
4. How would you save the world? 

Students in kindergarten through grade 3 have been asked to draw a picture of themselves as superheroes saving the world. 

Jamir said his superpower would be speed so he could run away from any bad guys. 

"I like to draw superheroes," he said. "They help fighting other people. They use their powers." 

The newspaper also includes sections on international and national news. For the April edition, Ka'neesa and Debra will be responsible for perusing news articles and writing short summaries of them in their own words.  

The March issue also included an article by fifth-grade teacher Welch about a classroom project and an article about “Historical Delawarean” Mary Ann Shadd, the first African-American woman to publish and own a newspaper.

Welch said besides that, the students really handled things themselves. 

"I mainly helped keep their pencils sharpened," he said laughing. "I think it also taught them about conflict resolution. Things didn't go exactly smoothly, the way every individual wanted, but they worked it out." 

Curie, also a fifth-grade teacher, said the whole school is proud of the students for putting the Bancroft Banner together. They spent several days researching for their essays, she said, and were also instrumental in planning a library exhibit in celebration of the Harlem Renaissance for Black History Month.  

"I have some marvelous kids," she said. "They're very unique, very dedicated and very hardworking." 

Da’shana, one of the fifth-graders, said it's important to let people know what students at the school are working on each month. That's one of the reasons they started the paper. 

"I think it's important to have a voice because kids, not just kids, everyone, has bright ideas, great ideas," Jazmin chimed in. "People can hear what I want to say instead of telling me what to say."

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.

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