Walk for Peace Bella Vista School, 1025 E. 28th St tomorrow, Wednesday April 9, 6-7pm.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Lisa Awrey or Andrew Park
Communications coordinator; Event chair
Friends of Bella Vista Park
17Y NCPC
(510) 836-5476
(510) 915-0303
[email protected]
[email protected]
Headline: East Oakland Residents Walk for Peace in Response to Recent Sexual Assaults on Children Near Schools in San Antonio District
Oakland – Oakland community leaders, clergy and educators plan to join local residents Wednesday, April 9 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. for a walk to promote peace, protection and safety surrounding the city’s Bella Vista/San Antonio District schools and neighborhood. Immediately following, the participants are invited to attend the community’s crime prevention council meeting. The walk will begin and end at Bella Vista Elementary School, the location of the most recent assault.
In response to recent sexual assaults of young students on or near school campuses where security and staff cutbacks are being linked to increased crime—robberies of school staff and parents as well as four murders in the area since January, the walk’s aim is to promote health and safety and increase community awareness and support.
“We are working to improve public safety, particularly around schools,” says Andrew Park, a neighborhood resident who co-chairs the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC)-17 and directs Trybe, a community-based youth outreach program. “It’s empowering to see neighbors out in force walking together with their children, pastors and school staff. It sends a message that we care—that we will do everything in our power to protect our kids.”
On Friday, March 28, a 6-year-old girl was lured away from the playground at Bella Vista Elementary School shortly after school and assaulted. The girl later returned to the school and reported the crime to an adult. This is the third such assault of a student near a school campus in Oakland since January.
More than 300 residents are expected to participate in the walk, a collaborative effort, organized by area faith-based groups, residents and neighborhood groups, including the Friends of Bella Vista Park and the area Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC)-17Y.
Parents, teachers, local business owners, church leaders and neighbors, along with children from Bella Vista Elementary School, will gather at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday evening and then walk the blocks surrounding the school, two miles east of Lake Merritt. The event will begin with a short program outside Bella Vista Elementary School, which is located at 1025 East 28th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. Then participants will walk a predetermined, four-block route, returning to the school, where there will be prayer tents and pizza available.
“We are committed to ensuring safety in and around the school campus,” said Felicia Phillips,
the Bella Vista Elementary School principal. “The community has been very active in supporting this effort. Obviously, we need to do more. Seeing parents, teachers and residents come out in numbers shows us that people care and that our students’ safety is a priority.”
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Event schedule:
6:00pm: Crowd gathers at Bella Vista Elementary School (front)
6:10pm: Pre-Walk Program
6:20pm: Walk begins
6:50pm: Walk Ends, Pizza Dinner
7:00pm: Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC-17Y) Meeting (in gymnasium)
Lisa Awrey
Communications Coordinator
Friends of Bella Vista Park
(510) 836.5476 (direct)
(510) 517.6038 (cell)
[email protected]
Address/Location
Oakland Police Department CA
OAKLAND POLICE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
Oakland, CA 94607
Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
Non-emergencies: 510-777-3333
1025 East 28th Street
Oakland, CA 94610