When North Clayton High Schoolers return from spring break next week, the halls will be missing one of their friends, 10th grader Tianah Robinson.
The 16-year-old’s life was taken during a shooting at Piedmont Park over Easter weekend that also wounded 15-year-old Italia Wilson. She is now recovering at home with her family in Norcross.
Robinson’s parents, Terrell Robinson and Tunisia Watkins, told Fox 5 Atlanta on Monday that the family had planned to take a cabin trip this week. Instead they have set up a GoFundMe to help them cover funeral costs, grief counseling and travel for out of town relatives to Tianah’s service.
Atlanta police confirmed that neither victim was involved in the dispute that led to the shooting. The city is offering a $15,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest and indictment. Wednesday afternoon, images were released of three people of interest believed to be connected to the shooting.
“They came to Piedmont Park just to have fun for the weekend,” Mayor Andre Dickens told reporters as he announced that the Atlanta Police Department would be increasing enforcement of the city’s youth curfew and bringing charges against the parents of minors who violate the mandate.
The curfew stipulates that anyone under the age of 17 cannot be out unsupervised in any public spaces or businesses between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. Friday to Saturday. Exceptions are made for kids out with a parent or guardian and kids traveling to and from work, religious or school events.
Dickens and police officials called on parents to take the lead by ensuring they know their kids’ whereabouts.
“Mayor said it best,” APD Assistant Chief Carven Tyus said Monday. “Parents, know where your kids are because if you don’t and they’re getting in trouble, APD will be calling you.”
While there is support for the curfew, many parents and advocates say a curfew alone cannot solve Atlanta’s street violence. Those who are working in their communities to address these issues would like to see officials do more to help families who are trying to keep their kids out of trouble but are often lacking the time and resources to do so.
“[Parents] do need to be held accountable. But we’ve [also] got to hold some people’s hands and help them,” said Kim Dukes, a mother of 10 children in East Atlanta.
Dukes, a graduate of Atlanta Public Schools herself, began to organize with other parents 10 years ago when she learned that her kids attended the number one failing school in Georgia. In 2018, she co-founded the Atlanta Thrive, a nonprofit whose mission is to empower parents to disrupt inequities in the education system.
“We do need a curfew in place,” Dukes said. “And, let’s talk about how we can actually put people on the ground to help families and help parents.”
Dukes had a first hand experience with the curfew two years ago when an Atlanta police officer brought her then-14-year-old son home because he was out late at night after sneaking out of a window.
When the officer brought her son to the door, he tried to give her a ticket, which she refused to sign because it was his first violation. According to the curfew ordinance that was passed by the Atlanta City Council in June 2023, parents are to be given a warning citation for their child’s first offense.
“I had to wait two hours for the supervisor to come, and the supervisor said [to the officer], ‘That is the law, take [the ticket] back,’” Dukes recalled.
Had she not known her rights, Dukes could have been placed on probation and been required to attend educational programs. Outside of Midnight Basketball, Dukes said the city isn’t doing much to engage young people in structured programs that keep them out of trouble.
“When are they going to come out into the community and say, ‘Let’s knock on doors and talk to the teens that really need it,’ the lost, the less fortunate, the ones that aren’t heard and ask them what they need?”
The council passed the curfew ordinance in response to public pressure stemming from a 2022 shooting at the 17th Street Bridge in Midtown that killed 12-year-old Zyion Charles and 15-year-old Kameron Jackson.
Haile Irving, a junior at Maynard Jackson High School in Glenwood Park, said she doesn’t think the curfew will solve the real problem: a lack of safe spaces for teens to hang out and socialize in Atlanta.
“In the past, teens had third spaces, they had malls, they had arcades, they had teen clubs,” she said.
Many of those places have since closed or implemented their own curfew, like Lenox Mall and Atlantic Station, which close their doors to minors at 3 p.m. everyday unless they are accompanied by an adult.
Irving also wants to see leaders advocating for stricter gun laws because she believes that will do more to curb violence than a curfew. The 17th Street Bridge and Piedmont Park shootings occurred hours before the curfew would have gone into effect.
“I think the curfew is putting a band-aid on the problem,” Dukes said.
Although her own son hasn’t been in curfew trouble since he was first brought home by an APD officer, Dukes said parents often tell her that their teens aren’t being influenced by their peers to sneak out, but by older gang members.
“We need the gang unit and the city to get out into the streets,” she said.
Tekesia Shields, the founder of Mothers Against Gang Violence, works with teens and their parents to provide support and access to community resources to help them to avoid gangs.
“We need to make sure that we are providing age-appropriate safe spaces,” Shields said. “You don’t want to put a 17 or 18-year-old in a group with 14 and 15-year-olds because their expectations are different.”
Basketball and sports might be appealing for younger teens, Shields said, but a lot of the older teens she works with are interested in learning skills that can be turned into a career, like welding.
Like Dukes, she agrees with the curfew and believes it is best enforced by parents; however, she recognizes that many families are struggling financially and need to work late to earn extra money.
“[Parents need] more income, a higher salary,” she said. “So they are not having to work two jobs, so they can be able to come home in a timely manner and they can monitor the curfew.”
To help families that may be tackling multiple jobs, Shields helps them set up an emergency contact that they can rely on to enforce the curfew when they aren’t able to be home.
Irving is hopeful that the city can accommodate more teen-friendly spaces that will reduce youth violence. Earlier this year, she and a friend were given a $50,000 grant by the mayor’s office to research how to transform any of the 16 schools APS plans to close into a study and hangout spot for Atlanta teens.
“We need a space to do academic work, but we also need a place for laughter and socializing with an event space where we can host parties and panels about career readiness.”
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