By Nayaba Arinde
Teens shot by teens. The NYPD said that this year, up to 50 young people have been shot or killed by 49 under the age of 18.
NYC public school students return to the classroom on Thursday, September 10th, 2026. Some conversations may include their opinions on the summer violence, as they must pivot to focus on the new semester.
Reportedly, at least nine teens have been fatally shot this year.
Teachers must turn focus from summer gun violence, back to studies, navigating test-taking anxiety, and filling in resource gaps.
“What if there isn’t a transition period, because this is their new norm? Therapy should be free and available to help with the healing of the children who are just trying to go to school,” former Bed Stuy teacher Caleef Cousar told Our Time Press.
Former mayor Eric Adams “Gun Violence Prevention Czar,” East New York’s A.T. Mitchell-Mann is still dealing with the shooting of his own niece last winter.
Last December, six teens, aged 15 to 17, were hit by gunfire from two masked gunmen outside a Sweet 16 birthday party at Burbuja Events on Atlantic Avenue, in East New York.
All six victims are in physical recovery, including the founder and CEO of Man Up, Inc, and national Cure Violence Credible Messenger–Mitchell-Mann’s 15-year-old niece, who is still healing from gunshot wounds to her chest, hip, and leg.
“This is close to home. This is family. My niece was attending her friend’s Sweet 16th, a month before her own. It’s a long road to recovery,” her uncle told Our Time Press.”She still has her moments. Her knee was shattered; she has a metal plate there, and she’d just made the dance team. It was a difficult school year. She worked at our Man Up summer camp this year, working as a counselor; she was able to test her ability.
We, at Man Up, are in our 22nd year hosting our summer camp, and who would have thought that the camp would become a rehabilitation space for gunshot victims. They made an arrest in the case, which gives some degree of relief, but there is still a long road ahead.”
The Co-Chair of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force continued, “We don’t have the funding to cover the whole area. We work in 8-hour shifts for five days. It is a good thing that people ask for Violence Interrupters, but to double or triple our efforts and work around the clock, preventing shootings, we need more funding. We are in parts of East New York, Brownsville, Canarsie, and Bed Stuy, but we just need more funding to cover more areas.
We have been getting the same funding since the Bloomberg administration. Mamdani has not increased the funding in the first 8 months. But I am cautiously optimistic that he will keep his campaign promise to increase Crisis Management System funding by 275%.”
Teachers must address the 3 months of learning loss and any conversation about the summer violence.
“As an educator and school leader for nearly three decades, I remain deeply concerned about the violence affecting young people across New York City,” retiring Bedford Academy Principal Dr. Adofo Abdullah Muhammad told Or Time Press. “Schools must be more than places of academic instruction; they must be centers of safety, opportunity, belonging, and hope.
We must intervene early when scholars demonstrate academic, attendance, social, or emotional challenges, while providing trusted adults, mentoring, conflict resolution, restorative practices, mental-health support, and responsible social-media education.
Strong partnerships with families, community organizations, faith institutions, and violence-prevention programs are equally essential. Most importantly, we must provide young people with meaningful opportunities in college, careers, athletics, the arts, employment, and leadership. Schools cannot eliminate violence alone, but we can interrupt the pathways that lead to it by helping every scholar understand that their life has purpose and their future is worth protecting.”
Last month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch touted reduced shooting numbers across the city compared to last year, but with a 22% increase in youth violence.
After visiting the anti- gun violence and youth crime prevention Project ECHO’s “Another Way in East Flatbush Mamdani said, “What these children showed us is sometimes this violence just has to do with the difficulty of processing emotions like frustration, like anger, like disappointment.”
The Mayor also noted, “Safety is built through relentless investment in the services that keep New Yorkers safe.”
In March, Mamdani created the Office of Community Safety (OCS) to “address the root causes of crime and violence, coordinate and expand evidence-based prevention strategies, and strengthen wraparound services.
“Safety is not just the absence of violence, but the presence of opportunity, dignity, and community,” said Deputy Mayor of Community Safety, Renita Francois. “All New Yorkers, especially our youngest, deserve to be safe in their communities, on public transit, in school, and wherever they go across the five boroughs, and our administration is fully committed to using all tools available to deliver the safety they deserve.
Our administration’s public-safety approach prioritizes prevention and recognizes that keeping young people safe requires a whole-of-government effort. That means investing in community-led violence prevention, expanding opportunities and resources for young people, and listening directly to them to build programs that meet their needs.”
Ahead of the summer, the administration launched several initiatives, including the Summer in NYC interactive free and low-cost summer programming website and the jobs, mentorship, and survivor support Summer Safety Plan.
Working with community leaders, young New Yorkers, Crisis Management System partners, and the NYPD, in August, OCS launched its NeighborhoodSTAT events to develop community-led solutions to neighborhood challenges. Mamdani joined a NSTAT gathering in Brownsville to hear directly from residents.
While a report had the Bronx as an Epicenter of youth gun violence, with the fatal stray-bullet shooting of Jacob Freytes,12, the son of an NYPD sergeant, and four teenagers shot in one week this month, including Riley Billingslea, 15, and John Nunez, 16, Brooklyn was unfortunately not far behind. On August 19th, Ahmir Jordan, 17, was fatally shot in the head in Hakim’s Restaurant in East New York, Brooklyn.
During a Fourth of July Coney Island cookout, two masked gunmen wounded four children aged 6 to 14, and four adults. Also in July, a 15-year-old boy was shot in the foot during a dispute on Broadway in Bushwick. While expected to survive their injuries in July, a 17-year-old girl was shot multiple times, alongside a 19-year-old man hit in the face in a barrage of gunfire at a Brooklyn McDonald’s parking lot on East New York’s Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Our young people have access to things they shouldn’t have access to, and so we can’t be surprised when they utilize them,” Brooklyn activist and co-founder of Men Elevating Leadership Danny Goodine told Our Time Press.
Last week, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg hosted The Power of Prevention: Community Is Safety Showcase at Lincoln Center. It was an anti-gun violence event highlighting Bragg’s Gun Violence Prevention Initiative. His office awarded $300,000 in grants to 10 community-based organizations to support youth activities and combat seasonal spikes in crime.