AKRON, Ohio — Leaders of an Akron-based organization said they hope to provide a solution to the rising violence and conflict they say they see in their community through crisis intervention and de-escalation.

“The way things are right now, it shouldn’t be this way,” said Bertram Griggs, co-founder of the GentleWay Institute.

Even the most recent incident at Akron Firestone High School, where an Akron Police School Resource Officer (SRO) punched a high school student in the head three times after police said the teen attempted to Avoiding school metal detectors, Griggs and Akron Mayor Shammas said. Malik’s call is disturbing.

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“I found the video upsetting. I hope many others will too,” Malik said on October 21.

For this reason, Griggs told News 5 he is on a mission to change the narrative in Akron through his work at the GentleWay Institute.

It’s an organization he said he founded together in 2022 with his childhood friend, Ron Mosley, to rethink crisis prevention training and rethink how conflict management education is dispensed.

“We want to leave a legacy and an imprint that we’ve done something to right some of these situations where an adult is harming a younger person or a younger person is harming an adult, or adults are harming each other. bad between them,” Griggs said.

So far, Griggs said his organization has partnered with different cities and groups across the country, including right here with Akron Public Schools, to help people interact peacefully through safety , trust, commitment and self-care.

“We talk to the people in charge, they tell us what they want, and we mix it all together and get as close to what they want as possible,” Griggs said.

Following the incident at Akron Firestone High School, Griggs hopes to reconnect with the district and expand its reach with other organizations.

“It’s not darkness or anything like that, but it’s pretty cloudy, so we want to lighten that up and make it a little bit brighter than it is,” Griggs said.

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