How to Fix North Minneapolis: No 11-year-old should be shot and killed!

By Don Allen - Journal of A Black Teacher (2025)

Author Note
Don Allen is an educator, researcher, and writer based in St. Paul, Minnesota. He founded the Journal of a Black Teacher and is a doctoral candidate in education leadership. He specializes in charter and public schools and community reform in historically underperforming and under-led learning organization systems in urban areas.

Abstract
This editorial addresses the tragic and preventable death of an 11-year-old boy in North Minneapolis. It challenges the performative politics of local leadership, particularly leaders of color, and the silence of historically influential organizations like the NAACP and Urban League. It calls for a public reckoning, a radical reimagining of public/charter school education, safety, and community accountability with a data-informed investment in the children and families of North Minneapolis.

Editorial Opinion
There is no excuse… none, for an 11-year-old to be shot and killed in his own neighborhood. But in North Minneapolis, this terror is all too real, all too frequently. We don't require another vigil, candlelight, or a headline reminding us of what we know all too well: the system is broken. Our kids aren't safe, and that's unacceptable.

North Minneapolis has historically been the dumping ground for policy neglect, generational poverty, underfunded schools with horrible site and district leadership, Y-T-D, mass incarceration, and failed organizational communication. When Black and Brown folks shout for resources, equity, and safety, we're answered with empty words and short-term grants. When white communities are harmed, solutions miraculously materialize. That disparity isn't happenstance; it's by design.

Solving North Minneapolis takes more than prayers and police. It begins with a complete reframing of what it will take to invest in human beings. We need a Marshall Plan for North Minneapolis: universal trauma counseling, world-class schools with culturally responsive teaching, mentorship programs that reach young people where they are, and genuine job pipelines for adults that don't vanish when the photo ops are over.

Each agency that interferes with a child's life - school, healthcare, housing, public safety, must coordinate, communicate, and correct. It's not just about preventing the next shooting. It's about breaking down the circumstances that lead to violence being inevitable.

That's enough. Kids should be able to grow up, dream, and live without ducking from gunfire. No more excuses. If our city can muster up millions of dollars to construct stadiums and hold Super Bowls, then we can muster up the determination to save a child's life in North Minneapolis.

If not, then we are all accomplices to each child that we bury.


Contact
For reprint permission, comments, or speaking engagements:
Don Allen
Email: dwradon@gmail.com



X: @DonAllen02