By Blake Deshazo
The Selma Times-Journal

Selma City Schools Superintendent Dr. Angela Mangum invited a street gang specialist to Selma High School Wednesday to teach students about the harsh reality of being in a gang.

Mangum said she invited Tony Avendorph, a retired police officer from Chicago, to speak to her students because of recent acts of violence involving teenagers in Selma.

“When I attended a funeral last year, it was the saddest funeral I’ve ever attended in my life, and that includes my own mother’s funeral, which was last Friday,” Mangum said before introducing Avendorph. “There is nothing sadder than when a young person in the prime of life with every opportunity to have a beautiful life is cut down by violence.”

As Avendorph addressed an auditorium filled with students, he didn’t hold back.

He told stories of working gruesome homicides as a young officer, stories of young men shot to death and young women who were murdered because they knew too much about gang activity.

“Death is final. I retired six years ago as a homicide detective. My specialty was gang homicides,” Avendorph told the students. “I have seen death for 40 years.”

Avendorph, who was once a gang member himself, said he shares these stories with young men and women because they can happen to anyone.

“I grew up in Chicago. It was a different time, a different era, but there were gangs. I was part of that culture,” he said. “The thing that turned me around was I got into a fight with a kid when I was 16. He pulled a knife, and I took it from him and tried to kill him with it. I missed.”

Avendorph said people join gangs for many reasons, but bullying is at the top of the list.

“[Gang members] are not Rhode Scholars, but they can find and choose a child who is timid, or a child who’s not aggressive, so they prey on that child, bring them in and offer them things that they don’t have,” Avendorph said. “It’s attractive when they give you money or offer you things you won’t get at home.”

Avendorph told the students not to be attracted to what being in a gang can offer.

“Don’t play into the hype of what you see on the street. Don’t play into the hype of the ability to make money without really trying,” Avendorph said. “I learned that character is more important than your reputation. Your character is who you are. Your reputation is who someone else thinks you are.”

Mangum hopes listening to what Avendorph will teach students to stay away from gangs and violence and make a future for themselves.

“As a superintendent it is my responsibility to provide opportunities for you to learn as much as you can so you won’t be a victim or a perpetrator of violence,” Mangum told the students.

“There is too much violence in our community. There are too many people being cut down by it, from the old to the young.”

Avendorph also spoke at School of Discovery and R.B Hudson Wednesday.

He said he was also asked to give a presentation to teachers on what to look for to recognize gang activity in their classrooms.