This fall, WYSO expanded its community voices radio production training to include high school students at David H. Ponitz Career Technology Center and founded Dayton Youth Radio.
One group of students decided to do a story about 18-year-old Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, and 22-year-old John Crawford III of Fairfield, Ohio. The two young men, both African-American, were shot and killed by police in August—Crawford was shot while holding a toy gun inside a Beavercreek Walmart. In September a Greene County special grand jury declined to indict Crawford's shooter, Sean Williams, and this past Monday a St. Louis County grand jury brought back the same news to Ferguson, Missouri, setting off a round of national protests that is ongoing.
Ponitz students Myles Harbison, Nadia Bush and Jamey Maddox Jr. live near the Walmart where Crawford was shot, and the two shootings got them thinking. Here's their story, the first aired production of Dayton Youth Radio:
Dayton Youth Radio produced this story with the help of WYSO community voices producer Basim Blunt and Ponitz media teacher Joanne Viskup.