CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Investigators have said that a convicted sex offender snatched 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze off the street as she walked to school, killed her and left her body in an abandoned house.
Her Jan. 26 disappearance raised concerns about the safety of students who walk or use public transportation to get from their neighborhood to their school.
"Kids shouldn't have to worry about anyone attacking them on their way to school," Reverend Jimmy Gates of Zion Hill Baptist Church said. "As a faith community, we are determined to reclaim that in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood."
Gates is part of the Mt. Pleasant Ministerial Alliance which this week launched the "Safe Schools" initiative at Union Avenue and East 93rd Street, just outside of E Prep & Village Prep Woodland Hills campus where DeFreeze attended.
Cleveland police said that DeFreeze stepped off the RTA bus at East 93rd and Kinsman, about a mile north of her school. Christopher Whitaker, 44, grabbed her sometime before she got there, investigators have said. Her body was found in an abandoned Fuller Avenue home less than a five minute walk from the bus stop.
Seven pastors patrolled a strip of East 93rd Street on either side of the school Wednesday morning. They greeted students on their way into class and kept an eye on the children as they filtered by.
The pastors said they will focus their initial efforts at E Prep, but they plan to expand the program throughout the neighborhood and into other parts of Cleveland.
"We know that it takes a village to raise a child, and we are the village," Bishop Tony Minor of Community of Faith Assembly said. "This is not just a Mt. Pleasant thing, not just E Prep. We're going to move around (and) get churches to adopt these schools."
Minor, Gates, and the others hope to recruit at least 25 churches to participate in the program, with pastors and members volunteering an hour per week. A rotating schedule would ensure the targeted schools have patrols every weekday morning for the months and years to come.
"This is not a one shot deal," Gates said. "We're recovering our community."
The pastors also hope to get other organizations on board. Bishop Eugene Ward of Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church said a representative of the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority will attend an upcoming meeting, and members of the Masons have already started riding buses to escort kids to school.
"Some people don't have the luxury of a car to take their kids to school. We as a community have got to congregate to help these parents," said Bishop Eugene Ward of Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church
The pastors encouraged churches, individuals and community activist groups to join them Thursday for planning and training sessions. One will be held at 2 p.m. at Community of Faith Assembly and a second will happen at 6 p.m. at Love Center Interdenominational Church.
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