Juwan Tavarez died on March 27, two days after he was shot outside a housing project in the East Harlem section of New York City. After she heard the news of the 16-year-old’s death, one of his teachers at Urban Assembly School for Performing Arts posted a photo on Facebook that was taken on his first day of high school. Hands folded, Tavarez stares sheepishly into the camera as he poses in his uniform: a button-down shirt, tie, and khaki pants.

“This is how I choose to remember you the first day in our class your freshman year,” the teacher, who asked not to be identified, wrote. “Yes, you were here for a reason.”

Earlier this week, The Trace profiled Camiella Williams, a 28-year-old from Chicago who has lost 24 close friends and relatives to gun violence over the past dozen years. Williams, who is the dean of students at an alternative school in the city, didn’t even include in that count five students from her school who were killed in recent years. Her struggles to reckon with the scope of the violence resonated with many of our readers — especially other educators who work in high-crime areas. Several shared their reactions to the story on Twitter.

Perhaps most devastating was this tweet:

Jennifer Mascia
Jennifer is a senior news writer and founding staffer at The Trace. She previously covered gun violence at The New York Times. In her decade on this beat, she’s covered community gun violence, the intersection of domestic violence and guns, and the growing role of firearms in public life.