Peace rally held in Penn Hills after 4 students die within weeks

Penn Hills residents and some people from surrounding communities rallied together in peace, unity and love to help heal families impacted by the recent deaths of four district students.

About 100 people, including clergy, elected officials, veterans and teens, gathered outside Penn Hills High School on May 27.

Parents of those lost to violence and drugs sat in chairs in front of a podium.

“My heart is hurt,” organizer Denise Graham-Shealey said while addressing the crowd. “I was OK until I looked into their eyes. No family should have to go through this. Nobody should have to go through this.

“When you stand here and look at this family and you see the hurt in their eyes, and you start thinking about your friends and your family members that have been through this, we are tired.”

Graham-Shealy made it a point throughout the event to have the adults tell the children that they loved them and were here for them.

“This is where it begins,” she said. “This is not where it ends.”

Ebony Hobdy felt the love and support that was being given.

She is the mother of Penn Hills junior Darin Hobdy, 17, who was killed in Wilkinsburg on May 23.

“I really, really hope and pray that these kids put these guns down because my son won’t graduate,” said Hobdy, a 1998 Penn Hills graduate. “He’s supposed to be going to the 12th grade. He was nice. He wouldn’t hurt anybody. He was protective of his family. He would give the shirt off his back, and I just miss him so much.

“I don’t want to see another mother in this predicament.”

Darin was one of three Penn Hills students lost to gun violence within the past few weeks.

• Jason Hubert Jackson Jr., 17, was shot to death May 24 outside an abandoned Penn Hills home along Gibson Street.

• Daymeir Boyd, 17, of Verona was fatally shot May 16 in Homewood.

• In April, Jason Lott Jr. died of a heroin overdose, according to his mother, Gina Bigenho.

There are tributes to the students on the school district’s Facebook page.

Pittsburgh activist Amber Sloan gave one of the more impassioned speeches at the rally. She touched on gun violence, the drug epidemic, how therapy can help turn lives around and overall reaction to the recent events.

“This (expletive) is getting old,” Sloan said. “Therapy is real. Get yourself healed. … They are traumatized.”

About 20 students stood toward the back of the crowd. Organizers gave them an opportunity to speak about what they were going through, but no one came forward and they declined to comment after the rally.

Superintendent Nancy Hines, who talked about her experiences dealing with the loss of students both in Penn Hills and at the Steel Valley School District, offered condolences to the families and a message for the youths.

“We have got to get your attention,” Hines said. “This absolutely has got to stop.”

The district has grief counselors on hand to help those who need it.

Elected leaders such as U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb also spoke out against the violence. He talked about having faith and shared a lesson learned while in the Marines.

“In the Marines, they teach you from the very beginning that if there’s nothing else you pick up from that training, that you leave no one behind,” he said. “In our lives as a society, we have to decide that we’re not going to leave anyone behind. That we won’t accept it and that’s non-negotiable. I don’t ask anyone to change their opinion about politics of government tonight.

“I think (what) we all need to do is pray for these young people and their families and ask that God lift them up and give them strength in the days ahead.”

He called gun violence and drug abuse a pandemic and said Congress needs to do something to address both.

Resident Leonard Hammonds II, founder and executive director of the Hammonds Initiative, delivered the opening prayer.

Pastor Linda Theophilus of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Penn Hills was among a few clergy members to offer closing prayers.

“We bring to you our grief, our confusion, our desire to make things better,” Theophilus said. “We pray for answers, for things to do to make a difference. While we are waiting, thank you for giving us each other.”