As home/school coordinator Lonnie Hunter walks down a hall at Roosevelt Junior High School, passing students greet him.
“Hey, Mr. Hunter,” one boy calls out cheerfully, continuing to head toward his classroom. Another stops him to ask a question.
A year ago, the halls of this school may have seemed a little more tense, a little less friendly.
Since coming to Roosevelt in January, Hunter has played a big role in raising the goals, expectations and self-esteem of pupils and, in turn, lessening pupil-pupil and pupil-staff tensions.
“I don’t know what I’d do without him,” Principal Joseph Schissler says.
Schissler, who came to the school in fall 1993, began the year facing a series of problems. Community business leaders and homeowners complained that students walking home caused property damage. Relations between the school and the police were strained. There also was a need to improve discipline and academics.
In addition, the enrollment was 95 percent African-American, but most of the faculty members were not. And the two African-American teachers quit at Christmas break.
“We needed to improve the overall atmosphere at the school,” he says, “and we needed to improve and repair the public relations between the community and the school.
“We believed the concept of role modeling would help us in educating our students. They needed to be able to relate to someone. We felt it was necessary to get teachers and support staff who would be able to do that.”
Enter Hunter, who has experience in public relations and counseling teenagers, plus a strong faith that he could make a difference.
Since he came to the school, he has implemented a mediation program that helps resolve differences between pupils, pupils and staff, or parents and staff. He has conducted workshops for teachers in slang, how to differentiate between harmless expressions and disrespectful ones; communication skills; and multicultural sensitivity.
He counsels pupils individually and in groups. He serves as the liaison between parents and the administration. And when necessary, he will visit a pupil’s home to investigate problems or simply to establish a connection between the home and school.
He also recommmended two new staff members-a teacher and a director of the in-school detention program-to the principal.
They are African-Americans who, like Hunter, also participate in extracurricular activities at the school, such as the Boys Club. Hunter also works with the school choir.
“The three of us work to have a positive impact on students-especially the male student population,” Hunter says. “It gives them someone to identify with.”
Chris Moore, an English/literature teacher, and Keith Nunally, the in-school detention director, helped Hunter stage a Black History program in February that involved 50 to 60 pupils.
Some pupils sang in a chorus directed by Nunally, who also is the music director at a Harvey church. (Hunter sings in the church’s choir.) Another component was a play that a number of students created; they put together a series of skits based on speeches given by famous black leaders. Still other pupils read famous poems written by African-Americans.
“Parents came, the principal and superintendent came. We even had teachers from other schools come to see it,” Moore says. “It gave kids a chance to become involved.”
Hunter has lived in Harvey since childhood. He graduated from Western Illinois University, Macomb, in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in public relations.
He first worked for Aunt Martha’s Youth Services Inc. in Riverdale, a social-service agency that provides comprehensive services to children and their families, including substance-abuse counseling, job placement and foster care. There are a number of locations in the south suburbs.
Hunter spent seven years as coordinator of the agency’s drug- and alcohol-prevention program. While there, he received training and certification in counseling and mediation.
His turn toward social services was a natural one, Hunter notes. The youngest child in the family, he grew up seeing all four of his sisters work as counselors at Aunt Martha’s at one time or another.
“I watched how they turned people’s lives around. It gave me a greater appreciation of what can be done to help a community,” he says.
Later, he worked two years in the public relations department at National Security Ltd., a security company in Olympia Fields, where a sister, Denise Hunter, is operations manager.
It was Denise Hunter whom Dora Fitzgerald, superintendent of Dolton District 148, called last year. Concerned about the community complaints and that there might be weapons in school, she decided to request security guards.
After visiting the school, Denise Hunter drew up a proposal in which National Security supplied not only security guards, but also-through the services of her brother-in-service training, mediation and counseling services. In other words, she says, he would tackle the problem at its roots.
“Coming out of a social-services background, I felt people would get a better sense of security by taking control of their environment,” she says.
The job her brother has done has turned out as expected, she adds.
“The kids get better services, and the parents connect better. Since Lonnie has come, there is better rapport between parents and the school. Parents see him as outside the loop of authority. He has become an advocate for them, in a way.”
The pupils, too, feel the changes have been for the better.
Hunter has a way of talking to them that is honest and effective, according to Andre Tate, 14, who will be a freshman at Thornton Township High School in Harvey this fall.
“He’s real easy to talk to,” Tate says. “He explains things in a way that changes a lot of people’s minds about what they’re doing.”
If a student gets detention for being disrespectful to a teacher, Tate says, Hunter will ask the student who it hurts more-the teacher or the student.
“He’ll tell them they need their education. The teacher already has his,” he says. “He breaks it all down so it’s simple.”
For Hunter, who has been hired for the 1994-95 academic year, the rewards are many.
“I get a great deal of spiritual satisfaction out of this job-when I can steer a child the right way, the rewards for that are much greater than any paycheck,” he says.
“Just to see somebody succeed is reward enough.”
