To see the Taft Elementary video, click this link.

YOUNGSTOWN — Taft Elementary School students and the school community say they want peace.

In response to recent violence surrounding the school, 730 E. Avondale Ave., and throughout the city, Taft students and educators created a video, “We Are Peace — We Are Taft.”

Students, all wearing masks, share messages in the video:

• “Taft is hope;”

• “In my home and in my class, peace begins with me;” and

• “I see the light in spite of the darkness.”

In early April there was a drive-by shooting that wounded a 13-year-old girl. A woman accused of driving the vehicle has pleaded not guilty to charges. The girl was hit in her bed in her East Avondale home.

Two 16-year-old boys also are in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center on charges of felonious assault and discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, school or safety, in the case.

In January, a house on the avenue was damaged by gunfire and police found nine spent shell casings in the street. In March, police Chief Carl Davis and Mayor Jamael Tito Brown held a news conference asking for people to remain calm after two South Side homicides prompted an increased police presence.

Leslie Kitchen, Taft’s student support specialist, pointed to the recent violence in the area.

“The scholars and staff at Taft Elementary are concerned about the violence that is raging across our neighborhood,” she said. “We are asking the community to please stop the violence.”

The video also includes messages on posters, saying scholars want to walk home and play outside in peace.

“We just want peace,” another poster reads.