The Editorial Board: Heroes, champions and open hearts make a difference

First and foremost are the people who directly saved lives as a racist gunman murdered innocent people with a high-powered rifle at the Tops supermarket on Jefferson Avenue. Police did that, of course, arriving quickly on the scene and preventing the killer from committing further acts of violence. They risked their lives while doing their jobs.

But inside the store, a brave, unarmed employee was helping others to safety. Carlton Steverson, 28, was working a 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. shift when he heard sounds like pallets falling or items falling off shelves. It was gunshots.

Steverson and a co-worker backed away from the deli counter to a nearby room, but as customers approached, some screaming in terror, he directed them to a walk-in cooler where they could hide. As shots from the weapon came closer, he led a number of the running for a rear emergency exit. Everyone who ran with him made it out safely.

The reality hit later, when Steverson learned that one of the customers he helped to save – a woman who was “panicking real bad,” had watched as a companion was killed.

Steverson had started at the store just last month.

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Almost everyone is having trouble processing the scale of the evil that came to Buffalo, but among those least prepared to deal with it are students, some of whom find themselves traumatized by the shooting. In schools, teachers and administrators are helping.

In Buffalo, on the Sunday after, school leaders spent hours organizing resources for principals and teachers to use as students, ranging from pre-K age to seniors, returned to class the next day. Some students knew someone who had died. Some were afraid to go to school, as false threats spread on social media.

“You could hear the upset in their voices: ‘I can’t believe he came all the way to our city, our community, to do this,’ ” said Ruyvette Townsend, an attendance teacher at Leonardo daVinci High School. Part of the school’s essential duty, she said, was to reassure students that they were safe.

Schools in the city’s suburbs also changed plans to help their students cope. In classes, students were able to talk about the stress of outsiders creating and exploiting political animosities as they were trying to grieve. They were offered opportunities for “social emotional learning and healing,” to discuss issues including systemic racism, white supremacy and gun control.

Said Peter Stuhlmiller, a social studies teacher at Kenmore West High School, “These are not just academic questions anymore.“

Good for school leaders for recognizing the trauma and helping their students navigate it.

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A remarkable offer of forgiveness was made Friday in the Town of Niagara after police arrested a man for spray-painting a violent and racist message on the fence of a mixed-race couple.

Johnny Parks, who is Black, discovered the racist message scrawled on a white vinyl fence early last Monday. On Friday, Howard Murphy, 60, was arrested on a charge of criminal mischief as a hate crime, a felony. He lives four houses away from the Parks family.

As hateful as the message was, the response of both law enforcement and the community was heartening. As word of the threat spread, members of the community arrived to paint over the words and employees of Home Depot employees replaced damaged sections.

But it was the response of Parks, himself, that was the most encouraging.

“You have it in your heart, you could forgive anyone,” he said. “You know, people do make mistakes. And, hopefully, this is a mistake that we can grow through as a community.”

We don’t know how likely it is that someone cruel enough to deface Parks’ fence would accept that forgiveness, but it wouldn’t be the first time an open hand changed a hateful heart.

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