Less than a week after dropping him off at Fort Gordon Youth ChalleNGe Academy, Melanie Mason got an urgent message Friday to return to the Augusta military base and pick him up.
The single mother soon learned why after talking to other parents: Fighting had disrupted the program and required the highly-successful military-style program to shut down.
“We are hearing that there were shanks and knives. … One parent said her son got stabbed,” said Mason, who lives in Savannah, where she works 60 hours a week while trying to keep her 18-year-old son William Mason off the streets. “I was told there was a gang fight, and we need to come and get our kids as soon as possible.”
A Georgia National Guard spokesperson confirmed the program shutdown in a statement to The Augusta Press. They did not comment on the stabbing.
“The decision to cancel class number 44 at the Fort Gordon Youth Challenge Academy in Augusta, Georgia, was in response to a series of escalating incidents during the first week of class,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to welcoming the new class very soon as we continue to prioritize the safety of cadets, cadre and staff.”
The academy serves 16-18 year-olds from across the state. On its website, the program says it uses a military model to “transform the lives of our students, by employing a tough, no-nonsense approach to discipline and a caring, patient, and determined attitude toward education. We are partnered with Foothills Education Charter High School.”
The shutdown was upsetting to Mason, who had hoped it would help William earn his GED and put him on track for the military. In Savannah, she worries about the effects of peer pressure and neighborhood drug dealers on her son. He dropped out of high school and got too old to return and finish with his class.
Last Monday, Mason drove her son to orientation at Fort Gordon and snapped a photo of William dressed with a shirt and tie and wearing a bright smile on his face. She drove back home with dreams that the program would be the structure her son needed to succeed. It was the only free program that she knew about.
“We sent him to Augusta to get a career. He was excited about graduation in March, and a job training program,” Mason said.
Four days later, Mason learned from her son that the fighting had started on day one with cadets who were about to graduate. Her son told her that staff members stood around while bigger boys picked on smaller boys.
“My son said another boy that was smaller was getting hit. He grabbed him to get him out of harm’s way,” Mason said. “The group of guys was from another barracks. Those guys would come over to them and start trying to fight them while they were outside.”
The fighting became too much to continue the program. The hasty order for parents to return was done so quickly that William wasn’t able to gather his clothes, his mother said. Mason called the lack of communication with parents “unprofessional,” but still she hopes something can be done to restart the academy.
“As parents in general, whether it’s white or black, we need mentors for these boys because it’s rough out there, especially since the fathers are not in their lives. They are turning to drugs, trying to do this and trying to do that. They need that accountability, a mentor, a youth challenge, with people to assist,” Mason said. “To say to them, ‘Hey you can go into the military, you can be a chef, you can be a mechanic, you can own your business.’ And I really feel like the Youth ChalleNGe Academy failed them. They were not even there a week, and all because you had a group of kids who were gang bangers.”
On Friday, she posted a message on Facebook, asking her friends to pray for youth and relaying what had happened. “I think William was truly ready for a change,” she wrote in the post. “I hope and pray that this situation doesn’t change his mind.”
Parents of other cadets are talking online and trying to organizing a petition. Mason has also reached out to Georgia State Rep. Carl Gilliard, who she says promised to investigate.
“From what I am reading, they are trying to shut down the program down completely,” she said. “So what can my son do now? How can he get his GED? I don’t even know what to tell him.”
Greg Rickabaugh is the Jail Report contributor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at greg.rickabaugh@theaugustapress.com
