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In the name of the Mahatma

R S Shankar

Inspired by the life of Mahatma Gandhi and the moral courage of Martin Luther King, a foundation started by an NRI in memory of his murdered son is sponsoring an anti-violence forum in about 70 schools of San Diego and other American cities where school violence is a serious problem.

The 'Violence Impact Forum,' backed by the Tariq Khamisa Foundation, is expected to be seen by 18,000 fourth, fifth and sixth grade students, a spokesperson for the Foundation said. The forum, which will be held now through April, also advocates gun control. It has drawn the attention of the national media. Articles about it have appeared in major American publications, including USA Today.

The forum urges the students to resolve conflicts with discussion -- not weapons. The 75-minute program includes a video re-enactment of the fatal shooting of Tariq Khamisa, 20, while he was delivering a pizza in North Park. Khamisa, who belonged to an affluent family that migrated from East Africa, was earning his own money to pay for his out of college expenses. Tony Hicks, 14, killed him on January 21, 1995 during a botched robbery. Hicks used a stolen handgun.

An 18-year-old gang leader ordered Hicks, who is now serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in adult prison, to shoot Khamisa.

Tariq's father, Azim Khamisa, who started the foundation after reaching out to Hicks's guardian and grandfather, Plex Felix, will visit the schools and talk about the devastation caused by violence and gangs. Felix, who has addressed many gatherings with Khamisa, is expected to join the fora this time too. The men speak about the devastation wrought on their families by the shooting.

The foundation is backed by Arun Gandhi and his wife Sunanda, who are based in Memphis, Tennessee, and who travel across the country to espouse Gandhian philosophy of non-violence.

"We must do everything in our power to stop the nightmare of children killing children," Azim Khamisa said.

Khamisa is too aware that the recent spate of school killings by teenagers -- and in one case by a six-year-old who shot dead a classmate -- call for urgent introspection and efforts to stop the escalating violence.

Tariq Khamisa was one of almost 80,000 children and teenagers killed in America by gunfire between 1979 and 1997, the Children's Defense Fund said in a report released last year.

Called 'Children and Guns,' the study revealed that 4,205 youngsters, aged 19 and under, died from gunshots in 1997. There is no indication that the school violence and the violence against children is coming down. In fact, sociologists say that school and teenage violence is spreading from crowded, violence-prone inner cities to the more protected environments in states like Colorado and Georgia.

The San Diego based investment banker who runs the Foundation with his daughter's help hopes to take his message and forum to more than 150 schools by this time next year.

He says the efforts by officials to be tough on teenage crime and, in some cases, to try the teenage perpetrators as adults and give them a longer sentence is not to going to resolve the problem.

"Getting tough on juveniles didn't save my son," Khamisa has said. "Doing that is not enough. We have to teach children to deal with conflict in a non-violent manner -- and we need better gun control. That's the answer."

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