LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville teacher is grieving the death of a 17-year-old student of his who was killed in a park.
Kumar Rashad, a teacher at Breckinridge Metro High School, says David Huff was the second student he's taught to be shot in four months.
Rashad, a math teacher, said the numbers don't add up.
"I see death a lot," he said. "They see death a lot. I see death through them a lot, and I see them die."
Rashad said he sees Louisville's violent crime epidemic from two sides. At Breckinridge Metro, he works with troubled kids. As a Louisville Metro councilmember, he works with city leaders to try to stop the violence.
He said that violence is a regular topic for discussion in his math class.
"We've even had a project in my class where we take the statistics of crimes in certain students' neighborhoods throughout the years and to predict what's gonna happen in future years," he said.
Days after downtown Louisville's deadly mass shooting, Huff, was one of the two people shot to death in a crowded Chickasaw Park.
Rashad says Huff actually left Breckinridge Metro in January but was still well-known and liked by his classmates and teachers. Rashad says Huff was also an expectant father.
"David was full of energy," Rashad said. "He was full of life. He had a great sense of humor."
Rest in peace to my student David Huff who was shot and killed this past weekend at Chickasaw Park. Gun violence needs to be taken serious by our legislators.I’m sorry our generation failed you David. Love and prayers to your family and our family at BreckMetro. #LOVELIFEGODBLESS pic.twitter.com/5k2BHO9x4O
— Kumar Rashad (@KumarRashad1) April 18, 2023
He's also the second of Rashad's students to be shot in the past four months. The other incident took place in February in Shively. Fortunately, that student lived.
"All the kids in my school are dealing with trauma," Rashad said. "All the adults in my school are dealing with trauma. There's an insurmountable amount of death that we see."
As a teacher and a councilmember, he said he supports policy to reduce gun violence -- including the destruction of firearms used in a crime -- but that's ultimately up to the Republican-controlled state legislature.
In his own district, he'd like to see FLOCK cameras installed to record license plates or unique identifiers on cars.
"If you know you're not going to be held accountable, you can do anything you want," he said.
Rashad said a more holistic approach could help in the future by focusing on the elimination of food deserts and keeping community centers open. It's an approach he said could save lives -- and hopefully lead to a change in conversations between math problems.
Related stories:
- Violent week in Louisville met with outrage, apathy as city grapples with how to change
- 5 dead, at least a dozen injured after another violent weekend in Louisville
- Authorities identify 2 male victims shot to death in Louisville's Chickasaw Park
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