A seven-time Emmy Award-winning writer from the television show Sesame Street visited two Winston-Salem Forsyth County elementary schools to promote gun safety.
Renowned TV writer William Electric Black was joined by Winston-Salem Police Chief William H. Penn Jr in visits to Forsyth County elementary schools. The pair read Blacks’ book, “A Gun is Not Fun.”
These visits were part of an initiative led by Wake Forest University’s Center for Literacy Education. The center addresses issues surrounding various aspects of literacy and aims to make a positive change in the community.
Black was recently the keynote speaker for the center’s Visiting Scholars Speaker Series and Community Networking Conference held on campus. The theme was “A Gun is Not Fun: Strategies to Keep Children Safe from Gun Violence.” Speakers engaged in three panels about gun violence prevention strategies geared toward adolescents. Alan Brown, director of the center and associate professor of English education, reflected on the event’s success.
“This is the first big event for the center,” Brown said. “The conversations were outstanding. We had a great crowd and people seemed really engaged.”
Black is not only an award-winning writer but also an advocate for gun safety awareness. In an interview with NPR, Black explained his beliefs surrounding educating the youth on such a timely topic.
“You need to start when they’re 3 and 4 because by the time they’re in middle school, they’re thinking about a gun or ‘I gotta get a gun to protect myself from the other kids that have guns,” Black said. “This is the time to get them to see there’s another way.”
The first panel featured a conversation between Adam Goldstein of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Family Medicine and Rebecca Palmer, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. The panelists covered gun injury prevention strategies and the need to approach gun safety as a public health crisis.
“It’s really not a controversial topic,” Palmer said. She emphasized the importance of talking to families about gun ownership and safe storage of firearms, which keeps them out of the hands of curious children.
The second panel was a conversation regarding public safety. It included Apryl Alexander with the UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center and Jared Pone, external affairs manager with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and NC S.A.F.E.— a group providing free gun locks and gun safety tips. The third panel highlighted a Wake Forest Sociology professor and gun culture expert David Yamane discussing his book “Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside Gun Culture.”
Following the panels, Black gave the keynote address of the conference. He explained that shows such as Sesame Street teach children important lessons in a way that is comprehensible and relatable.
In addition to visiting Forsyth County elementary schools and being a keynote speaker, Black also visited several Wake Forest classes in the Theater in Education program and an animation studies class.
“The Center for Literacy Education’s mission is to foster interdisciplinary partnerships and professional learning and to bring literacy to life through community engagement,” Brown said. “The events of this week are just a glimpse of what’s to come as we continue to grow and develop.”
