Baltimore peace and memory ceremony honored students

Public schools in Baltimore City honored six students last year, including a 4-year-old boy.

The City College High School Band set the tone for the peace and memory ceremony in front of the City Schools headquarters in the North Avenue on Friday morning. It was an emotional ceremony for families when she honored the student Jacobi Jones, 4, Breauunna Cormley, 12, Jasper Davis, 14, William Gardner, 17, Denzell Johnson, 17, and Cortez Lemon Jr., 14.

Cortez died in July 2024 after he was stabbed to Maryland Transit Administration Bus. An 18-year-old is charged with killing.

“Oh, he was something else. Sometimes he could make you laugh. Sometimes he could make you cry. But he really had some humor and I loved him with my whole heart,” said Deborah Cox, Cortez 'grandmother. “First he started with karate. Then he wanted to do boxes, but he loved football, and that was really the hobby he liked.”

The other victims died of gun violence.

Brooke Bourne, senior at the Western High School, read from her own poems.

“We need a healing in the curriculum, the truth in the curriculum, protection before we get permission to slip because we are mechanics with a focus on students from this to tomorrow,” said Bourne.

City schools and city leaders said that the ceremony was both hard and painful, but important to remember life.

“Every child guarantees the opportunity to grow, learn, love, laugh, and we know that every young person deserves without worrying or worried that violence could take too early,” said Sonja Santelises, CEO of City Schools.

“I hope we are all injured and tired that far too many young people sit next to empty chairs on which their friends used to be – not only in the classroom, but at the end,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. “What keeps me running is my conviction that we and will be able to change.