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With 'Legend for my Brother,' Peoria high school seniors hope to lower gun violence, open minds

Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice program.

Last year, Peoria saw a record-breaking number of homicides, and some of the 34 victims were students at Peoria Public Schools.

Inspired by the loss of their classmates, seniors enrolled in District 150's Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice program co-authored a children's book titled, "Legends for my Brother."

The book is influenced by each of the students’ own lives, losses, cultural backgrounds, and hopes for the future.
With the help of OSF Strive and District 150, the students hope to publish “Legend for my Brother” in the coming months.

Co-author and Richwoods High School senior Taya Bates hopes that, once published, the book is read far and wide.

“If you can't relate to this book, it's still in Peoria, and it's still our community. And I feel like everybody should want to know what goes on in the community,” she said. “This book is about a single mother raising two boys … They're in a low-income community surrounded by violence.”

From left to right, Lyric Johnson, Tylynn Johnson, Taya Bates, Dina Brown, and Ari Carachuri, inside the Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice classroom.
Dr. Lisa Snow
/
Provided
From left to right, Lyric Johnson, Tylynn Johnson, Taya Bates, Dina Brown, and Ari Carachuri, inside the Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice classroom.

This weekend, the students will present their book during the annual State Leadership and Skills Conference competition thathappens to be in Peoria this year. If the students are successful this weekend, they could head to the Skills USA national competition.

But co-author and Peoria High School senior Lyric Johnson said she and her classmates aren’t in it for awards.

The true prize, she said, would be if the book saves lives.

“There are people our age and younger who are sitting here with guns. Where did they get them from? I have no idea. … They should be in school,” she said. “And I really hope that this book can go into schools … so they can get a hold of this book and realize that they're tearing down our community. And that instead of being with guns, they should be with books.”

Art imitates reality

The protagonists in the book are Tyrique “Ty” Johnson and his younger brother, Toby. Ty is a senior at Peoria High School who plans to attend Duke University on a basketball scholarship, but his dream is cut short when he is shot and killed.

While fictional, Ty and Toby represent a grim reality.

Last year, Peoria saw its deadliest year of violence on record. Many of the 34 victims were young, Black men and boys — some were students at Peoria Public Schools.

Dequwan Pruitt, 15, was a freshman at Richwoods High School when he was shot and killed last fall in Center Bluff. Another 15-year-old, Rayton Brock, was killed by gunfire in October of last year. Jerry Snipes Jr., 17, was a senior at Manuel High School when he was killed. Just outside Peoria, Deshawnteris Edwards was shot and killed at the age of 12.

A PowerPoint slide that will be part of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program's entry to the annual Skills USA competition.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
A PowerPoint slide that will be part of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program's entry to the annual Skills USA competition.

All five of the students in the Woodruff criminal justice program personally know someone who’s died from gun violence.

For Tylynn Johnson, it was her close friend’s brothers.

For Lyric Johnson, it was her childhood best friend.

Just a few months after Pruitt’s killing, Bates is grieving yet another classroom loss — fellow Richwoods senior Kanye Stowers.

“I was classmates for about two years with Kanye Stowers,” Bates said. “He just passed away, not even a month ago.”

Taya Bates is a senior at Richwoods High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Taya Bates is a senior at Richwoods High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.

Richwoods senior and Woodruff student Dina Brown was working with Stowers on a class project the day he died.

“He knew how to make people laugh. He was definitely a class clown,” she said. “And you never expect these things to happen. Like, you think you're gonna see them the next day. And then one day, they're just not there.”

The Woodruff students began co-writing "Legend for my Brother" last November.

Initially, the idea was to create a simple children’s book that could be distributed to children in families affected by gun violence. Similarly, Peoria Community Against Violence CEO Becky Rossman distributes coloring books at crime scenes.

But the project quickly evolved into something much more complex — a 50-page novella with multiple timelines and points of view.

The students wrote during regular school hours at their home schools. They’d write late at night and early in the morning. They’d talk virtually and meet up at Starbucks to work on their drafts.

Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice students Dina Brown, Ari Carachuri, Tylynn Johnson, and Taya Bates meet at Starbucks to work on their book, "Legends for my Brother."
Dr. Lisa Snow
/
Provided
Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice students Dina Brown, Ari Carachuri, Tylynn Johnson, and Taya Bates meet at Starbucks to work on their book, "Legends for my Brother."

While difficult and emotionally heavy at times, writing the book has helped the students cope with their own feelings of grief.

Bates said that's why the book will be so relatable.

We’re teenagers writing for teenagers,” she said. “Most of the time, it's adults and people in their middle age, 40s and stuff, trying to write a book, and trying to sound like teenagers. And it just doesn't sound right.”

A book that ‘came from love’

While the first half of the book swaps perspectives between the two brothers, the second half is told solely by Toby following the death of his brother.

The book’s chapters are somewhat organized by the stages of grief, including shock, depression, acceptance. Each student took on their own stage of grief to write through, and then the group worked together to weave their pieces together.

While writing the book was difficult and heavy at times, Lyric Johnson said the end product is worth it.

“We've done so much for this,” she said. “People … who read this book will know that it came from love from us.”

Lyric Johnson is a senior at Peoria Central High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Lyric Johnson is a senior at Peoria Central High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.

The setting of the book is very purposeful, Bates added.

“Ty and Toby grew up in the Taft. The Taft is known for some of the most violence in the city,” she said. “And on top of that, it’s in the East Bluff. A lot of violence is in the East Bluff, too. You hear gunshots at night and stuff like that. … A lot of kids in this area don't have father figures. So you're gonna see how they grow up without a father, and how hard it is.”

Taft Homes is a public housing complex just northeast of Downtown Peoria. The property has failed federal housing inspections for years and has been the site ofseveral murders.

Last year, the Peoria Housing Authority transferred management of Taft Homes to a Wisconsin-based developer that renamed the property “Providence Pointe,” and is demolishing and rebuilding the complex in phases.

In an effort to make the book authentic and relatable to kids who would identify with Ty and Toby, the students worked to streamline colloquial language.

Ari Carachuri said she and Brown were challenged to write “more urban.”

“We’re ‘urban,’ but we still speak ‘proper,’” she said. “So whenever it comes to writing in the book … Taya, Lyric, and Tylynn are usually like, ‘That’s not urban enough. We need to fix it.’”

Ari Carachuri is a senior at Peoria Central High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Ari Carachuri is a senior at Peoria Central High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.

The students drew on the diversity of their own cultures and backgrounds to create characters for the book. Carachuri, who is Mexican, crafted “Luna,” Toby’s childhood best friend. She wrote sections of the book in Spanish.

Brown is half Syrian and was raised Muslim. She came up with a character named Yasmin.

“Her story is like … it's kind of tough for her to go out and have fun. Sometimes, she has to sneak around to do it,” Brown said. “She wants to like, live out her own life with people that she wants to go see … Kind of like I do.”

Dina Brown is a senior at Richwoods High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Dina Brown is a senior at Richwoods High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.

Bringing Peorians together

Bates said she hopes her classmates who live north of War Memorial Drive will read "Legend for my Brother."

“I really want the kids at Richwoods to read this book to understand what actually goes on in the city,” she said. “They might not live over here, so they don't really understand what goes on. But I feel like if they read this book, they will understand.”

Tylnn Johnson is a senior at Peoria High, and said she worked hard to infuse "Central culture" into the book.

She, too, looks forward to sharing the book with readers all over the city.

"We've been here our whole lives ... born and raised here. And I hope when you read this book that you really get a heartwarming feeling," she said. "I hope it inspires people to want to get it together and change ... And be like, 'We can't keep going through this,' especially going forward."

Tylynn Johnson is a senior at Peoria Central High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Tylynn Johnson is a senior at Peoria Central High School and a member of the Woodruff Career and Technical Center criminal justice program.

Whether “privileged” or not, Lyric Johnson said the universal themes of love, loss, and friendship will resonate with all young readers.

“If you went through something like this, even if you didn't lose a family member or a loved one from gun violence, if you just lost them period … if you lost a friend, a close friend, like, it doesn't matter,” she said. “You are not alone. And you can always just read this book to feel comfort.”

While the book’s target audience are 14-to-18-year-olds, Carachuri said she hopes adults read it, too.

It's a lot of the people that are older than us that think that Manual or Peoria kids are the bad part … that we’re bad, dirty,” she said. “I hope the parents read this book.”

Students draft "Legend for my Brother," a children's book about brothers growing up in Peoria's Taft Homes.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Students draft "Legend for my Brother," a children's book about brothers growing up in Peoria's Taft Homes.

No matter where you live in the Peoria community, everyone has a role to play in ending gun violence, Brown said.

“The situations that happen in this book … it’s stuff that's happening in people's lives. Like, in everyday lives,” she said. “The gun violence really needs to end because it's happening to children who haven't even started their lives yet.”

While the book is still receiving edits, the students shared the first page with WCBU:

My name is Tyrique Johnson but my friends call me Ty. I used to live in a small town in Illinois called Peoria, aka, ‘the P.’ And I was once an 18-year-old student who went to Peoria High School. … My dad got locked up when I was 3. I also have a little brother named Toby. He's only 11. I love that boy to death. … I used to have so much hope about making out the P. I had such a bright future. I had just got accepted to Duke University to play basketball. Who knows, I might have made it to the NBA. But all that went to hell the day I died. 

Learn more about District 150’s Woodruff Careers and Technical Center here.

From left to right, Dr. Lisa Snow, Tylynn Johnson, Lyric Johnson, Taya Bates (back), Ari Carachuri (front), and Dina Brown.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
From left to right, Dr. Lisa Snow, Tylynn Johnson, Lyric Johnson, Taya Bates (back), Ari Carachuri (front), and Dina Brown.
Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice program.
Hannah Alani
/
WCBU
Woodruff Career and Technical Center's criminal justice program.

Hannah Alani is a reporter at WCBU. She joined the newsroom in 2021. She can be reached at hmalani@ilstu.edu.