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Volume 10, Issue YY
First child in Ohio dies after getting flu People urged to get vaccine
KRISTIN BAUER / COMMUNITY GUIDE
Lori Flanigan holds a photo of her son, Jordan, while watching her granddaughter, Khloe, 4, who is Jordan’s daughter. Khloe is holding one of the balloons from her dad’s commemorative balloon release. Jordan, 24, was shot to death a year ago.
Mother’s heartbreak sets in motion a program to end teen gun violence Carissa Woytach The Community Guide
LORAIN — It is late October, and Lori Flanigan’s Elyria home is bustling with friends and family. A dog barks every time a cousin, nephew, sister or brother comes in through the kitchen where pans sizzle and a ceiling fan whirls overhead on a warm afternoon. Mylar balloons bounce lazily against the ceiling when not in the clutches of a small child running through the living room to chase after a dog or relative. It is loud and vibrant, the same words Flanigan uses to describe her son, Jordan, who was shot to death at age 24 last year. The night he died, Lori Flanigan’s phone buzzed with texts. Something had happened to Jordan. She knew he had been hanging out with a friend at Midview Crossing that night so she hurried there. “For the longest time, I didn’t believe it was my son on the ground because those weren’t his shoes,” Lori Flanigan recalled. He always wore black tennis shoes but this person didn’t have them on. It didn’t take her long to see that it was indeed her son. Jordan Flanigan died on Oct. 27, 2022.
What happened?
Henry C. Spooner, 21, was indicted in January on three counts of murder with with specifications, two counts of felonious assault, having weapons under disability, tampering with evidence and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle in connection with Jordan Flanigan’s death. His trial will start in the coming year. Brothers Antwon Nathanuel President, 22, and Nathanuel Antwon President, 15, were also charged in connection with Jordan Flanigan’s death. Some of the young men charged in connection to her son’s death had stayed on his couch, and went to school with her youngest, Justin, Lori Flanigan said. And now her family is left with a hole that will never be filled because of a disagreement. “If these kids understood in the streets that this wasn’t a game, (guns) aren’t toys, things might be better,” she said. “But it takes a com-
munity to solve the problem that we have going on.” Jordan Flanigan’s death resonated with the people who loved him and also sparked conversations among strangers he would never meet. In the days after his death, Elyria and Lorain officials Jordan hosted a town hall meeting Flanigan announcing the cities were seeking a $2 million grant to create a violence interrupter program, hoping to resolve conflicts before those involved pull the trigger. In early 2023 the program, through the Lorain County Urban League, received $600,000 to pilot the initiative in Elyria: $200,000 from the Nord Family Foundation and $400,000 from the state.
One kid at a time
Angela Lee, program manager for the Urban League’s Serving Our Streets initiative, said her new position is just formalizing work she had done in Cleveland for years. “It’s been in my veins,” she said, sitting in a conference room on the second floor of LCUL’s offices off Middle Avenue. “... My kids would always tell me ‘Mom, you can’t save the world.’ Well, I can do one kid at a time.” For Lee, it is about changing the norm — seeing the path students are going down and keeping them from going to the juvenile detention home, or jail, she said. It isn’t just a violence issue, it is a mental health one. Damian Calvert will oversee Elyria’s three violence interrupters, acting as the bridge between those outreach workers and local law enforcement and city officials. It’s a role he held in Cleveland for close to a decade. But before that, he served 18 years in prison for murder — giving him an understanding of the path those young men and women are headed down, and what can happen if outreach programs like the Urban League’s do not reach them in time. Since he was released, he has rebuilt his own life while reaching out to youth in Cleveland before accepting the position in Elyria. While working at Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s John F. Kennedy High School he said a teen texted him that he was at a girl’s
house off Buckeye and there were men outside ready to shoot him. “He said I got my pipe on me — my pistol — but I ain’t trying to go there,” Calvert said. “I said, say less, I’m on my way and I came and I got him.” Calvert picked the boy up on the condition he left the gun in Calvert’s car to be turned in to the police. “He trusted me enough for a lifeline. He thought in terms of consequences — like I can be bold and go out there and shoot them up but the fallout, you have to live (with) your consequences,” Calvert said. “ So he made a rational choice, he called me.” That rational choice came from a relationship Calvert had built, he said. The violence interrupters in Elyria will do the same thing, while Calvert keeps lines of communication open with Elyria Police. The target audience for Elyria’s pilot program will be teens and young adults, ages 14-24, Lee said. In Cleveland, the work was reframed as a public health issue, Calvert said, with former Mayor Frank Jackson recognizing the correlation between economically depressed and blighted areas of the city and high violence rates. The public health approach is also the direction Elyria will take.
Interrupt violence
The violence interrupter program is far from the first effort in Northeast Ohio to address gun violence and the young men and women lost to it. Cleveland’s Peacemakers Alliance has been doing the work for more than a decade. Myesha Watkins leads the organization out of a hole-in-the-wall office at MetroHealth’s Buckeye Health Center. She said that what started with about a dozen trained violence interrupters when she took over the group in 2020 has dwindled to six due to funding losses. Entirely grant-funded, the effort looks to reach younger teens and children before they pick up a gun or deter those already in the streets from making life-altering decisions. “One life lost is too much,” Watkins said. “And oftentimes we talk about this city having high See GUNS, A5
Lauren Hoffman The Community Guide The Ohio Department of Health has reported that the state’s first flu-associated child death of the 2023-24 season has occurred. The patient was a 9-year-old girl in Clermont County, which is located just east of Cincinnati, died Friday. Her death is being investigated by the Clermont County Public Health Department. “If you haven’t gotten a flu vaccine, now is a good time,” said ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff. “We are in the heart of flu season and a vaccine may help prevent you or your loved ones from contracting a serious case of the disease.” Flu activity usually peaks from December to February and in Ohio, flu activity has been increasing since early December and is now at an active high. Since the start of the season, over 900 influenza-associated hospitalizations have been reported in Ohio, a number below the five-year average for this time in the season. Ohio generally reports between one and six influenza-associated child deaths each year. Across the nation, Ohio’s flu levels are at a moderate level. South Carolina and Louisiana are showing the highest numbers, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are putting flu surveillance data on our website this year which is something we haven’t done before,” said Erin Murphy, Lorain County Public Health director of health promotion and chronic disease prevention. “Currently we are reporting 38 influenza hospitalizations in Lorain County for the season to date.” The season began 10 weeks ago in October and numbers have been steadily growing. This week alone, there are 14 cases, a 6.4 percent increase from last week Murphy said. “This is typically when we will start seeing a bit of a pick up because people have been traveling and spending time with their families,” Murphy said. “While we still consider peak flu season to be around February, every year is different.”
Lorain County Jail to get new director The Community Guide
Capt. Rick Thomas has been named will become the director of corrections for the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Phil Stammitti said he will share that role with Capt. Jack Hammond until Hammond retires in March. This is not Thomas’ first tenure with the sheriff’s office, as he previously served as director of law enforcement in 2016. Before that, Thomas had a lengthy career at the North Ridgeville Police Department, where he started in 1979 and retired as chief in 2011. Thomas is also currently running for office against Rich Resendez in the Democratic primary to replace Stammitti, who will retire in 2025 as Lorain County sheriff. Jack Hall is running unopposed as a Republican. Until recently, Thomas had served as the commander of the Lorain County Community College Police Academy, overseeing his last graduating class on Friday. He is being replaced as academy commander by Duane Whitely, a former Elyria police chief. As director, Thomas will oversee the Lorain County Jail and the largest division within the sheriff’s office.
INSIDE THIS WEEK Amherst
Norm Miller to talk on Masons. A7
Oberlin
Kendal of Oberlin CEO retires. A4
Wellington
30-year councilman dies. A2
FREE MEALS A7 • CROSSWORD A7 • SUDOKU A7 • KID SCOOP A8