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Gun murder spurs teacher to organise ‘walk of faith’

In the wake of Bermuda’s latest gun murder, one Warwick educator is appealing for the community to join her this weekend in a “walk of faith”.“Something has to happen,” said veteran teacher Sancia Garrison, who said the shootings of recent weeks finally overwhelmed her with the killing of 24-year-old Stefan Burgess.As a substitute teacher, Ms Garrison said she has taught across the Island including at Elliott Primary School, when Mr Burgess was a student there.“I know so many children who have been shot or whose family members have been shot, or who are lost to us,” she said. “I have seen a marked decline in family life and the family unit, just in the last ten years. This isn’t the Bermuda of my childhood.”She has called for like-minded members of the public to walk together this Sunday afternoon, in a quiet show of solidarity.The idea came to her after a line of cars, with their headlights on in tribute to the slain Mr Burgess, passed her on the road.“I just know that a lot of people feel the way I do, that there is a better way forward and that our country is not going in the right direction. I have no political affiliations and I’m not part of any group. I’m just tired of people not speaking out.”Starting Sunday at 1.30pm on South Shore Road by the Warwick Camp entrance, the walk of faith will head east along the main road, with participants invited to bring along banners or just to walk.After 33 years of teaching, Ms Garrison said she begun to see more and more “children whose mothers’ boyfriends are gang members, or children in my classes who have been traumatised by shootings”.A native of the Frith Estates area near Warwick Long Bay, she said she opted to resign last week from her local neighbourhood watch group.“I’ve just had enough of it,” she said. “There have been police vans up and down my road, break-ins, bike theft, machetes being found it’s crazy.”She said she is using Facebook to spread her message. Ms Garrison hopes fellow walkers can use the South Shore Beaches parking lot to join her and other walkers.“We need to take control of Bermuda before the bad element does,” she said. “Right now it’s like everything’s out of control.”