{"id":1163,"date":"2017-04-24T21:12:20","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T01:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2017-04-28T21:17:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T01:17:03","slug":"the-gatekeeper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/2017\/04\/24\/the-gatekeeper\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gatekeeper"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Brooke Warner<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG_4641-2-768x982\"<\/a>Dominick \u201cDJ\u201d Dandridge (left) sat\u00a0on the steps\u00a0outside\u00a0reading a children\u2019s book the first time we visited the Sacred Heart Center.\u00a0When we had trouble opening the door, he jumped up to help. Thanks, we said, as he followed us inside.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI work here,” he said, in a gentle raspy voice. “Sort of.”<\/span><\/p>\n

It is true that\u00a0DJ’s\u00a0role is not defined, but he comes\u00a0to the Center\u00a0nearly every day after\u00a0school, bringing snacks and\u00a0a kind word to those he meets. Sometimes he stays at home, just a few houses away,\u00a0and rests instead. “I’m a sleepy type person,” he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When I ask him how old he is, he says 17.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow old did you think I was?”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He had told me\u00a0he was in the eleventh grade at Armstrong High School (below), so I\u00a0figured\u00a0he was 17 or 18.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be surprised,\u201d he says. \u201cAt my school, we have a lot of ninth graders in their 20s.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016 DJ’s school,\u00a0Armstrong High,\u00a0was ranked last of 320 high schools in Virginia\u00a0rated\u00a0by SchoolDigger. It is second-to-last in both math and English proficiency\u00a0among\u00a0the nine\u00a0schools in the district. The\u00a0school\u00a0population is 97 percent African-American, and 97 percent economically disadvantaged.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

DJ does not know why he was\u00a0assigned\u00a0to\u00a0Armstrong, since\u00a0there are other schools much closer to\u00a0his house. He\u2019s not sure exactly how far away it is, though. He falls asleep\u00a0during the 50-minute\u00a0bus\u00a0ride\u00a0to and from school.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u00a0learned\u00a0French in school, but picked up some Spanish by volunteering at the Center. What he really likes learning is history. \u201cWith history, you know everything. It involves science, presidents, adventurers. It\u2019s got all you need.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of its rich history, he dreams of going to University of Virginia.\u00a0He also wants to\u00a0become\u00a0an engineer in the Navy, he says,\u00a0because they pay tuition and have all of the equipment he needs. For what, exactly, neither of us is sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u00a0“skipped”\u00a0his SAT,\u00a0he says, so\u00a0now\u00a0he works at the Sacred Heart Center and Woodrow Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center for college credits \u2014 earning enough, he hopes, that he’ll be able to\u00a0apply to college without taking that crucial test.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a November birthday, he\u2019s older\u00a0than\u00a0half his class. \u201cAnd pretty mature,\u201d he adds quickly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mature, indeed. He had two open-heart surgeries for a congenital heart defect, he tells me nonchalantly, one at birth and one when he was five years old. He spent his sixth birthday alone in the hospital. Now,\u00a0he explains,\u00a0a tube in his throat is what makes his voice deep.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI used to love to run. I was the third-fastest\u00a0runner in my elementary school,\u201d he tells me with pride.<\/span><\/p>\n

He once\u00a0tried\u00a0MMA fighting, but\u00a0his\u00a0doctors\u00a0put a stop to it.\u00a0\u201cThat was the most heartbreaking thing.\u201d He shakes his head. Now he plays basketball and football over the summer, mostly in pick-up games. He has even played with the VCU basketball team, he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m alright now, but my mom says they might have to go in again.\u201d The next surgery would be to stretch his heart and open the valves to allow for increased blood flow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_3429-3-1024x753\"<\/a>

DJ attends Armstrong High School, the lowest ranked high school in Virginia. He rides a school bus 50 minutes each way\u00a0to get\u00a0there. (Photo by Brooke Warner)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

He calls his grandmother\u00a0Mom,\u00a0and when I clarify this he smiles. \u201cI\u2019m glad you picked up on that. A lot of people don\u2019t.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His real mother was unable to take care of him\u00a0or\u00a0his seven brothers and sisters.\u00a0Now they are all scattered around Richmond. One little brother lives right down the street, but he does not know\u00a0where\u00a0the others\u00a0live\u00a0and rarely sees them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His friends in the neighborhood mostly moved away, so now he reads and listens to music in his free time. And,\u00a0of course,\u00a0he\u00a0sleeps. He listens to what he calls \u201csoftie love songs,\u201d citing the popular R&B song \u201ciSpy\u201d by Kyle and Lil Yachty as one of his favorites. It is,\u00a0in no way, a traditional love song. As for books, he names one from his childhood, Thomas the Train.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey say I\u2019m a soft guy. I like peaceful things,\u201d he says. That\u2019s why he likes living in Jeff Davis. It\u2019s quiet.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Having\u00a0lived here so long,\u00a0he has noticed a definite\u00a0increase in the Hispanic\u00a0population of\u00a0Jeff Davis, and says that he predicted this would happen five years ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wish it was back in the day like\u00a0with\u00a0Moses. I\u2019m inspired by Moses. We can learn from each other. We don\u2019t have to take them and change them. We can come together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite this role model, DJ says he is not very religious. \u201cMy family doesn\u2019t force religion. They say you either learn it or you don\u2019t.\u201d He often falls asleep in church.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Read this dispatch\u00a0in Spanish, click\u00a0here<\/a>\/ Le\u00e1lo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brooke Warner Dominick \u201cDJ\u201d Dandridge (left) sat\u00a0on the steps\u00a0outside\u00a0reading a children\u2019s book the first time we visited the Sacred Heart Center.\u00a0When we had trouble opening the door, he jumped up to help. Thanks, we said, as he followed us inside.\u00a0 \u201cI work here,” he said, in a gentle raspy voice. “Sort of.” It is Read more about The Gatekeeper<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2637,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53786],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-davis-corridor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2017\/04\/IMG_4644-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7o53H-iL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}