MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Sixth-grader Rasul Douglas, shrewd beyond his years and gushing buckets of confidence, seemed destined for something.
The teachers at Cicely Tyson School of the Performing Arts sensed it, whether Douglas was playing drums, challenging the staff in pick-up basketball games or brandishing the biggest personality in classes. They only hoped he could escape the perils that existed outside the campus in East Orange, N.J.
“When a kid grows up in this town, you always have concerns about losing him one way or another,” said Brandon Ellis, a P.E. teacher at the school.