March 1 - Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools

After reading about convicted killer Jermaine Davis in “Murder Factory,” The Star’s series on KansasCity ZIP code 64130, Yer Her and other students of teacher Emilee Rose wrote him about what his storymeant to them.The series revealed that more convicted murderers incarcerated in Missouri prisons came from 64130 than anyother ZIP code in the state.Rose, who teaches reading and writing at Central Middle School, decided to share with her students the story ofDavis — a former student of hers whom she remembered from nearly two decades ago as energetic, likable,eager to learn.“He definitely seemed like somebody who was going to make it,” said Rose, who taught in Missouri back then.Instead, Davis got caught up in a downward spiral of skipping school, fighting and committing petty crimesuntil, at age 18, he robbed and killed a manager at the south Kansas City restaurant where he worked. Serving alife sentence, he has been in prison longer than Rose’s current students have been alive.