March 1 - Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools

Rose’s students said they have not heard from Davis since writing him at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.The Star was unable to contact him for this story.The students live miles from the part of Kansas City where Davis lived before he went to prison. Yet many areconfronted by the same problems associated with poverty and crime.The danger was punctuated for them last month as they were finishing their letters. Someone fatally shot aCentral Middle seventh-grader about a mile from their school. He died on his 14th birthday.“It was a horrible, real-life example of what I was trying to get them to see,” Rose said.Another of her students, Sabrina Heistand, mentioned the death of her friend in her letter to Davis.“He was only in seventh grade and now he’s gone,” she wrote.Though Sabrina’s letter echoed those of classmates who said Davis’s story had helped them understand theimportance of resisting negative peer pressure and making good personal choices, she also offered a uniquewish for him.“I hope me thanking you for your inspiration helps you,” she wrote. “I think it will because you are helping melearn from your mistakes.”@ Go to KansasCity.com to read the “Murder Factory” series and for a special multimedia section.