When he heard his 7-year-old grandson was frightened by last week's race riots, the Rev. Steven Wheeler knew other children must share the same fears.

The Rev. Steven Wheeler speaks to first graders at Rockdale Paideia Academy in Avondale. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

        So when Da'Shawn Wheeler and his 17 first-grade classmates at Rockdale Paideia in Avondale returned to school Monday, Rev. Mr. Wheeler was there to help calm their fears and teach them how to deal with their anger. He returned for an hour each day this week.

        Rev. Mr. Wheeler knows something about anger. His nephew, Adam Wheeler, was one of the 15 African-Americans killed by Cincinnati police since 1995. Adam had a gun, and he fired it at officers in his Corryville apartment that January night.

        But Rev. Mr. Wheeler wonders if there wasn't a better way for police to do their jobs before everything went so terribly wrong.

        He doesn't condone last week's riots, but he understands them. Pent-up feelings often boil over.

        “A lot of people think the riots were justified,” said the Rev. Mr. Wheeler, 44, of the West End. “It's sad but true. It takes this violence for people to hear us. At the same time, you have to create that buffer so little children aren't in fear.”

        Last week, he walked into the eye of the storm, trying to calm rioters in Over-the-Rhine. He was one of dozens who spoke to Cincinnati City Council on Tuesday.

        When he's not keeping the peace, he's a preacher, a gerontology nurse and a teacher at Harmony Community School in Bond Hill.

        When he arrived at Rockdale, he sensed that Yolanda Plair's first-graders were scared. They worried when violence spilled into Avondale. Would the rioters come to their street?

        Rev. Mr. Wheeler, director of Impact Christian Ministries, talked with the first-graders about their fears of the riots and their fears of police officers.

        He asked their thoughts on the riots. He asked if they were angry and how they deal with that. It's OK to be angry, he told them, but encouraged them to channel it in positive ways.

        Rev. Mr. Wheeler used himself as an example. Two weeks ago, while sitting with a friend in a restaurant, the manager asked them to move to another table. Rev. Mr. Wheeler saw there were five white people coming in the door, needing a place to sit.

        “It was humiliating,” he said. He left the restaurant, but not before getting the district manager's phone number. He called him and now has a letter of apology.

        He told the children he, too, is afraid of the police at times, but that not all officers are bad. The children should respect authority, he said, but tell someone if an officer mistreats them.

        He had them write essays, with help from home, about their thoughts on the riots and positive things they can do with their anger.

        What they can't lose sight of, he said, is that adults are trying to give them a better world, but they can do their part, too.

        “You can obey rules,” he said. “You can obey laws. Obey your parents. Obey your teachers. Care about the environment. Plant a tree. There are lots of ways you can contribute to this world.”

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