WASHINGTON — Riding through the busy streets of D.C. on a bike isn't always described as exhilarating and definitely not stress-free, but that's exactly how a group of Dunbar High School students picture the journey.
Dunbar Senior, Mekhi Jinks, said the afterschool ride several times a week is his big escape.
"Last week, laying in my bed, I heard like four or five shots pop off,” Jinks said while discussing the constant violence in his Columbia Heights neighborhood. "I go downstairs in the lobby of my apartment building, and I see blood trails, like trailing blood."
From home to school, Jinks said it's tough to get away from the violence.
Dunbar High School lost several students this year alone.
A 17-year-old was D.C.'s first homicide of 2023 and two other students were shot and killed at the beginning of this school year.
"I turn my phone on notifications about two teens shot in Northeast. This person was stabbed in Northeast. Something happens in Southwest or Southeast. It just happens way too much,” Jinks said.
A cycling program called “Prime Ability” was started by Dunbar High School teacher, Alex Clark, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clark started the program to keep students and himself on the right path.
"Teen violence went up and skyrocketed crazy during the pandemic,” Coach Clark said.
It continues to go up according to D.C. police data. Eleven children were killed in the District in 2020. Twelve were killed the next year, 18 in all of 2022 and 18 so far this year.
"To lose students at such a high rate, I would say, within my career, it's somewhere around 12 students that I personally had relationships with that I lost,” Clark added.
Clark put a post on social media years ago asking the community to donate bikes and for people to volunteer. The response is still overwhelming.
His classroom is now called, “The Bike Shop.” Prime Ability went from having no bikes to roughly 70.
Clark's program has also shifted into a new gear. The students aren't just riding but learning to assemble and repair bikes. The rides are also more challenging, with cyclists going off-road for training and competing against other cyclists in the region.
The determination and resiliency of the Prime Ability cyclists was on display for everyone to see when one student crashed during a race in 2022, and with one mile to go, carried his bike across the finish line.
Clark said watching his students press forward with grace has been his biggest prize.
"The most capable-minded, the brightest minds of our future, but our students go through a lot, and they go through a lot in order to just show up each and every day,” Clark said.
For Jinks, it’s an easier ride showing up each day. Cycling with Prime Ability is not only his big escape, but he called it, his safe space.
“It pretty much changed my life because of the environment that I'm in. I can just turn my mind off of what's going on in my neighborhood,” Jinks said.