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New leader takes on issue of domestic violence
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Published: February 21, 2010
The thought hit Megan Snider soon after Sgt. Mickey Hutchens of the Winston-Salem Police Department was slain in October. "I realized it could have been my dad who was shot and killed," she said last week.
Hutchens worked with her father, Cpl. Larry Snider. She knew Hutchens as a man dedicated to his fellow officers, his family and his church.
He was shot as he pursued Monte Denard Evans, who'd been harassing his ex-wife at her workplace. After shooting Hutchens, Evans shot Officer Daniel Clark. Clark was then forced to kill Evans.
Snider, a 20-year-old junior at Guilford College who wants to be a kindergarten teacher, sees the carnage as more blood shed by domestic violence. She's determined to curb the problem, including by starting "Mickey's House," an education and advocacy center for victims of domestic violence. "There are some people who laugh and tell me I'm too young to worry about this," the soft-spoken Snider said last week. "But this affects everyone. We have to band together as a community and help stop this."
Megan Snider is the sort of leader Forsyth County needs to guide it out of the darkness of domestic violence. Her supporters include police Chief Scott Cunningham and Beth Hutchens, the widow of Sgt. Hutchens. "I like the way that Megan is going at this pro-actively to help break this cycle," Beth Hutchens said. "It's an ongoing problem that eventually brought Mickey … to the scene that day. We have to do something to break this cycle."
The human and financial costs, ranging from prison to social services, impact us all, she said.
Snider has raised about $3,000, including through a recent concert, for Mickey's House. One of Sgt. Hutchens' daughters, Jillian, is helping Snider lead that effort, as is her cousin Christiana Neal. Snider wants to open Mickey's House on the one-year anniversary of Hutchens' death. It will include a day shelter, she said, and she hopes that it will one day offer beds as well.
She is in the midst of "Beautifully Brave," a project to raise public awareness of the problem through education and advocacy events. She's working on a curriculum for students that will start with kindergartners, teaching girls to respect and stand up for themselves and teaching boys that hitting girls is unacceptable. She's exploring other issues, such as encouraging undocumented victims of domestic abuse to come forward by letting them know that police investigating crimes against them aren't interested in their immigration status.
Snider realizes the challenges she faces. Some people minimize the problem of domestic violence. "If we wink at it, or we don't pay attention to the woman who has her keys taken away by her boyfriend or is slapped, we're setting her up to become the next homicide victim," Snider said.
Others ignore the issue. "This is an issue that is silenced," she said. "We're going to have to go through some hard conversations and some debates. A difficult dialogue is going to have to happen."
She's willing to do that and more. Snider, the recipient of a leadership scholarship given by the family and named for Sgt. Hutchens, gains new commitment every time she sits down with kindergartners as part of her coursework. "I just love little kids," she said. "The eyes of a child sparkle when they read their first word, when they color something."
She can't bear to think of children watching their parents argue, maim or kill each other. She can't bear to think of them growing up to be victims.
Or batterers.
(To learn more about Megan Snider's effort, contact her at </i>sniderml@guilford.edu.)
jrailey@wsjournal.com
727-7357
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