Part 4: In the steps of a victim

As Naibria races into it, Michael Galbraith, her teacher, touches her arm to stop her.

"Are you going to go this quickly onstage? You have to draw some of this out," he tells her.

For months, the 15-year-old with a penchant for fancy belts, multiple bracelets and dangling earrings has been writing about deeply personal issues in her diary.

Besides the story of the 23-year-old woman, she's written about the gangs in her old Germantown neighborhood, where a friend was slain, and about growing up without having her father around.

While she's come to feel comfortable - even relieved - reading aloud to her classmates at Grover Washington Jr. Middle School, this morning she will be reading to hundreds of students from five schools at a peace rally.

It's a chance to really speak out against the arguments and shootings that have been claiming an increasing number of lives in her city - and that caused her and her mother to move from Germantown to Lawncrest last summer.

Nearly half of her 30 classmates have a friend or relative who's been shot.

Galbraith had tried to broaden his students' understanding of violence. They'd heard a Sudanese refugee speak on genocide and a trauma surgeon talk about trying to save gunshot victims.

What touched Naibria most deeply, however, was the story of Shannon Hudson, 23, who was killed by her boyfriend. Galbraith had invited Hudson's mother, Antoinette Hart, to his classroom in January to talk about her daughter.

On a Tuesday morning in October, Hudson's boyfriend went to her home, pulled out a gun and shot her, Hart told the class. Then he turned the gun on himself, leaving as orphans the couple's two sons, ages 7 and 3.

As Hart talked about her fun-loving daughter who liked to shop, Naibria, herself a "shopaholic," had felt a connection.

Afterward, she cranked out three pages in her journal.

"As I was writing, as I got deeper and deeper, I felt chills. I felt as if I was really her," Naibria recalled.

No longer did her mother have to drag her out of bed. Her interest in school - and in writing - soared. Her attendance record proves it: In 2004-05, she missed 48 days of school. This year, she missed less than half that.

"It's like I got to go to school. I want to go to school. I can't wait to go to school," Naibria says.

Naibria's mother, Patrice Stover, 32, says of Hart: "I wish I could meet the lady and thank her for inspiring my daughter to look away from trouble and think twice before she makes decisions. "

After Naibria and Galbraith go over her delivery, she joins the sea of curb-to-curb students in blue T-shirts emblazoned with peace signs, marching to Olney High School for the rally organized by Need in Deed, a youth-oriented group that promotes civic responsibility and service to others.

With neighbors and shopkeepers watching, they wave signs: "Thou Shall Not Kill," "Learn to Love One Another Like a Family Member," "Peace Starts With Us. "

"We're about to stop traffic," Naibria says excitedly, running into the thick of the crowd, raising her sign that reads "Speak Up, Speak Out, Start Snitching. "

At Olney, Naibria and two classmates - both of whom would read diary entries about ending violence - wait an hour for their turn.

Near the stage, Galbraith gives the trio last-minute instructions: Talk loudly and slowly. Naibria is up last.

"I am Shannon Hudson," she says, speaking tentatively into the microphone.

"Louder," Galbraith yells from deep in the audience.

Naibria seems to gather confidence as she continues; she speaks steadily and slowly.

"As I got older, I loved to play. I used to play in my mother's hair. It was then when I decided I wanted to become a hairstylist. I loved telling jokes. I was my mother's little comedienne . . . "

The words she'd written months before and rehearsed so often are hitting her anew. When will this violence end? She fights back tears.

"I grew to be a beautiful young lady. I was dark skinned, had long hair, and weighed about 130 pounds and I was 5'3. " I loved to eat but never gained a pound. My dream was to open up my own hair shop but that dream never came. I hate to say it but I am another African American young woman killed at the age of 23. My babies' father killed me. That's not how I want to be remembered. . . .

"I want my sons to remember me as the best mom in the world. I want my mother to remember me as me, just plain old Shannon Hudson. I want to be remembered as someone's mother, daughter, sister and someone's friend. "

"That was nice, very well-spoken," a man tells Naibria, as she heads for an interview with KYW-AM (1060).

Back at school, Naibria is glowing.

"I think I did good, me and my classmates. I think I made a little difference. I think I did pretty great. "