Derrick Walton
Blue & White Flash / Staff Writer
The Latasha Norman 5th Annual Memorial 5K Run/Walk continues to promote domestic violence prevention among Jackson State University students and the community.
The run/walk will take place on Saturday, Oct. 27, with registration at 7 a.m. and the event beginning at 8 a.m. Last year, approximately 250 people participated in the Latasha Norman 4th Annual Memorial 5k Run/Walk.
Many students are aware of the Latasha Norman Center for Counseling and Disability Services on campus, but may not know about the student for whom the center is named and the 2007 tragedy that made the prevention of domestic violence a priority at Jackson State.
Latasha Norman was a junior accounting major from Greenville, Miss. who went missing after a class at JSU on Nov. 13, 2007. Two weeks after her disappearance, Stanley Cole, an ex-boyfriend, confessed to killing her and led officials to her body in a wooded area in North Jackson. Cole, a former JSU, student was sentenced to life in prison for his crime.
Jackson State renamed the counseling center in her memory and Norman’s family, friends and JSU students continue to promote domestic violence prevention through awareness, outreach programs and the annual 5K Run/Walk.
On Tuesday, Oct. 23, the Lambda Beta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. presented a Domestic Violence Awareness Forum in memoriam of Norman. Norman’s father, Danny Bolden, was the featured speaker.
“It’s not always easy to come back to where a tragedy has happened,” said Bolden. “God chose to use (Latasha’s) her life to shine the light on teen domestic violence. We don’t understand that but that was God’s choice.”
Bolden added, “The only way we’re going to stop this killing, destroying our families, is that we educate our young kids at an early age.”
Danny and Patricia Bolden want others to remember Latasha’s legacy and hope that their daughter’s story will help save others from domestic violence.Former students like Jerry Miller knew Norman through the student publications staff.
Miller, the former editor-in-chief of the Jacksonian yearbook said, “Tasha was the type of person you couldn’t not like. If you didn’t like Tasha, it was because of you. She just was not a confrontational type of person. You wouldn’t think that somebody would do something like that to her just because of the type of person who she was.”
Each year, the student publications staff members walk in honor of Latasha, who worked on the student newspaper and yearbook her freshman and sophomore years.
“I feel that the Latasha Norman Run/Walk is a great way to advocate domestic violence and is a good tool to bring awareness to young people about this issue,” said Diamond Jenkins, a sophomore mass communications major from Atlanta, Ga. and current Associate Editor of the Blue & White Flash.
De’Arbreya Lee, a senior English major from Pittsburg, Calif. and staff member with The Blue & White Flash, has participated in the run/walk for three years.
“I participate in the run/walk because it is important to me to actively take a stand against domestic violence,” said Lee. “As a Flash staff member, I know Latasha’s story and awareness promotes prevention. If any student is in a similar situation as Latasha, I hope knowledge of her tragedy will give them the strength to seek help because help is available.”
Norman’s legacy and JSU’s commitment to domestic violence prevention continues to thrive today with the annual run/walk. This year, an organization that was born out of Norman’s tragedy, will support the run/walk.
Eva Jones, founder of Butterflies by Grace, Defined by Faith, will use the event as a way to provide resource assistance and to raise awareness that help is available to victims of domestic violence. “We are committed to helping individuals acquire information and services,” Jones stated. “I didn’t meet Latasha, but I feel her spirit in me.”
For more information on Saturday’s run/walk, contact Rachel Cowan at 601-979-1557 or email rachel.n.cowan@jsums.edu.
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