TAMPA — In his 28 years as a barber, Tony Williams cut the hair of men who went to jail and men who built successful businesses.
Sometimes, they did both, and when things turned out well, they came back and thanked him.
Today, Williams wants to start a reading ministry in his east Tampa barber shop. "So many young men in our community can't read," he told Lewis Brinson, chief of diversity for the Hillsborough County school district, on Monday.
Williams, 52, is part of the district's outside-the-box effort to reverse sobering statistics for young black men. The barber recruitment, which has reached about 50 haircutters so far, is part of Educators for Change, a local grass roots campaign launched in the aftermath of teenager Trayvon Martin's 2012 death in Sanford.
The idea behind it is that although urban teens might not trust their parents or teachers, they trust their barbers enough to sit for a haircut.
And so, school district leaders — who are working on numerous fronts to ease racial disparities in student discipline and satisfy an ongoing federal investigation — turned to the barbers, as well.
"Barbers and fathers, we have to stop the violence," Brinson told barbers, school officials, mentors and students who gathered for a breakfast honoring the group. "We have to stop our children from killing each other. Any time a child leaves your presence, never let that child walk away without hope."
Educators told the barbers that, outside the school setting, they are free to discuss personal matters with their young customers.
"Even how we say it, we can't say it the way it really needs to be said so that the message gets across," said Esque Dollar, a dropout-prevention specialist at East Bay High School.
"Nobody can really, really say it like a barber, because when you're in that chair, when you're in that room, it's usually only men and you can really, really talk."
Brinson urged them to do more than that.
He asked them to tell parents if kids are about to commit a violent act — or take steps to stop it directly. "You have to disengage them, disarm them and talk them down," he said.
He asked them to encourage kids to bring bookbags to the shop and do their homework while they are waiting. Have them ask around the room for someone to help with their assignments — there could be a math teacher in the shop, he said.
There was talk of book drives for the barber shops.
And, as students sometimes believe they have been suspended from school unfairly, Brinson said he will give the barbers referral forms. Contact the district and officials will investigate, he said.
Black students last year were roughly twice as likely as white students to be suspended, according to statistics that are part of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.
Superintendent Jeff Eakins, who also addressed Monday's gathering, said the district is already seeing success this year in its efforts to cut down on suspensions and keep kids of all races in school.
"We are on a mission to ensure every student walks across the stage with a standard diploma and with a true pathway in their life," Eakins said.
"We want you to be part of this mission."
Contact Marlene Sokol at (813) 226-3356 or msokol@tampabay.com. Follow @marlenesokol.