Students gather to mourn 15-year-old

Hilary Costa

East County Times

Her voice rising through the crowd as she sang "Count on me," Brittany Brackens mourned her friend, Jazzmin Davis, Tuesday afternoon.

The 16-year-old Antioch High School student was one of nearly 150 students, teachers and administrators who gathered at the school to honor Davis, who died Sept. 2 after suffering long-term physical abuse and neglect.

Davis' foster mother and aunt, Shemeeka Davis, has been charged with murder, abuse and torture in connection with Jazzmin's death and the treatment of her twin brother, Jason Davis, 15, who survived the alleged abuse.

Tuesday's memorial, organized by Brackens and fellow student Treyanna Fonteno, was accented by prayer, poetry and remembrances of Davis — a quiet "face in the crowd" who loved to hit the basketball court.

"She was just a kid who came to school, sat in class, and kept her pain and agony hidden away," said Karen Anderson, an Antioch High School teacher who taught Davis for seventh-grade English and eighth-grade P.E. at Antioch Middle School.

Anderson urged the students gathered not to assign blame in Davis' death, and not to feel guilty for failing to notice that she was in trouble. Instead, she asked them to turn their anger over Davis' death into compassion for others who may be suffering abuse.

Tearful students clutched white tapered candles and comforted each other as they walked to the front of the school, where they placed flowers and a yearbook photograph of Davis — the only one that has been released to the public — before concluding the memorial with a moment of silence.

"We all loved her," Fonteno said shortly after her friend's death. "We stood up for her and were there for her when she needed a friend. There's no end to the grief that I'm feeling."

Funeral services for Davis were held Friday at First Baptist Church in Pittsburg.

Brackens and Fonteno said they had known Davis was being abused in middle school, but that she had sworn them to secrecy because she said she had been punished in the past for confiding in another adult. They hadn't seen Davis since June 2007 but said they missed their friend and wanted to honor her memory.

"It was just having a closing for her," Brackens said.