In the Anacostia Senior High School auditorium, steps away from where a 16-year-old student was gunned down leaving a 2003 homecoming dance, Mayor Adrian Fenty introduced two initiatives Wednesday to protect students from violence.

The projects, called Safe Schools and Safe Routes, are intended to deter violence in public schools and to protect students as they travel to and from their schools daily.

The announcement came as Fenty’s massive school takeover legislation is under consideration by the D.C. Council. Fenty has taken some flak over the bill from some officials and activists who have complained that it does not do enough to address root problems plaguing the 55,000-student system.

The Safe Routes project will involve collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Department, the Department of Transportation, the schools, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the Attorney General’s Office to help ensure that students can travel between school and home safely by adding better lighting, signage and more officers on patrol. The schools targeted in the project are Cardozo, Roosevelt, Spingarn, Anacostia and H.D. Woodson senior highs, and Johnson Junior High School.

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“It is really designed to make the entire area around our schools much safer,” Fenty said.

Council Member Harry “Tommy” Thomas Jr., D-Ward 5, applauded the idea. In October, children found two bodies outside of Spingarn, and students are routinely harassed on their way to school as the result of neighborhood turf wars, Thomas said.

“Some of it is they don’t even remember why they’re fighting with each other,” Thomas said. “They’re just fighting.”

Inside the schools, a $824,000 partnership between the District, MPD, the Peaceaholics and the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise will create “Violence-Free Zones” in Anacostia Senior High and nearby Johnson Junior High. The zones will be enforced by “youth ambassadors” chosen from each school who will act as mentors and mediators for other students. CNE has implemented similar programs in Atlanta, Dallas and Prince George’s County, President Robert Woodson said.

“It’s an inside-out strategy from the bottom up that makes a difference,” Woodson said.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com