'We're losing children to the system': Community Hero Crystal Aryitey is getting them back

Crystal Russell Aryitey didn’t speak until she was four years old.

In the first few years of her life, her parents worried about her progression, how she would be able to interact with others and what her future held. Then, one afternoon, a fully formed sentence came out of her toddler mouth. They were overjoyed.

“Knowing that background, it was really important for me to be able to be the voice for those who felt voiceless,” Aryitey said. “When I was younger, I had so much to say, but speech was difficult for me. I guess God works in mysterious ways.”

Now, Aryitey dedicates her life to supporting Alabama’s youth.

She taught in Montgomery Public Schools for years before feeling the call to teach in a nearby juvenile detention facility. There, she was shocked to find so many familiar faces — children whom she had previously taught at MPS.

Just the sight of them broke her heart. When she met these kids in the seventh grade, they were hopeful, determined boys with bright futures, but just a few years later, they had hardened. They were falling victim to the school-to-prison pipeline, and Aryitey didn’t know how to get them out.

That’s when she got the idea for her nonprofit, Destiny Driven Inc.

Over the last five years, the organization has been slowly growing, offering outlets for community engagement, political education and social advocacy for Montgomery’s children.

Aryitey offers mentorship and guidance to the kids in her program while also teaching them to debate policy issues, serve the community around them and find solutions to the problems they want fixed.

For these reasons, Crystal Aryitey is the Montgomery Advertiser’s Community Hero for December, an honor sponsored by South University.

Finding a purpose

Aryitey remembers her first day at the juvenile detention center clearly. It’s a core memory upon which she has built her career.

She stood in her new classroom on campus, unpacking box after box of supplies and thinking about how she ended up there.

In her previous jobs at Southlawn and Brewbaker, things had gone well. She had successfully started debate teams, built relationships in the MPS community and improved academic engagement. But for a reason she couldn’t quite explain, the job listing at the Department of Youth Services facility drew her in. She felt like there was a reason she was supposed to be there.

As these thoughts ran through her head, Aryitey heard someone call out her name from across the classroom. When she turned around, three of her former MPS students stood in the doorway. Two were looking right at her, and the third dropped his head to stare at his shoes.

Aryitey smiled, walked over and told the boys that everything was going to be okay, that it was good to see them.

“But in my heart, it wasn't good to see them,” she said. “My heart was broken because it felt like my children, this group of them standing at my door, they were in jail.”

In that moment, she realized her purpose there was to be a guiding light for these boys, to see them for who they were as individuals and to help them get on the track for a better life once they left the facility.

Building the youth back up

As an English and reading teacher, Aryitey’s number one goal has always been literacy for all of her students. She said she’s seen kids in Montgomery get to the high school level without having even foundational reading skills.

When asked how this happens, she said the reason is simple:

“You have overcrowded classrooms. You have students labeled with learning disabilities. And you have one teacher,” Aryitey said. “Everyone should be alarmed.”

In Montgomery Public Schools, 45% of third-graders read below their grade level, according to data from the 2022-2023 school year, and that number sits at 24% statewide. Research shows that if kids aren’t reading proficiently by the end of third grade, they are more likely to struggle with reading for the rest of their academic career.

That meant that by the time Aryitey got to the juvenile detention facility, her students’ proficiency levels were all across the board, as were their motivation levels. A study from the U.S. Department of Justice found that more than two-thirds of incarcerated youth never return to school upon release.

"We're losing children to the system," she said.

Aryitey felt it was her duty as a teacher to make sure her students weren't statistics, so instead of using classic literature in her materials, Aryitey decided to get creative.

She wanted her students to be invested and to see themselves in the stories they were reading, so she taught autobiographies of strong male role models. These included books by Gucci Mane, 50 Cent and Malcolm X.

“Crystal really fought. She fought for those boys,” fellow DYS teacher Michelle Summers said. “She marches to the beat of her own drum, and what I love about her is that if she's got to go by herself, she's willing to go. It’s hard to find young women like that who know that sometimes your voice can close doors, and yet she continues to speak truth to power concerning the children in this city.”

Over her three years in the DYS facility, Aryitey incorporated debate, theater, art and poetry into the curriculum, and she said the talent she saw astounded her. This was the first time that many of her students had been given the space to express themselves through art.

“This is going to sound weird, but the beautiful thing about juvenile detention is that, if they're surrounded by love and support, it offers an opportunity for them to go into a cocoon where they don't have any outside influences,” Aryitey said. “They can really develop and become who they want to be. They can emerge as butterflies.”

The boiling point

Back in 2018, Aryitey was elated to watch one of her best students, KS, leave the facility with a newfound sense of hope. He earned his high school diploma from inside, and she was immensely proud of him for getting into Alabama State University.

College was going to be the vehicle to propel him forward and leave his involvement with the justice system in the past. KS planned to spend some time at home in Mobile, and then he would start his new life in Montgomery.

But just two weeks after leaving the detention facility, the young man was murdered. Aryitey’s heart broke once again.

“He was brilliant, he had the smile to light up a room and he was helpful. He would sit there and help other young men study for their GED, ” Aryitey said. “That's the story that we need to tell. Sometimes people think about these kids and say, ‘Lock them up. They've done crimes. They're the worst in the community.’ But if you listen to our children, and see them, and hear their stories, you realize that, no, they deserve a second chance.”

KS’s death devastated Aryitey because she knew that the world had just lost someone special, someone who made mistakes and deserved a chance to fix them.

To this day, Aryitey points to his death as a catalyst for her work now.

“In that same month, everybody thought I was crazy because I started Destiny Driven and also enrolled in Alabama State University to get my doctorate,” Aryitey said. “I decided then that I was going to do something to start a program to support my youth, specifically, justice involved individuals.”

‘I am the power’

Since starting Destiny Driven in 2018, Aryitey worked with dozens of Montgomery’s children, ensuring that all of them know that they have endless potential.

From the debate team that competes across the state to the Youth Policy Council that makes suggestions to the Montgomery City Council, Destiny Driven offers numerous avenues to teach kids how to stand up for themselves and their community.

“There’s this quote Ms. Russell used to say when I was her student. It was: ‘I am the power,’” Destiny Driven alumna Mya Boyd said. “That’s always stuck with me. I say it every morning, and it’s gotten me through a lot. I’ve gone through a lot of obstacles, and those are few words with strong meaning.”

When Boyd joined Destiny Driven in her freshman year at Carver High School, she was soft-spoken and kept a lot of her thoughts to herself. Six years later, Boyd attends Alabama A&M, is on the path to law school and still feels Aryitey’s support.

Boyd’s story is just one of many successes out of Destiny Driven.

Another belongs to Aylon Gipson, a graduate of Booker T. Washington Magnet High School. He is currently a senior economics major at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and after graduation, he’ll take a job at Goldman Sachs as a legal analyst. After two years there, he plans to go to law school.

“I’ve known Ms. Russell since the ninth grade, and she has been very impactful in my life,” Gipson said. “Having someone like that in high school really does change lives. Her working with me in all different aspects, I can truly say that she has pushed a lot of kids to attend college, get a trade or even just find local work opportunities.”

For Aryitey, it’s people like Boyd and Gipson that give her the courage to keep pushing for a better future for all of Montgomery’s kids — whether they’re in magnet schools or detention facilities.

Do you know a Community Hero?

To nominate someone for Community Heroes Montgomery, email communityheroes@gannett.com. Please specify which category you are nominating for and your contact information.

Hadley Hitson covers the rural South for the Montgomery Advertiser and Report for America. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser or donate to Report for America.