By Jeff Lipton
"I love Inwood and I love the Five Towns and I would love to give something back to it. I've got a lot of ideas but I need the community's help to implement them."
Jermaine Ewell
Proposes to open music and art school in Five Towns
Almost a decade after he was nearly beaten to death by a mob wielding baseball bats on the Atlantic Beach Boardwalk--which altered the course of his life-- Jermaine Ewell wants to give back to a community that helped him through the toughest time of his life.
Mr. Ewell's ambition is to open a music and art school in the Five Towns, which would incorporate dance and theater, to help local youths develop their talents and skills in a positive way.
Mr. Ewell said he still lives by the credo: "We need to embrace the positive things in life."
"And the school would be something really positive for kids in the community," he said. "We have some really talented kids in this community and right now kids who have talent have to go somewhere else [outside the Five Towns] to develop that talent."
Besides sharpening music and art skills, the school would teach entertainment law and the administrative end of the business, he said.
The local schools do a good job of teaching music and art, but a specialty school may be needed to take it one step further, he said. If Mr. Ewell has his way, there will be no charge to students who attend the specialty school.
"I love Inwood and I love the Five Towns and I would love to give something back to it," he added.
"I've got a lot of ideas but I need the community's help to implement them. I'm going to start to get community leaders to endorse the school."
The school would be non-profit, but the lack of financial backing remains the obstacle. He said he hopes to reach out to private and public sectors, and members of the music industry, to help finance the opening of the music school.
Besides pitching the idea for the school, Mr. Ewell stopped by the Herald on Wednesday, August 16, to relate how he's adjusted to life since the assault that nearly took his life.
Mr. Ewell still thinks about what it would have been like to have been given the chance to join the National Football League.
Those dreams were dashed on June 1, 1991, when Mr. Ewell, an 18-year-old black star linebacker and tailback on the Lawrence Golden Tornadoes, was savagely beaten by a white mob. Before the attack, he had no doubts that he would play professional football.
"When I was growing up and was asked to make a wish on my birthday cake, my wish was to be a football player. I was definitely disappointed that it didn't come true," said Mr. Ewell, now 27.
He required intensive rehabilitation, which he still undergoes just so that he could live a normal life in the aftermath of the baseball bat attack. He said he could more easily accept the fact that he did not make the pros based on not having the necessary skills to compete on that level. But as a result of the mauling, someone else decided the direction his life would take, and he has a more difficult time coming to terms with that.
"I still get headaches from time-to-time," he said. "And I still have problems and complications with my right eye."
He has been living in Washington, D. C. in recent years, and tries to visit his mom and sister in Inwood at least once a month. In Washington, he is in his senior year at Howard University, trying to get his degree in Business Administration. He has also been a motivational speaker and talked to school kids, including students at Lawrence Middle School a couple of years ago, about the pitfalls of getting into trouble and hanging around with the wrong crowd.
He is currently working for an information technology firm, doing contracting work and as a marketing strategist. His latest venture has been in the music business, as the creator of a record label, "Rockaway Worldwide Inc." The label, which provides "Urban Music," consists of four artists from the Five Towns who have cut albums and hope to make it big soon. That has taken up a lot of his time.
It all comes down to helping teenagers direct their energies in a positive way and getting them off of street corners, he said. He knows first-hand what could happen to misguided youth who have too much time on their hands. The June 1, 1991 attack on him, which was described by many as a racial incident, followed a confrontation at a party in Atlantic Beach between Mr. Ewell and Shannon Siegel, then 22, who saw Mr. Ewell talking to a white girl that he used to date. Mr. Siegel then recruited four others in a baseball bat attack on the boardwalk. Following the attack, Mr. Ewell was required to undergo two brain operations and has had lingering problems with balance and coordination, blurred vision and migraine headaches. His family, friends and members of the community helped him through this very difficult period of his life and he has managed to overcome obstacles with their assistance, he said.
As the ring leader, Mr. Siegel was sentenced to the stiffest penalty-- seven to 21 years in prison. His four accomplices have since served their sentences. Mr. Siegel was denied parole about a year ago.
"At the time, the Parole Board called me for my opinion and I had a very neutral response," Mr. Ewell said. "I left it in the Parole Board's hands. I guess they decided against releasing him and he will not see the Parole Board for another year or two."
Responding to a column from then Nassau Herald Executive Editor Randi Kreiss about everyone needing a "Mulligan" or a second chance in life, Mr. Siegel wrote two letters to the Herald from his jail cell in the mid-1990s, saying that he is a changed person and he deserves a second chance. He said he even formed a "Mulligan Society" with his inmates. But Mr. Siegel's critics claim that it is just an attempt for him to win early release from prison.
Mr. Ewell said that Mr. Siegel has tried to reach out to him through a mutual friend but Mr. Ewell has been unwilling to accept his overtures of apology. "It would have been different if he had admitted to it [the attack] in the beginning," Mr. Ewell said. "Or if he had surrendered. He didn't take responsibility."
And as far as Mr. Ewell is concerned, he did not show any remorse for the attack.
Mr. Ewell said, "I don't hate anybody." But if they were ever in the same room together, Mr. Ewell said he would have a hard time of greeting Mr. Siegel and forgiving him for what transpired on the boardwalk in 1991.
But he realizes that he still must move on with his life.
"If I dwell on the past and become bitter, it will only drag me down," he said. "I need to move forward for myself and my family. He has managed to get on with his life with the help of friends and family. He again wanted to thank former football coach Rich Mollo and Fred Ciampi as well as Steve Politano and his long-time friend and lawyer Christopher McGrath, for all their help in getting him back on his feet. He also thanked school board member Syd Mandelbaum for his support.
"I still have to move on. I have to keep going and be strong for my family," he added.
In the meantime, he hopes to expand his record label's base of operations to Philadelphia and Atlanta. And he still has dreams of opening up the music and art school in the Five Towns, so that the June 1, 1991 incident never repeats itself.
