McEachern remembers Rajaan Bennett

By Andria Simmons

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Teenagers packed the bleachers in McEachern High School gymnasium Wednesday night and burst into applause when the 2009 varsity football team appeared. No one mistook this gathering for a pep rally.

Enlarge photo

Curtis Compton ccompton@ajc.com Athletic director Jimmy Dorsey, left, and assistant football coach Randy Taylor place Rajaan Bennett's jersey on a stand for his memorial service at in the gym at McEachern High School on Wednesday.

Enlarge photo

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com A Bible verse that Rajaan Bennett wrote during the 9th grade and had sitting in his room rested on a stand for his memorial service at McEachern High School on Wednesday.

Related

• Photos from the memorial

More Atlanta area news »

• Beryl may bring rain, wind here
• Suicide call leads to pot bust
• Not all cheating the same at APS
• Sneiderman battle recalls 1989 saga

It was otherwise solemn faces and teary eyes for the thousands attending a memorial for Rajaan Bennett, the school's standout running back and team captain, who was shot and killed Feb. 18 by his mother's former boyfriend.

Football players sat in numerical order on the gymnasium floor. They left an empty chair for No. 5, for Bennett, an 18-year-old senior with a 3.8 GPA who planned to attend Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship in the fall.

The teen's mother, Narjaketha Bennett, earned a standing ovation from the crowd before she spoke publicly for the first time since her son's slaying. She told onlookers that her son was forced to become a young man at an early age when her husband died in a 2001 traffic accident.

"I never had any problems; I never had to scold him," Narjaketha Bennett said. "He was just a wonderful child."

Rajaan Bennett took care of his brother, Desmond, 17, who is autistic, and sister, Narcharlette, 14, when she worked long hours to keep the family afloat, his mother said.

"I ask myself, what am I going to do without him?" Narjaketha Bennett said, her voice strained with emotion. "I have two other Bennetts that I know I need to tend to."

McEachern High School athletics director Jimmy Dorsey likened the impact of Rajaan's death on the community to that of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the nation, adding that "all of us have taken a step back and taken a look at our own lives."

Tennessee Titans player Gerald McRath, a McEachern alumnus, talked about the legacy the teenager created for others.

"Rajaan left a blueprint for you guys and you can get to this level where I am now and surpass this," McRath told the audience.

Vanderbilt coach Bobby Johnson, who lost a highly regarded recruit in the tragedy,  said college football could use more players who handle themselves similar to Rajaan Bennett, someone he described as humble, loving, caring and dedicated to his family.

"He showed us how to live a life that mattered," Johnson said.

The memorial gathering was only the first step in healing for the McEachern family, Dorsey said. A viewing and visitation will be held Fridaynight at the First Baptist Church of Powder Springs. Funeral services are Saturday morning at 11 a.m. at Trinity Chapel in Powder Springs.

There likely won't be a more emotional moment than the one delivered during Wednesday's reading of a Rajaan Bennett essay by McEachern teacher Allison Paulk:

"My drive cannot be stopped or even slowed down, because every obstacle has a way around it. Every day I become stronger, from the weights, physically; from the books, mentally, and from life, emotionally. There is no limit to my strength. And at the end of the day, I want to be known as the strongest."