• FAST FACTS:
  • Memphis teen overcomes obstacles and stigma of school shooting to graduate
  • Markess Smith paid for mistake and is putting it behind him
  • Smith setting lofty goals
(07/26/2009) - A Mid-South teen once kicked out of Memphis City Schools for a shooting on his high school campus makes good on his second chance and accomplishes a milestone this weekend. Markess Smith received his high school diploma. Less than two years ago he was sitting in a juvenile facility unsure of his future.

He walked across the stage at the Cannon Center with the rest of the Memphis City Schools summer school graduates this weekend. Hearing his name was a proud moment in Markess' life.

"It was an exciting feeling but I'm just really anxious to go on with the next chapter. Really, really, really anxious," said Markess.

Natives of New Orleans, Markess and his family sought refuge in Memphis after Hurricane Katrina. But soon after, Markess found himself in the middle of yet another storm.

Police arrested him in October 2007 when he brought a gun to Manassas High School. Markess says someone gave it to him and he needed to get it out of his mother's house before she found it. But before that happened it accidentally discharged in class, striking his best friend in Markess' honors English class.

The wound wasn't serious but the incident was. The honor student spent the next 6 months locked up in juvenile facilities. Now, he's 17. Markess isn't dwelling on the past.

He said, "I'm not running away from the past or not trying to avoid the past because it happened. It ain't no way you can go back and change it or whatever but at the same time you can acknowledge it but don't dwell on it."

Administrators allowed Markess to re-enroll in Memphis City Schools this past year. He finished up his final two credits in English 4 and Spanish II this summer and graduated. His mother, Tanya Williams, never doubted he would.

Williams said, "If I have to get up and go to work, you definitely have to get up and go to school. I don't care if it takes you until you're 50."

Markess graduated this weekend, and that's not the end of his story. He's going to college. In 2 weeks he heads back to Louisiana to enroll at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

"We all prayed and we all did a lot of things but at the end of the day it was left up to him. And so that's why we're so proud that he took upon himself to set his eye on a goal and complete that goal," said his great aunt, Connie Williams.

Markess' goals are lofty. The boy who once needed a lawyer hopes to one day become one himself. He's pressing forward because he says worse has happened to others.

Markess said, "Who am I to sit and complain. It wouldn't be fair to other people."

Markess and the classmate he accidentally shot remain the best of friends today.