Shot and injured before prom, a Memphis community made sure this student wouldn't miss it

On the afternoon of May 6, Rodrick Collins was in a great mood. His day at Fairley High School had gone by quickly, the sun was shining, and he was excited about the future. In less than three weeks, he would graduate at the age of 17; and in less than two weeks, he would take his girlfriend, Cacey Wooten, to the prom.

He still needed a tux, but he had asked his principal, Julius Blackburn, to find one, and he knew he would come through for him. Collins got onto the school bus, rode to his stop, said goodbye to the driver, and stepped off.

“I knew something was gonna happen that day,” he said. “Because the day was going too good.”

As Collins walked to his home, which wasn’t far from the bus stop, his instincts told him to look back; and he saw three men he didn’t recognize get out of a car. He continued to walk, but was weary, and occasionally glanced over his shoulder. After he had looked back a few times, they began shooting at him.

Collins started running as bullets whizzed by. Seeing a parked car, he cut left to take cover, and as he did, he was shot in the lower left back. The men took off, and Collins, filled with adrenaline, rushed home.

His sister opened the door.

“I’m shot; I’m shot!” he told her frantically.

Collins was wearing a black jacket, and his sister, seeing he was sweating, told him to take it off. When he took off his jacket, blood was visible, seeping through his white t-shirt.

Collins and his sister called their mother and the police, who asked questions about the suspects over the phone. But Collins was growing lightheaded and losing blood. He wasn’t in a state to answer questions; he just wanted an ambulance. His mother got home and hurried to her son. Then the ambulance arrived.

When Collins had been shot, he had felt an impact, but no pain. Now that he was in the ambulance, the pain came. He had known getting shot someday was a possibility; the crime rate around his home was high and he lived under the threat of gun violence.

But nothing could have prepared him for actually being struck with a bullet.

As the ambulance sped to Regional One Health and the sirens blared, Collins thought about one thing: staying alive.

'Guns are a norm'

Blackburn, the Fairley principal, got the news from Laura Edwards, one of his teachers. He called Collins' mother, who confirmed her son had been shot as she followed the ambulance to the hospital.

Blackburn had been hoping to find Collins a tux for prom; he had posted a request on Facebook about it the day before. Now, he was just hoping he’d survive.

He was always surprised when one of his students was shot, but he understood the dynamics of the area. Within the school ― which is poised to transfer back from the Achievement School District to Memphis-Shelby County Schools ― students could generally trust they were safe. An oft-repeated line at Fairley was “the safety and security of all stakeholders is our number one priority.”

More: 'I lost a part of me.' Parents of Memphis children killed in 2023 tell their children's stories

Previously: MSCS Superintendent Toni Williams in January: 22 students have died from violence this school year

But in the portion of Whitehaven surrounding the school, gun violence was prevalent, and students faced more risks.

Fairley has about 500 students, and Collins wasn’t the first one to be shot this academic year. He was the fifth. And one of the previous four had been killed. As Blackburn put it, “Guns are a norm in their lives. They see them all the time.”

“This is a very high-poverty area. And what happens when you have an area with high poverty? You have crime,” he said. “You can literally ask any one of our students, have they had someone who's died to gun violence, and most people will raise their hand and say yes.”

The neighborhood issue is emblematic of a wider problem in Memphis, where the scourge of gun violence is affecting youth.

In 2023, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital treated 180 patients for gunshot wounds. As of May 15, it’s treated 62; and these numbers don’t include those pronounced dead at the scene, or people like Collins who were treated at other hospitals.

Surgeries and recovery

After he was whisked into the hospital, Collins was put to sleep. His lung had been punctured, and he needed to undergo surgery quickly.

When he woke up, he found that a chest tube had been inserted through his ribs to drain blood out of his lung. After a few days, he was told that the first tube hadn’t gotten enough blood out of his lung and that he would need a second surgery.

His condition, however, did improve, and as Collins recuperated, he thought about the shooting.

He was a well-liked student who didn’t cause any problems for his teachers or Blackburn. But in the past, he had made some bad decisions. He had come to Fairley from an alternative school ― often reserved for students with behavioral issues ― and though he had never shot anyone he wondered if getting shot was “karma” for prior mistakes.

Collins was also grateful to be alive.

He said he was angry that he had been shot, and the injury meant that he temporarily wouldn’t be able to work and help his family pay bills or his medical expenses (a GoFundMe has been set up for this purpose).

But he was going to recover. The bullet was still lodged in his back, but the doctors expected it to eventually come out naturally. He would still receive his diploma, and he had plans to train to be a barber, then save up enough money cutting hair to get his Commercial Driver’s License.

“I’m here, and I’m myself. I’m not paralyzed; I don’t need help getting around; I’m straight,” he said. “I’m not letting this hold me back. I need to be happy that I overcame this.”

With recovery seemingly imminent, he began to think more about prom and graduation, on May 18 and 25, respectively.

At first, he wasn’t sure he would make it to prom. Not much time had passed since the shooting, and he wasn’t at 100% yet. But people encouraged him to try and make it, and he realized how much he wanted to be there. This was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

He grew determined to make it to prom ― and Blackburn was going to help him get there.

'A surreal moment'

Blackburn re-engaged in his effort to find him a tux. He worked with teachers, like Edwards, and reached out to friends and family. People pitched in, and ultimately, Blackburn did something better than getting him a tux. He raised enough money for Collins to pick out his own.

So, on May 18, Collins and his girlfriend, Cacey Wooten, arrived at the FedEx Event Center in Cordova for the Fairley prom. He still had a bullet in his back, and there were bandages on his side, where surgeons had made cuts to insert chest tubes through his ribs. But his wounds were covered by a sleek black button-down shirt and red tux jacket that matched Wooten’s dress.

Collins’ classmates and teachers were thrilled when he walked in. It was the first time many of them had seen him since he had been shot; most hadn’t even known he would be there.

He couldn’t stay long, and after about 45 minutes, Collins started to make his way towards the exit. But when he reached the door, he paused. A beat was being blasted through the speaker. This wasn’t just any song; it was his song. Collins was a rapper. He had written the lyrics, and his classmates knew them.

Everyone turned to Collins, and he went to the front of the room. His fellow students surrounded him, and together, they joyously shouted the lyrics.

Blackburn watched happily and thought about everything that had happened. Collins had been shot. His lung had been punctured, and he had needed two surgeries. He still had a bullet in his back. But there he was, at prom, surrounded by friends, on a beautiful Memphis night.

“To see him at prom, in a tux, at prom, looking really nice, and the kids being happy to see him… that was my height of that night,” Blackburn said. “It was a surreal moment.”

John Klyce covers education and children's issues for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis community rallies to get student who was shot a tux for prom