Something good is coming out of a very tragic situation.

A couple of weeks ago, someone shot and killed Joshua Jackson, a 16-year-old Selma High School student. The police have yet to arrest suspects. They’re still looking.

Selma Council members Corey Bowie of Ward 8 and the Rev. B.L. Tucker of Ward 6 held a prayer vigil at the site of Jackson’s killing Saturday. About 80 people attended.

At that time, Bowie and Tucker announced a Ward 8 scholarship would be established in Jackson’s name for any deserving Ward 8 graduating student.

Bowie said some businesses and individuals in Selma had agreed to help finance the scholarship. He will put together a scholarship committee, which will decide on the criteria for awarding the funds.

Selma School Systems Superintendent Dr. Austin Obasohan, who attended the vigil, supports this effort.

Jackson’s death is a tragedy. For someone that age to lose their life to street violence happens all too often on the streets of this nation.

A Kids Count special report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation released in July showed the teen death rate stood at 65 deaths per 100,000 teenagers nationwide in 2006, the last available year for such data. It also showed guns are the leading cause of fatal teenage violence, used in 82 percent of teen homicides and more than half of teenage suicides.

To take this adversity and turn it into a way to encourage young Selma teenagers to stay in school, make good grades and go to college is admirable. Bowie and Tucker and those who support this scholarship program should be proud of this step.