Beloved Wilmington principal critically injured in motorcycle crash


Warner Elementary School’s beloved principal was critically injured in a motorcycle crash Friday night in Bear.

Having grown up on Wilmington’s East Side, Terrance Newton experienced violence and poverty that resulted in him working on keeping students away from it – this included cutting students’ hair at school and finding ways to provide Christmas gifts for those in need. 

On Monday morning, Wilmington police and firefighters greeted students who were arriving at a school without their principal. The first responders were there to support students and the Red Clay Consolidated School District.

Warner Elementary principal Terrance Newton shapes up student Brandon Ponzo Monday, Dec. 16, 2019 at the school. The makeshift barbershop gives Newton a chance to bond with his students in a more casual setting and keep his students looking sharp.

The crash occurred about 10:45 p.m. in the 100 block of Old Baltimore Pike, according to New Castle County Paramedics who were dispatched to the scene for a report of a motorcycle crash with injuries.

Arriving paramedics found 47-year-old Newton in the roadway. He was treated for a head injury before he was taken to Christiana Hospital in critical condition.

The incident brought requests for prayers from many on social media, including Wilmington City Councilwoman Michelle Harlee, who posted on Facebook: “I am sending a word of healing to Dr. Terrance Newton! I am asking all prayer warriors that know the power of prayer to call out his name and let’s believe God for a miracle for him!”

Others shared photos and pleas for prayers and love for a man many said they admired and respected.

Newton made it a point to always see the future through the children walking the school hallways where he taught, knowing many also walk the streets he did as a kid. Because of that, he always wanted to help them see a life without violence.

Terrance Newton stands near the site on Ninth Street in Wilmington in 2015 where he was shot as a teen. Because of his life experiences, Newton works to get students interested in education as a way for them to succeed.

“We’re losing people to the streets,” Newton told Delaware Online/The News Journal in a 2015 interview after the killing of 30-year-old Jamar Kilgoe – a family friend he considered his brother. 

Because education lifted him from despair, Newton would present this to his students as a way out. He often preaches about making better decisions, such as how to resolve conflicts with words rather than violence.

He always lets them know they are loved.

A force of change: School leader from city streets laments ‘lost generation’



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