Terrance Newton, who rose from Wilmington’s East Side streets to become a school leader and an advocate for many of the children he came across, has died from injuries sustained in a weekend motorcycle crash.
The news of his injuries rocked Wilmington over the weekend and into Monday, as an outpouring of love and prayers were shared across social media and throughout the city where the educator has come to be known and loved.
Students at Warner Elementary School, which Newton helmed as principal, even recorded a video Monday chanting the nickname by which the man was well known: “Newt.”
“It is with great sadness that I must share Dr. Terrance Newton passed away this evening after injuries sustained from a motorcycle accident on Friday, March 18th,” Red Clay Consolidated School District Dorrell Green said in a statement posted on Warner’s website Monday night.
Newton was a true advocate for students and a genuine supporter of his staff, Green said.
“He was an innovative and dynamic school leader that put the whole child first,” he added. “He developed systems to not only address academics, but he also incorporated broader services that made Warner such a special place for students, staff, families and the community at-large.
“Newt’s high energy, infectious personality and passion for his school community was unparalleled.”
Newton, 47, gained national notoriety after news got out that he’d been cutting his students’ hair for more than a decade as a way of bonding and letting children know someone was there for them. He would also organize gift drives for Warner Elementary School students and their families in need during the Christmas holiday.
His drive to let children know they were loved grew stronger as he moved up the education ranks, eventually becoming principal in 2019 of Wilmington’s Warner Elementary School.
“It makes a difference because they see that people care,” Newton told Delaware Online/The News Journal in 2015. “Let them know you care.”
Background:Warner Elementary Principal Terrance Newton critically injured in motorcycle crash
Warner will continue to have crisis support services available for students who would like to speak to someone, Green said. Students can reach out to their teachers or school counselors to access these services.
Newton was riding a 2020 Harley Davidson westbound on Old Baltimore Pike from the area of Christiana Road late Friday when Delaware State Police said he tried to pass a vehicle ahead of him.
As he moved to pass the vehicle, Newton’s Harley struck the raised concrete median. Newton, who police said was wearing a helmet, was ejected from the motorcycle.
New Castle County Paramedics arriving at the scene found Newton in the roadway. He was treated for a head injury before he was taken to Christiana Hospital in critical condition, according to Staff Sgt. Abigail E. Haas, a paramedic spokeswoman.
Newton grew up in Wilmington’s East Side neighborhood hanging out at Eighth and Church streets with a group of friends who called themselves “The Starter Boys” after the popular brand of jackets and then later the “East Side Bad Boys.”
They played sports, shared meals and sometimes fought other groups of city youth.
“These people became my family,” Newton said. “So when the people you grew up with together started engaging in and introducing you to negative things, that’s what you tend to do – you follow.”
Newton said he stayed away from drugs, but the streets’ gun violence was something that found him twice – the first time in Wilmington when he was a high school freshman and then two years later when he and friends snuck up to New York City.
The second shooting was his wakeup call.
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While he said it wasn’t easy to break from this way of life, his mother – the late Marie Hammond – helped keep him straight. She was helped by others, including coaches, neighbors and police officers.
His mother forced him to attend Hodgson Vocational Technical High School, where a coach saw his athletic talent and convinced him to play football.
At Hodgson, Newton became a star running back and learned the trade of plumbing.
After graduation, when Newton already had a plumbing job lined up, his mother again intervened, persuading him to take a scholarship offered by Delaware State University.
Newton graduated DSU with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sociology, then became a youth rehabilitative counselor at Ferris School, a detention center for juvenile criminals. At Ferris, he decided to influence them before they ended up behind bars.
“I wanted to be at the preventive stage … to work in the schools and be more of a role model for these kids because I can relate to them,” he said in 2015. “I come from the same communities they come from. I understand the struggles that they go through.”
Newton returned to Delaware State for his master’s and his doctoral degrees and has worked in several schools in Delaware and Pennsylvania. In 2014, he became an administrator at H.B. du Pont Middle School.
A few years later, he took the reigns of Warner Elementary.
It was during his tenure there that Delaware Online/The News Journal reported that Newton had set up a barbershop in the building where he gave haircuts to students as a way to show he cared about their education, but also wanting students to be happy with themselves and how the world sees them.
“When I was coming up as a kid, a lot of things I learned was in the barbershop,” Newton said. “Just the conversations, listening to people talk, listening to their opinions. That’s what I utilize with my kids here.”
The barbershop, however, was not a new thing. He’d been doing this since about 2005.
More:Wilmington principal uses makeshift barbershop to bond with students, one cut at a time
The school barbershop brought national attention from the Kelly Clarkson Show, Good Morning America and NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Newton also kept an eye on students whose families were struggling and around Christmas, would find ways to get them presents and money for the parents to help with food or rent. The help would usually come from members of the Thunderguards Motorcycle Club, which would roar into the community to present children with their gifts.
“It was truly a blessing,” Sarah Long said in December after Newton arraigned for her family to receive Christmas gifts.
Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.
