Every time I pause, the silence around my son Shawn’s case grows louder. But I need everyone to understand something: silence doesn’t mean I’ve given up. It means I’m gathering strength, evidence, and truth. Because the minute I stop speaking, they’re counting on me to fade away.

Shawn was my oldest child. A 21-year-old with his whole life ahead of him. He went into Pittsburgh Job Corps on February 24, 2025. By February 26, he was gone. The “officials” want me to believe he just overdosed, but the injuries on his body, the contradictions in the medical examiner’s statements, and the stonewalling at every level tell a different story.

Since then, I’ve been blocked, ignored, and shuffled from one dead end to another. Pennsylvania officials bounce my emails back — even when the system says they were received. I filed a FOIA request, and while they gave me a reference number (2025-F-15839), the phone line doesn’t work, and the email address they gave me won’t answer. That’s not coincidence — that’s intentional obstruction.

Meanwhile, the very institutions that are supposed to protect us have been gutted. In 2025 alone, we saw civil rights lawyers forced out of the DOJ, Department of Education staff fired for investigating discrimination, and Department of Labor watchdogs sidelined while Job Corps centers kept operating under unsafe conditions. They replaced integrity with silence.

Think about that.

They’ve reshuffled the deck so that people with morals, with courage, with integrity, were the first to go. Why? Because a system built on corruption, exploitation, and cover-ups can’t survive with honest people in the room.

And while they keep me tied up chasing phone numbers that don’t work and emails that don’t reply, Trump talks about sending the National Guard into Baltimore. That’s not about safety — that’s about control.

This is bigger than Shawn, bigger than me. What happened to him is what happens when the poor, the vulnerable, and especially Black youth are treated like they’re disposable. Job Corps is supposed to be an opportunity — instead, it’s a pipeline where lives vanish and families are silenced.

They want us distracted with street crime headlines, arguing over petty issues, while the real monsters operate in plain sight: organized trafficking rings, corruption in our own government offices, human lives treated as products. If you think it can’t touch your family, ask yourself how many times you’ve seen someone else’s tragedy brushed aside until it was your turn to feel it.

When I reached out to Public Citizen Litigation Group, they told me they don’t handle wrongful death cases and pointed me to the Allegheny County Bar Association — at $300 an hour. That’s what justice costs in America if you’re not wealthy. That’s why I’m fighting here, in public, with all of you. Because the system wants families like mine priced out, silenced, and forgotten.

But we will not be silenced.

Not for Shawn.

Not for all the others.

This case isn’t just about one young man’s death. It’s about the freedoms and liberties they are stripping away piece by piece. If we don’t fight now, cases like Shawn’s will become normal — brushed off like stepping on a bug.

📌 Call to Action

Let’s Chop It Up!!

If you haven’t yet, please read, sign, and share my petition 🙏🏽

If you want to fight actively with me — go to the Google reviews for:

Pittsburgh Job Corps

Allegheny Medical Examiner’s Office

Ball Funeral Home

Allegheny Police Department

Ask them WHO will take responsibility for Shawn Fortune’s death.

Make Bob Gottschalk, Director of Pittsburgh Job Corps, answer for his neglect.