More than a thousand students from Simeon Career Academy in Chicago flooded a street behind the high school, wiping away tears and solemnly listening to the names of the 29 city public school students killed this school year. Among the names read at the memorial and anti-violence rally was that of classmate Gregory Robinson. The 14-year-old freshman was shot to death earlier in March as he sat in the back seat of a car, returning from watching his cousin play in a Simeon playoff basketball game.
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ALSO...From The Chicago Tribune: Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman spent about an hour with students and staff at Simeon Career Academy, where an American flag remained at half-staff days after freshman Gregory Robinson was shot to death in a car returning from a playoff basketball game. As he inherits the job of running the city's public school system, Huberman is faced with addressing the problem of 29 students killed this school year.
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FROM The Chicago Sun-Times: A 14-year-old boy shot to death Friday night in Chicago's Morgan Park neighborhood became the 28th Chicago Public Schools student killed this school year. Witnesses say Gregory Robinson, a freshman at Simeon Career Academy, died shielding two younger children from bullets fired at the car they rode in.
ALSO...From The Chicago Tribune: A shockingly deadly school year for Chicago students. Chicago already has eclipsed in 2008-09 the number of public school students killed all of last school year. And there still are three months to go until summer break. The grim total does not include all the youths who, if not for poor aim or good luck, could have joined the death list. The tally also doesn't include kids who have dropped out, may have been truant and not actively enrolled, or killed during the summer months.
EARLIER: Chicago Public School officials have updated the number of district students who have been killed in violence so far during the 2008-2009 school year to 27 students. Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Bond says a district list of students so far killed in the 2008-2009 school year failed to include the name of Devour Robinson,17, who was a 9th grader at Clemente High School. Read The Chicago Tribune article.
A high school sophomore in Chicago was shot to death Tuesday night became the 26th Chicago Public Schools student to be slain since the school year began in September. The vast majority of this year's victims have been felled by gunfire -- in most cases on neighborhood streets during off-school hours. Franco Avila, 17, who attended Roosevelt High School, was gunned down on the city's Northwest Side. His family says he was a gang member who was tiring of the life. The escalation of violence has worried and frustrated school leaders. Prior to this shooting, The Chicago Sun-Times had reported that 508 students had been shot this school year.
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