Media Justice Blog

Study says academic performance suffers whether they witness the nearby violence or not

June 16, 2010 - no comments

Neighborhood homicides can have a detrimental effect on Chicago schoolchildren's academic performance, whether they witness the violence or not, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tags: chicago public schools, CPS, education

Stop the Violence: Program tackles gangs, guns

June 14, 2010 - 3 Comments

A Chicago program is working to get gangs and guns off the streets.

Tags: 10-15, 15-19, ABC local, church involvement, community involvement, CPS, drugs, gang violence, gun violence, hispaniclatino, june 2010, little village, male, parent involvement, pilsen, police involvement, youth voices

Teen fatally shot at house party

June 14, 2010 - no comments

A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed after a bullet flew through an apartment window over the weekend.

Tags: 15-19, ABC local, African American, CPS, Englewood, gresham, gun violence, harper high school, june 2010, male, murder, no arrest, police involvement, street violence

Wounded: Stop the Violence

June 14, 2010 - no comments

Video interviews of youth survivors of gun violence

Tags: 15-19, African American, community involvement, CPS, Englewood, gun violence, hispaniclatino, kenwood high school, male, murder, pilsen, police involvement, washington heights, youth voices

CPS anti-violence program takes off, slowly

June 03, 2010 - no comments

As CJ lay in a hospital last winter nursing a gunshot wound to his arm, the prospect of graduating from high school seemed a distant dream for the skinny Roseland teen. Mostly left to his own devices, he had drifted to the streets at an early age and often skipped school, since attending class required crossing a web of gang lines that conflicted with his own affiliations.
Five months later, CJ rarely misses a day, participates in class and is on track to graduate. He credits his turnaround to an ambitious program launched by Chicago Public Schools this school year to stem youth violence.

Tags: chicago tribune, church involvement, CPS, Farragut Career Academy, gang violence, government involvement, gun violence, Hyde Park high, invisible boundaries, june 2010, male, manley high school, murder, noble network charter school, non CPS, Roseland, school violence, south side, street violence, tilden high school, youth voices

Students’ party brings sparkle — and hopes for peace — to Rogers Park

May 26, 2010 - no comments

Last school year, several students on their way to school watched a teacher get carjacked. Fights are a constant, and kids often are chased. Sirens wail and shots ring out when they are home at night. The kids avoid Pottawattomie Park, just outside their school's front door, because of the gangs hanging out there. Recently, a woman was lurking around the school handing out fliers to the teen girls, trying to entice them into sex work, with a phone number to call.

But rather than fear their community, the teens are trying to change it. For the second year in a row, they are hosting a party with a straightforward and time-tested goal: peace. A student-organized party informally called the "peace event,'' will be held on the streets around the school and part of Pottawattomie Park on Saturday, and the students are hoping the whole neighborhood will come.


Tags: 10-15, 15-19, community involvement, CPS, female, female, gang violence, gun violence, Jordan elementary, North Side, rogers park, school violence, street violence, violence prevention, youth voices

Upending Twisted Norms

May 12, 2010 - no comments

One of the most frightening aspects of the murderous violence plaguing so many urban neighborhoods across the country is the widespread notion among young people that killing somebody who ticks you off is normal. It’s something that is only to be expected, like eating when you’re hungry.

Tags: 15-19, academia involvement, community involvement, CPS, gang violence, gun violence, hispaniclatino, interpersonal violence, male, murder, New York Times, non CPS, police involvement, street violence

Success ‘up to you,’ teens told

May 08, 2010 - no comments

When Dorian Boyland was growing up in South Shore, he joined a gang, the former Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player turned multimillionaire auto dealer confessed.

Seeing he was headed for trouble, his single mother sent him away to live with his grandmother.

Tags: 15-19, African American, church involvement, corporate involvement, CPS, drugs, gang violence, morgan park high school, murder, robeson high school, street violence, youth voices

Bloody Urban Landscapes

May 07, 2010 - 1 Comment

Driving through some of this city’s neighborhoods is like driving through an alternate, horrifying universe, a place where no one thinks it’s safe to be a child.

You follow a map in which the coordinates are laid out in blood. Over there, in front of that convenience store, is where Fred Couch, 16, was shot to death last December. The Couch boy went to the same school, Christian Fenger Academy, as Derrion Albert, an honor student who was beaten with wooden planks and kicked to death three months earlier in a broad daylight attack that was recorded on a cellphone by an onlooker.

Tags: 15-19, African American, church involvement, community involvement, CPS, drugs, family violence, fatherlessness, fenger high school, gang violence, gun violence, murder, New York Times, north west side, Prologue Early College High, south side

Illinois Youth Town Hall focuses on reducing violence

April 28, 2010 - 1 Comment

The Illinois Youth Town Hall, co-sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute and the Leaders Investing For Equality campaign, attracted about 400 students from Chicago area universities and high schools, including 40 Northwestern students.

Tags: 10-15, 15-19, 19-24, academia involvement, Albany park, Chicago, community involvement, CPS, dyett high school, gang violence, government involvement, northwestern university, november 2009, roosevelt institute, the daily northwestern, youth voices