Media Justice Blog

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

Cops: Dolton brothers tried to pimp teen girls

May 26, 2010 - no comments

Twin brothers from south suburban Dolton were ordered held on $100,000 bond after they were accused of pimping two teenage girls, authorities said. Cook County sheriff's police uncovered the operation where Myrelle and Tyrelle Lockett used Internet ads to pimp two teenage girls, ages 17 and 18, according to court documents.

Tags: 15-19, African American, chicago suburbs, chicago tribune, criminal charges, Dolton, female, gender violence, interpersonal violence, male, may 2010, non CPS, police involvement, sexual violence

5 arrested in Near North Red Line robbery

May 12, 2010 - no comments

Police were questioning five people in the overnight robbery of a man on a Red Line train on the Near North Side in what was being investigated as a possible hate crime.

One of them had the victim's cell phone on him when Public Transportation Section officers arrested the four juveniles and an adult as they tried to leave the Grand Avenue subway station a little after midnight, police said.


Tags: African American, chicago tribune, hate crime, Jewish, male, may 2010, near north side, police involvement, stealing, street violence

Kids killing kids

March 15, 2010 - no comments

Over the past 10 years, Bigeck and Morfin have traveled annually from a downstate prison to talk with Chicago-area school and youth groups. They explain,
mostly in calm terms, what it's like to spend their decades doing penance for gunplay. They try to press home to young audiences an underappreciated concept that Illinois law calls "Accountability for Conduct of Another." Its essence: You were.


Tags: 15-19, African American, chicago tribune, CPS, criminal charges, Englewood, englewood high school, female, gang violence, gun violence, male, march 2010, murder, police involvement, school violence, southwest side, street violence

Lesson from the street - don’t back down

February 21, 2010 - no comments

Youth violence has claimed the lives of 18 city students this school year and left more than 110 shot. To stem the scourge, the Chicago Public Schools have launched an unprecedented campaign to intervene in the lives of the most at-risk children and create peaceful environments at the most troubled schools.



Tags: academia involvement, chicago tribune, church involvement, community involvement, corliss high school, CPS, february 2010, gun violence, manley high school, marshall high school, murder, north riverside, police involvement, poverty, street violence, west side, youth voices

Woman shot outside Gage Park High School

January 22, 2010 - no comments

An 18-year-old woman was shot in the leg outside of Gage Park High School this afternoon, officials said.
Two Gage Park sophomore girls, both 16, were at the scene after the shooting, waiting to be picked up by a parent around 5 p.m.
They said violence is commonplace at the campus. "I need to get out of this place," one girl said.



Tags: 15-19, chicago tribune, CPS, female, gage park high school, gun violence, january 2010, male, non CPS, police involvement, street violence, youth voices

School districts struggle to deal with dating violence among students

January 20, 2010 - no comments

Simeon is one of many high schools in Illinois to come under fire for their handling of student sexual assaults and dating-related violence. There are no state laws or policies governing how school districts should respond to these sensitive issues. Administrators often face he-said, she-said cases in which no
criminal charges have been filed, and so they must balance protecting alleged victims versus the rights of the accused.

Tags: 15-19, chicago tribune, community involvement, CPS, criminal charges, Dating Violence, female, january 2010, joliet, plainfiels school district, police involvement, princeton high school, quincy senior high school, school violence, sexual violence, simeon career academy, south side, youth voices

student seriously wounded outside SW side high school

January 20, 2010 - no comments

Outside school Tuesday, students said that though they feel safe at school, they cannot say the same for the streets around the building.
"It's like a war," said freshman Crystal Fernandez, 14.
Fernandez said police and security were increased Friday.
"On Friday, I was scared," she said. "We thought, yeah, there's going to be fighting but not (shooting).

Tags: 10-15, 15-19, chicago tribune, CPS, gun violence, hubbard high school, january 2010, male, police involvement, school violence, southwest side, street violence, youth voices

Army of advocates fights for at-risk youths

January 12, 2010 - no comments

Chicago's program, which is just getting under way, will offer advocates to the 250 to 300 high school students deemed most likely to be the victims of violent crime, based on a statistical model. Baltimore's program is different in that it offers the program to youth offenders as an alternative to jail.

Tags: 15-19, African American, baltimore, Chicago, chicago tribune, CPS, criminal charges, drugs, government involvement, gun violence, january 2010, male, murder, police involvement, poverty, sexual violence, street violence, washington DC, youth voices

Austin Weekly News | ‘It’s your child killing my child’

January 10, 2010 - no comments

Kesia, as family and friends called her,
was inside the Beefee Restaurant on Lockwood and North
Avenue with a friend the evening of Aug. 28, 1993 when she
became the unintended victim of a gang-related drive-by shooting.

Tags: 10-15, African American, Austin, Austin Weekly News, Chicago, chicago tribune, community involvement, CPS, drugs, female, gang violence, gun violence, january 2010, male, murder, no arrest, north lawndale, oak park, south side, street violence, west garfield park, west side