27 and Counting

The Chicago Tribune is keeping track of killings of Chicago Public School students.

The accounting doesn't 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.

The accounting also excludes enrollees in private and Catholic schools. I guess that's because the kill count is about zero. Probably because the gang problem is nearly non-existent - probably because they expel gang members.

In a University of Chicago study of gun violence among school-age children in the city, researchers found that the turning point for most happens at 13 or 14. Nearly half of the youths in juvenile detention were poor students who, after dropping out of school, turned to gangs as a means of support.

In schools where gangs thrive,
somewhat fewer children leave alive.