‘An American Nightmare:’ student deaths continue to plague city

Just ten months removed from the slaying of his 16-year old son, Blair, Ronald Holt still struggles to fill the void left when his son became the 20th Chicago Public Schools student killed by gunfire.

“I feel like something very precious was taken from us,” Holt said. “I feel like we have been robbed… and I feel that I am echoing the sentiments of all the parents who are in my position.”

This school year’s rising CPS student death toll keeps reopening the wound for Holt. His son became a hero last school year after diving in front of a bullet to save a friend during his ride home from Percy Julian High School on the South Side.

“It’s unfortunate that [these youth deaths] continue to happen,” Holt said. “When you lose a child, it’s horrific. It’s really over the top with emotion. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.”

The number of CPS student deaths this school year is on pace to exceed last year’s alarming total of 32 deaths, 24 of which were gun-related, according to a Medill analysis.

Despite a host of CPS initiatives, including $19 million in new funding to combat youth violence, 20 CPS students have already been killed from gunfire this school year, surpassing the number of student deaths at this time last year. Officials warn that spring weather typically comes with increased youth violence, adding to fears of a towering youth death toll.

The death of 18-year-old student Chavez Clarke Saturday marked the ninth CPS student murder in the month of March. This recent spike is a stark contrast to the entire 2004-05 school year, when only six CPS students were killed.

In the wake of these murders, CPS and police officials decided to ramp up neighborhood patrols when students returned from spring break last week.

But many officials and community leaders say they are worried the increased number of police patrols in troubled school districts will not address the deeply rooted violence issues driving the rate of youth deaths.

Instead, members of these crime-ridden communities are calling for a sustained, community-wide approach to ending violence by emphasizing gang prevention and sex education in the public schools.

“I don’t think the answer is having the police in the schools,” said Ron Rufo, a crime-prevention expert with the Chicago Police Department. “If someone really wants to hurt you, they’re going to hurt you.”

Rufo, who called the recent crime-prevention initiative to increase police presence in school zones a “band-aid solution,” stood 40 feet from Ruben Ivy on March 7 when he was gunned down at Crane Technical High School on the West Side. According to Rufo, there were so many police officers on school grounds that they were “tripping over each other.”

After last school year’s student death rate nearly tripled from the 2005-06 school year, CPS received a $4.8 million federal grant in July 2007 to target issues city officials said correlate to crime in many school districts. This included drop-out prevention and recovery programs.

“The goal is to suppress violent activity outside the schools,” said Andres Durbak, director of school safety and security for CPS.

This grant was followed by a $14.2 million initiative launched by Mayor Richard M. Daley in September 2007, which expanded after-school education and athletic programs, and increased links between schools and social-service agencies.

“This upsurge in violence is a real tragedy citywide,” said Durbak, adding that all of the city’s top officials are working together to solve Chicago’s mounting youth violence crisis. “We’re all preoccupied with this.”

According to data provided by officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, Chicago school officials are not alone in battling this surge in youth violence. The department cited the most recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics that reveal homicide is now ranked among the top three leading causes of childhood mortality, accounting for one out of 23 deaths of children and youth younger than 18 years of age.

While CPS strives to reduce bloodshed, some local youth say it is going to take a broader community effort to tackle the youth gang crisis – one that extends far beyond school grounds.

“[Albany Park] seems like a good community, but it’s rough,” said Jamar Evans, 18, a senior at Roosevelt High School on the Northwest Side. “It’s all just gang banging. Nobody wants to go to school. … Everybody cuts to go smoke or drink then gang bang, shooting each other. It’s crazy.”

Former CPS student Adam Ocasio, 18, echoed Evans’ concerns. Ocasio said he transferred to Taft High School on Chicago’s Northwest Side because his family relocated, but dropped out soon thereafter, fearing for his safety after being targeted by a gang.

Ocasio said he believes there is a strong need for a broader outreach program. He said he wishes there were more “people who want to see the community change,” and that they would take a stand “against the gang thing – to make sure it won’t be tolerated.”

“There are programs like CeaseFire that are effective and need to expand,” Durbak said, referring to the community gun violence prevention program. “Just as we need more resources like that, we’re losing them.”

Durbak, who has been involved with Chicago crime prevention for 35 years, said community-wide efforts against gang violence are spotty, lack uniformity and are isolated. Although Ceasefire lost state funding in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s fiscal 2008 budget cuts, Durbak lauds it as an effective approach to the gang crisis.

After funding for the program was cut in August 2007, the program shrunk from 140 staff members at 25 locations to just a handful of employees at four locations, said CeaseFire Director Norman Kerr.

According to Kerr, funding for the remaining programs comes from the Department of Justice and private organizations that want the group’s presence in the community. Kerr said although CeaseFire makes an important impact on crime prevention, it is only a part of the solution. “It’s going to take everybody to stop [the violence],” Kerr said.

Kurt Lewis, who ran the Albany Park CeaseFire program before its funding was cut, said the first step to tackling the core of gang violence is diminishing the prevalence of broken families and single parent homes.

He said Chicago youth need improved sex education, because it is challenging to raise a child who will not join a gang and contribute to community violence if the parent is “just a kid.”

“Once we have kids who are not having kids,” Lewis said, “we can start looking at this problem realistically.”

Rufo, who said he is in touch with this issue through his regular crime prevention speeches in CPS classrooms, echoed this sentiment. “Something has to change,” he said. “Let’s get to the root of the problem and work on that. Maybe it is teaching these kids not to have sex as often.”

Since the beginning of the 2006 school year, all of CPS students killed by guns have been minorities – more than 63 percent black, the remaining 36 percent Hispanic. However, Rufo said he hates “the stereotype that it’s always happening in a black or a Latino area” – that “kids are kids” and this violence effects everybody.

According to 2007 figures from the Illinois State Board of Education, at least 83 percent of students attending schools that had a murdered student this year come from low-income families.

Despite these statistics, Holt, the father of last year’s slain student hero, said youth violence deeply affects everyone in the community – another reason he emphasized the need for a sustained, “multi-pronged” approach to driving real change.

“Violence in this country cuts across every social, economic, racial, cultural, [and] spiritual fabric in society,” Holt said, “No matter where it is, no matter who it is, it has become an American nightmare.”

2007-08 School Year student gun-related homicides

• Jerel Smith, 17, Frederick Douglass Academy High School
- Shot and killed on Sep. 9, 2007

• Dalvin Miller, 14, Sexton School
- Shot and killed on Sep. 14, 2007 while with friends on the 6200 block of South Langley Avenue

• Israel Mendoza, 13, Ames Middle School
- Shot and killed on Sep. 10, 2007 after being abducted from his home.

• Cordero Washington, 18, Banner South Alternative High School
- Shot and killed on Oct. 6, 2007

• Arthur Jones, 10, Holmes Elementary School
- Shot and killed on Oct. 17, 2007 in the middle of gang crossfire

• Samuel Benavente, 14, Eberhart Elementary School
- Shot and killed on Oct. 21, 2007 after trying to help a friend whose bike was stolen.

• Joseph Perez, 17, Steinmetz Academic Centre
- Shot and killed on Nov. 2, 2007 later found in an alley on the Northwest side

• Miguel Gomez, 16, School of Social Justice
- Shot and killed on Nov. 8, 2007 by a suspected gang member

• Leonardo Otero, 15, Kelvyn Park High School
- Shot and killed on Jan. 7, 2008 in a drive-by shooting

• Roky Uriostegui, 16, Kelly High School
- Shot three times and killed January 16, 2008 by suspected gang members

• Karlton Wells, 16, Nancy Jefferson High School
- Shot and killed Feb. 20, 2008 in a fight over a cell phone

• Rogelio Calderone, 17, Lozano Youth Connect Charter
- Shot and killed Feb. 29, 2008 after confronting a group of gang members

• Jose Garcia, 18, York Alternative High School
- Shot and killed March 1, 2008 while sitting in a parked car

• Kadeidrah Marsh, 15, AAST – Orr Campus High School
- Shot and killed March 2, 2008 after a dispute involving another girl

• Paris Bassett, 16, School of Leadership South Shore
- Shot and killed March 2, 2008; found on a South Side sidewalk

• Ruben Ivy, 18, Crane Technical Preparatory Common School
- Shot and killed March 7, 2008 by a suspected gang member

• Channon Taylor, 18, Community Christian Academy
- Shot and killed March 8, 2008 while sitting in the back seat of a car

• *Marcellus Daniel, 15, Bronzeville Military Academy
- Found dead 3/14/2008; body was found in a garbage can, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head

• Salvador Contreras, 18, Gage Park High School
- Shot and killed March 16, 2008 in a possible gang-related shooting

• Miguel Pedro,15, Alfred Nobel Elementary
- Shot and killed March 28, 2008

• Chavez Clarke, 18, Hyde Park Career Academy
- Shot and killed March 29, 2008 after leaving his Saturday class at Simeon Career Academy

• *Shannon Brown, 17, Fenger High School
- Died from a gunshot wound to the stomach early Tuesday April 1, 2008

*Chicago Public Schools has stated that Marcellus Daniel and Shannon Brown were not active students when they were murdered.