DeAnte Montgomery 4/17/08
8th Period


The Chicago Public School (CPS) shootings are getting way out of hand. There should not be one reason in the world why a student should be afraid to commute back and forth from school everyday. School is supposed to be a place of safety and an environment for learning. This school year alone 22 CPS students have been killed. Just yesterday as I was watching the news, it was reported that another student was murdered on the Westside of Chicago, making the list 23. We as a community should be ashamed of what’s happening. Students that really want to learn and graduate shouldn’t have to fear for the lives everyday. I as a CPS student sometimes worry about my going to and from school every morning.
Every single day you have to watch your back because you never know what’s going to happen. Everyone should get involved in order to find the solution to this crisis. If we can’t solve it we will only lose more students. Not only to the gun and gang violence, but also to the drop-out rate due to the fear of our students. CPS students who want to learn should feel free to walk home from school without fearing someone’s going to rob them, beat them up, or even worst kill them.
As a CPS student I feel like there should be constant police surveillance around these schools and their areas. Police vehicles should circle each block and secure the safety for our students. What we’re doing now isn’t working. Each community needs to have and stick to new plans for our upcoming school year. Next years students should not have to face this. Let’s all pitch in and make our neighborhoods a safer for our students. So that we can all live a little better and keep the CPS Student death rate down to a minimum.