The Violence Project

A + Illinois

CeaseFire

PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education)

University of Chicago Consortium on School Research

Friends of the Parks

Catalyst Chicago

Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

Chicago Public Schools Office of Research, Evaluation and Accountability

I’m tired, literally and figuratively. I’ve been staring at this screen, trying to figure out another way to say it’s unfortunate more young lives have been lost to violence. This blog has only been going for a week, and this posting would be number three to say how unfortunate, sad and tragic this all is. How more unfortunate can it get? Sometimes I feel like I’m becoming numb to the violence, and every death becomes just another new number. No face, no life, no one who loved that child behind that number. I’m afraid that’s how it has become not just for us in the media but also in our communities.

But I digress.

Chicago Tribune (Family Photo)

Brashai Griffin, 15, was found strangled in a wooded area near her home in south-suburban Sauk Village. Griffin had been missing since Wednesday.

Albert Vaughn, 18, was beaten to death with a baseball bat after trying to break up a dispute Ironically Vaughn was a student at Percy L. Julian High School, the same school as Blair Holt, who was killed last year protecting a classmate from gunfire on a CTA bus. Vaughn becomes the 23rd CPS student killed this school year.

Less than 24 hours after Vaughn’s death, a 20-year-old man was shot on the same block where Vaughn was killed. The shooting was reported to be in retaliation for Vaughn’s death.

Marcus Johnson, 18, was shot and killed late Saturday night while walking to his car

This week CLTV will be hosting a special program called “Deadly Lessons.” The week-long show will be a live call-in discussion on the recent killings of Chicago Public School students.

With the 4oth anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. approaching and the recent tragedies involving public school students, I thought it would be appropriate to share a video that I think has not lost an ounce of its relevancy. It is a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, entitled “The Mindless Menace of Violence.” It was given April 5, 1968, one day after the assassination of Dr. King. Enjoy.