Student’s Death Points to Upsurge in Gang Violence in Chicago

JIM LEHRER:

Next tonight, youth violence in Chicago, a story that has drawn national attention. Jeffrey Brown begins with some background.

JEFFREY BROWN:

This grainy cell phone video, which was posted on the Internet, shows the chaotic scene just before a Chicago high school student was beaten to death two weeks ago.

Sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert was pummeled with a wooden plank and then repeatedly kicked in the head a few blocks from his school. A football player and honor student at Christian Fenger Academy High School on the city's South Side, Albert walked into the middle of a brawl between rival gangs. Albert himself was not a gang member. Police have arrested four teens in his killing.

Albert was described as a standout student.

BISHOP GRANT, Greater Mount Hebron Baptist Church:

People have embraced Derrion as if he was their grandson or their nephew or their son, because this was a good kid on his way to greatness. And this level of tragedy, the brutality that this young man suffered in broad daylight has caused all of us to take a step back and ask ourselves, what can all of us do?

JEFFREY BROWN:

Family and residents grieved over the murder, and they also expressed anger over the latest death of a student. Violence among students has spiked since 2006; 67 students have been killed since the beginning of the 2007 school year; nearly 300 have been shot and wounded during that same time.

Today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder traveled to Chicago to meet with city leaders, including Mayor Richard Daley.

ERIC HOLDER:

There are no easy, there are no quick, fixes. This will not happen overnight. Our approach will need to involve not just law enforcement, but also faith-based organizations, the business community, and social service groups. Every citizen has to be a part of the solution. We will need a combination of prevention, intervention and targeted enforcement.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Duncan, who served as Chicago's school superintendent until he joined President Obama's cabinet, said he hoped today's meeting was the beginning of a broader effort to attack the problem.

ARNE DUNCAN:

Something about seeing something on video seems to wake up this country. And we should use this moment or whatever, we should use this moment to go forward together, that this is a fork in the road, this is a line in the sand, and we have to get dramatically better.

And it's all of us stepping up. Nobody gets a pass. Chicago is not unique. Four students have been shot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, already this year. Philadelphia, Seattle, Miami, New Orleans. And many rural communities have also lost school children to violence in recent weeks.