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Tag: Students Killed

  • Our Chicago: After School Programs

    Our Chicago: After School Programs

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    CHICAGO (WLS) — Last month, at least four Chicago high school students were killed in shootings that happened as they left school.

    As the city works to expand violence prevention efforts, programs and organizations are working to engage young people across the city.

    After School Matters got started in downtown Chicago as a summer arts program for teens.

    Our Chicago: After School Programs Part 1

    “What we really want to do is engage teenagers to find something that they love,” After School Matters CEO Mary Ellen Caron said. “Or maybe something that they don’t love, so they don’t pursue it.”

    Over the years, the after school program has expanded to nearly every neighborhood across the city. The programs have grown to include the arts, communication, leadership, sports and STEM.

    RELATED: Chicago police searching for gunmen who killed 2 students outside of high school in Loop shooting

    “We started out as sports and arts, and that was because at the time they were cutting sports and arts in the schools and so that’s what we really started as,” Caron said. “But now we’ve added leadership and communication because that’s what the teens tell us they want. And they’ve also told us they want STEM.”

    After School Matters Chief of Strategy Melissa Mister told ABC7 Chicago the program depends on demand from teens.

    “Teens want and need, and deserve programs, to support them to pursue their interests,” Mister said.

    The students also learn intangible skills.

    “Across all of the programs, young people are learning how to collaborate with one another, they’re learning a personal mindset that says we’re going to keep pushing through when we hit a bump, that kind of thing,” Mister said. “They’re learning to communicate effectively with many different audiences. So all of these are intangible skills that are critically important no matter what it is they decide to do in their future.”

    Youth Guidance celebrates 100 years in Chicago this year. It began in 1924 as the Church Mission of Help, providing assistance to girls in need of shelter, financial help as well as educational and vocational opportunities.

    These days, Youth Guidance provides programs for children helping them overcome obstacles so they can focus on their education and succeed in the classroom and in life.

    Our Chicago: After School Programs Part 2

    “We think it’s really important that families, students, teachers, communities are involved because they play such an important role in the well-being of the student. So we want to make sure they all have an input in what is happening in the school, they’re able to share their concerns. And then we’re able to cater those programs that we offer after school, to those needs,” said After School Programs at Youth Guidance community director Jeethu Samuel said.

    Stipends are available for students that are eligible.

    “Community In Schools program is a partnership with Chicago Public Schools and 21st Century Funding,” said Youth Guidance Program Manager Dr. Lolita Cleveland. “And we provide a community base. So we bring in all the community resources in order for the total child to have the things that they need. So when we partner we have not just the parents, the students, the kids, we have contracted vendors that bring in enrichment programs, cultural programs. Dance, arts, creativity to be able to provide that information and then we partner with the community when they can bring health support from local clinics. They’re also able to come in and bring mental health support for social emotional learning.”

    Parents are also included in the after school experience Youth Guidance offers.

    “We want to make sure the parents are also gaining from this experience, it’s not just for the students,” said Samuel, “So we offer workshops, we offer family events. They go out into the community, they go out into the city and they see different things. And we want them to also gain so they can be leaders within the student’s education and involved in their schools.”

    With violence in the city, involving teens the work of Youth Guidance is even more important.

    “It is a need,” said Cleveland, “There’s definitely a need for that. Students need to be heard. Staff have to be trauma informed. We have to understand social-emotional learning. And everybody’s situation is not yours, so we definitely have to be unbiased to realize our kids are faced with a lot and we have to have a listening ear and an open heart to hear.”

    For more information:

    https://afterschoolmatters.org/

    https://www.youth-guidance.org/

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  • Serbia school shooting leaves 8 students and a guard dead as teen student held as suspect

    Serbia school shooting leaves 8 students and a guard dead as teen student held as suspect

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    Belgrade, Serbia —  A 13-year-old who opened fire Wednesday at his school in Serbia’s capital drew sketches of classrooms and wrote a list of people he intended to target in a meticulously planned attack, police said. He killed eight fellow students and a school guard before being arrested.

    The shooter first killed a guard at the school in central Belgrade and then three students in a hallway, according to senior police official Veselin Milic. He then entered a history classroom — apparently choosing it simply because it was close to the entrance — and opened fire again, Milic said.

    The assailant called police himself when the attack was over, though authorities received a call reporting the shooting two minutes earlier.

    Serbia School Shooting
    Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, May 3, 2023, after a teenage boy allegedly opened fire in the school.

    Darko Vojinovic/AP


    The suspect was a seventh grade student at the school, police said. The statement added that the boy apparently used a gun belonging to his father.

    Reports said terrified parents arrived to the school trying to find their children. Local media video from the scene showed commotion outside the school as police removed the suspect, whose head was covered as officers led him to a car parked in the street.

    Mass shootings in Serbia and in the wider Balkan region are extremely rare and none has been reported in schools in recent years. 

    Serbia School Shooting
    Police block streets around the Vladislav Ribnikar school in Belgrade, Serbia, May 3, 2023.

    Darko Vojinovic/AP


    By comparison, almost 250 people have been killed in mass shootings in the U.S. already this year, including 12 in the last week of April. Recent research found that fatalities from gun violence in the U.S. have increased over time, with more victims dying at the scene of shootings before they can be transferred for medical treatment.    

    In the last mass shooting in Serbia, a Balkan war veteran killed 13 people in 2013 in a central Serbian village. 

    Experts have repeatedly warned of the number of weapons left over in the country after the wars of the 1990s. They also note that decades-long instability stemming from the conflicts as well as the ongoing economic hardship could trigger such outbursts.

    Milan Milosevic, who said his daughter was in a history class when the shooting took place, told N1 television that he rushed out when he heard what had happened.

    “I asked, ‘where is my child,’ but no one could tell me anything at first,” he said. “Then she called, and we found out she was out.”

    “He (the shooter) fired first at the teacher and then the children who ducked under the desks,” Milosevic quoted his daughter as saying. “She said he was a quiet boy and a good student.”

    Police sealed off the blocks around the Vladislav Ribnikar school, in the center of Belgrade. Primary schools in Serbia have eight grades.

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  • Neighbor of Bryan Kohberger says suspect talked about Idaho student murders

    Neighbor of Bryan Kohberger says suspect talked about Idaho student murders

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    Neighbor says Brian Kohberger asked about murders


    Neighbor of Brian Kohberger says suspect asked about Idaho murders

    01:55

    A neighbor of Bryan Kohberger’s in Pullman, Washington, said the suspect in the murder of four University of Idaho students spoke to him about the killings days after they occurred. The neighbor asked not to be identified. 

    “He brought it up in conversation,” the neighbor exclusively told CBS News on Wednesday. “[He] asked if I had heard about the murders, which I did. And then he said, ‘Yeah, seems like they have no leads. Seems like it was a crime of passion.’” 

    “At the time of our conversation, it was only a few days after it happened so there wasn’t much details out,” the neighbor added. 

    The search warrant for Kohberger’s apartment in Pullman, Washington, has been temporarily sealed by an Idaho judge. The judge said the details could “prematurely end the investigation” and “create a threat to public safety.” 

    Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of students Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, who were stabbed at the women’s off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho. 

    Few details were released about the investigation into the murders until after Kohberger was arrested at his family’s home in Pennsylvania in late December — more than a month after the Nov. 13 murders. An affidavit detailing how police tracked down the suspect was unsealed after he was extradited to Idaho. 

    Kohberger appeared in court Thursday. 

    University of Idaho students are returning to class for the first time since Kohberger’s arrest. Many, like Madeline Paulik, are expressing relief. 

    “I was kind of glad to see a lot of cops around, just in case something did happen, they would be there,” she said. “But it just feels very relieving knowing he’s behind bars.” 

    Lilia Luciano


    Lilia Luciano

    Lilia Luciano is an award-winning journalist and CBS News correspondent based in Los Angeles.

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