Who is at Fault?

What seemed to be a harmless dice game, turned out to be the end of someone’s life. 15 year old, Marquell Blake, the 32nd CPS student who was killed on April 8 during his spring break. After reading and listening to other people’s comments, the question of who is at fault formulated. Some may argue that he shouldn’t have been going to a dice game; others may say he shouldn’t have been carrying a large amount of money. Each year the number of CPS students being killed has increased. Who do we blame? Is it the schools fault, is it the communities that the victims live in or should we blame the parents and family members. Media has made it a tradition to label the victims as CPS students even though none of the killings happened in school or on school grounds. I interviewed three people based on who is at fault, Victoria Ford a CPS official, Sylvia, Chicago Tribune assistant, and Ashley Crockett, 16 year old sophomore at Chicago Vocational Academy whose brother was killed last summer. The first question I addressed to Ms. Ford was, when the media labels a victim and/or suspect as a CPS student, does this affect the enrollment rate of Chicago Public Schools. She responded, it affects the enrollment rate of selective schools such as John Hope, because parents want their children to attend a school that guarantees a great education. When asked what is being done to decrease the violence she says, only thing that CPS can do is decrease violence in the school by adding more security and enforcing the school policies. Once the students leave the school grounds it is up to the community to protect the students. I asked her the big question who is at fault, and her response was, “no one is at fault, but it is society’s responsibility, everybody has a part”. Since the newspapers are the ones writing these articles, I contacted CLTV/Chicago Tribune, of course I got the run around, and that’s how I got connected to Sylvia, who didn’t mind answering my questions. I asked her why is CPS strapped to the killings, she said CPS students killings are so high, because they’re younger than 18, and because they go there. If the students went to a private school, they would put private school student. The last person I talked to was Ashley a sophomore at CVCA, her brother Allen Kompader, was killed July 30, 2008 around 1 am 6 days after his birthday. At first she didn’t believe it, as far as birthdays, she don’t go the cemetery because it won’t bring him back. She thinks that the schools and the community are at fault. “There should be activities that everyone could do; there should be young mentors for others who go through the same problems. The teachers don’t administrate as well as they should, and people shouldn’t have guns in the community.
Who is at fault? Society. Why is CPS strapped to the victims? Because they go there. What should be done about the violence? More programs for EVERYBODY.