Last month, President Obama made a speech in Chicago, a city that has been ravaged by gun violence in the past few years, in which he lamented that “too many of our children are being taken away from us.”
One of the places bearing the brunt of that loss is Harper High School in Chicago’s South Side. Last year, a total of 29 current and recent students of the school were shot. Eight of them died. Last month, NPR’s This American Life did a two-part series on the school to find out “how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances.” They spent five months at the school, talking with teachers, students and parents about what it’s like to live amidst persistent gun violence.
The result is a stunning piece of journalism. Listen in:
Harper High School – Part One
Harper High School – Part Two
