Student Slain in Shooting At Ballou (washingtonpost.com)

Student Shot and Killed at Ballou Senior High School

The Washington Post reports of another tragedy at Ballou Senior High School. I don't know how bad things can get at that school before someone does something to step in and make it better. I really don't know if it can get worse.

17 year old James Richardson, a star football player was shot dead today inside his high school. This was the first fatal shooting inside a DC school since 1996, but is another incident in a string of tragedies affecting Ballou.

"The campus of about 1,100 students in a low-income section of Congress Heights was closed for about a month in the fall after mercury was taken from a science classroom and spread around the school. On the day the building reopened, a gunman fired shots half a block from the campus as classes were being dismissed. Ballou also has been the scene of several fistfights that police say have resulted from disputes between loosely organized gangs."

"It seems like nobody cares about your children here," said Josephine Franklin, whose 16-year-old son, Dante, attends Ballou. "It's too many things: the mercury, the fights and now this . . . What kind of education are these kids getting? How can you get an education when stuff like this happens all the time?"

Ms. Franklin's questions are ones that sorely need answering. Unfortunately, I doubt she will ever get them.

posted by sajit @ 11:00 PM