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• Mar 11, 2008 5:19 pm US/Central
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  City Plans Stepped-Up Security At Public Schools

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City Plans Stepped-Up Security At Public Schools

At Least 17 CPS Students Have Been Killed This Year

CHICAGO (CBS) ― There is a new push to protect Chicago Public School students from gun violence after an alarming number of Chicago kids have been shot this year.

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports the city has a two-part plan – one calls for a grassroots effort to rally at the Thompson Center after the death of any Chicago school student, and the other a greater police presence at Chicago Public Schools.

"It's a shame to have to mark your child by the day he died," said Annette Holt, whose son, Blair, was fatally shot on a CTA bus 10 months ago this week.

Terrell Bosley was killed when leaving a rehearsal at a South Side church.

"This is a community we did not choose to join and it devastates your life," said his father, Tom Bosley.

On the heels of violence near Crane Tech High School last week that took the life of 18-year-old Ruben Ivy, the Chicago Police Department is announcing stepped-up patrols to combat a list of teenage gun deaths that totals at least 17.

"Guns are dangerous weapons with dangerous consequences," said Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis.

Beginning Wednesday and building through spring break Chicago police will increase patrols. More than 50 officers will be reassigned to the effort and target response units will be deployed at up to five schools where problems have been documented.

For now police are not naming the exact locations.

"That would be tipping our hands so I won't name the locations I don't want to give anyone a heads up," Weis said.

The effort was announced with a new anti-gun campaign that will offer a $5,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the shooting death of any Chicago student. It carries the full endorsement of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

"We tell people you can't smoke, don't smoke, but where is the outrage about no guns in the hands of people of America," Daley said.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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