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CHICAGO (CBS) ― Gun violence has been taking the lives of Chicago Public School students at an alarming rate this school year, and there were two more shootings involving youths overnight.

As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and police Supt. Jody Weis had been scheduled to discuss the issue in a news conference on Wednesday morning at Bowen High School, 2710 E. 89th St., where three current or former students have been shot and killed in the past month.

The event was later rescheduled for Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Headquarters, and Weis will not attend due to a scheduling conflict.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reported on Monday that as of that day, 508 Chicago Public Schools had been shot over a 16-month period. The story elicited e-mails from parents, teachers, police officers and neighbors, and prompted a big reaction from Mayor Richard M. Daley and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was visiting Chicago on Tuesday and said, "All of us must be appalled."

A day later, two more youths were added to the shooting victim list. One of them died.

A 17-year-old boy identified as Franco Avila was shot and killed in the Albany Park neighborhood. Police said the victim was shot in the 3600 block of West Ainslie Street around 7:30 p.m., and found about a block away in the 4900 block of North Ridgeway Avenue. He was pronounced dead at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Avila was a 10th-grader at Roosevelt High School, school officials said.

Also overnight, a 15-year-old boy was shot and wounded by a masked gunman in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

The gunman exited a white minivan at 8:15 p.m. in the 1500 block of West Fargo Avenue, and before the shooting, he asked the boy, "What's up folks," police said. The question was intended to determine if he was affiliated with a certain street gang, and the shooter wanted to target a rival gang member, according to police.

Police said the teen had recently dropped out of Sullivan High School because of pressure to join a gang.

The victim was wounded in the thigh, left side of the body and the buttocks, police said. He was taken in serious condition to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.

While the latest shootings happened on the North and Northwest sides, the city's Southeast Side has been hit especially hard by youth violence of late, particularly the area around Bowen High School.

This past Friday night, Carnell Pitts, 18, was shot and killed in the 3200 block of East 92nd Street, after apparently getting into an argument with someone at a party. On Feb. 20, his brother, Kendrick Pitts, 17, was fatally shot in a triple murder at 87th and Exchange avenues that also took the lives of Johnny Edwards, 13, and Raheem Washington, 15. Washington and Kendrick Pitts were both students at Bowen High School, while Carnell Pitts was a recent graduate.

The gunman charged in the triple homicide, Martin Ybarra, had been charged with murder previously, but was acquitted. 

The parents of the Pitts brothers, Juan and the Rev. Willa Esther Pitts, spoke out at the Bowen campus on Wednesday.

"To just find out it's two of your own, it's devastating. It's very devastating," said Willa Pitts.

"Like most parents, you leave your child, you walk them to the door, let them out to school, expect to see them come back in," Willa Pitts said, "and you don't see them come back in, because they've been gunned down in the street."

"I talked with my kids. I spent time with them - everyday, me and my husband. They were active in church. I don't know what happens. When they leave the home, we don't know what happens," Willa Pitts stated.

It is a question so many Chicago parents and community leaders have been asking.

"These are Baghdad numbers. They're warzone numbers," said Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Rev. Jesse Jackson called it a state of emergency Wednesday, but Chicago has been gripped by violence against young people for decades.

And as CBS 2's Jim Williams reports, it's a situation they've been trying to stop for decades with little success.

Throughout the years, police have responded by saturating high crime areas with increased police presence, but this, too, would occasionally spark protests.

"This is just an excuse to stop black folks," one young man stated.

Community groups and politicians have held countless news conferences and antiviolence marches.

At their news conference, Rainbow/PUSH officials said they will continue to work with police on the gun violence problem.

Rev. Jackson said he wants federal stimulus money poured into the inner-city for job training and education.

Calls for such aid have been made many times before.

Still, ministers like Sylvester Brinson explained why he keeps fighting. "In my spiritual journey, I understand my job is to continue the message," he stated. His message is, "You have to keep hope no matter what happens, you have to stay with hope."  

As city officials try to come up with yet another plan, Rev. Jackson is putting together a task force and he's planning a large antiviolence rally this Saturday at Rainbow/PUSH.

CBS 2's Joanie Lum, Jim Williams, Chief Correspondent Jay Levine, and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

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