SUFFER THE CHILDREN

Deadly days continue in nation's schools

Young people are dying at the hands of classmates, strangers and even parents in big cities and small towns. There have been shootings in and around high schools and middle schools in Chicago and Cold Spring, Minn., gang feuds in Tucson, stabbings and fistfights in Fort Worth and Green Cove Springs, Fla., and apparent murder-suicides in San Diego and Hopkinsville, Ky. Police have wounded armed students in standoffs in Spokane and Sacramento.
Since mid-August, when most US students returned to class, the nation's public schools have seen 18 violent deaths, more than in either of the previous two years. And that does not include about 50 non-fatal incidents.