MD. Prince George’s students cope with violence, rape and fatal shootings

Two days after a student was gunned down while walking to Anninna Sigmon’s high school in Prince George’s County, she still wasn’t sure when she would feel safe enough to return to class.

“I just feel like I could be next,” said Sigmon, 17, a senior at Central High School in Capitol Heights. “People shouldn’t be afraid to go to school.”

Even before classes began, county school officials sent a letter to parents asking that they encourage their children to walk in groups.

In a two-mile radius around Central High, police said, there have been 84 street robberies, seven homicides and nine rapes so far this year.

In another higher-crime area, a two-mile radius around Suitland High School, police have recorded eight homicides, 13 rapes and 136 citizen robberies in 2012.

But many parents are on edge because Ross is the second Prince George’s high school student killed this school year.

During a back-to-school meeting last week at Central High, police sought to reassure parents, saying they would add patrols during students’ morning and afternoon commutes and will continue to work closely with school security.

The response is similar to those taken in other U.S. cities plagued by violence.

 

 

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