In case you don't listen religiously, This American Life recently aired a two-part story about Harper High School, a Chicago school where last year, in one school year, 29 current and former students were injured or killed in shootings. TAL sent three reporters into the school to talk to students, teachers, social workers, administrators, and parents this year, and they stayed for five months. The stories they tell are riveting—about how gangs operate much differently than the adults are imagining, how common it is for students to witness horrific gun violence, the weird maps and networks created by gang affiliation and students' deaths, the ramifications for young people who are caught up in what is essentially a war zone, and the effect it has on the adults who are fighting for these kids. (Says one social worker after a student runs away from school and home to avoid the police, "How could I lose him when I'm reaching my hand out? Grab back.")

The first episode is here, the second is here.

I've been slowly listening to the episodes over the last week or so, and now I can't stop thinking about them. It's haunting.

If you listen to the story, then you'll know that one issue the school is facing is the imminent loss of funding that they were getting for being a "turnaround school"—funding they say is working, if slowly, Funding that pays for those social workers and psychologists and extra teachers who make class sizes smaller. In the wake of the TAL reporting, a donation page for Harper High School has been set up. That donation page is here.