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29th CPS Student Killed This Year

Boy was shot near his South Side home

By Peggy Cassidy

| Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009 | Updated 7:44 PM CDT

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A gunman opened fire striking and killing a sophomore at Chicago Vocational Career Academy.

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A 15-year-old South Side boy has become the 29th Chicago Public School student to be killed in street violence this year.

A gunman opened fire near 65th and Stony Island about 4:30 p.m. Monday, striking Lee Miller, a sophomore at Chicago Vocational Career Academy.

He died several hours later.

"If I knew his mother, I would tell her, like, everybody at CVS care for your son. Everybody's walking down the hallways, eyes red, eyes puffy, just crying, rolling out tears, because he was such a good person," said Miller's friend, Breanna Ledger.

Police are also investigating the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old last Friday night. It was not clear if that victim was a CPS student.

Beginning in September 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times began a series examining violence in schools. In related articles under the title "Calming Our Classrooms," the paper calls for "a radical rethinking in the way the Chicago Public Schools deal with the social and emotional problems plaguing many students -- the stuff that makes metal detectors and security guards necessary in the first place.