Philadelphia gun violence: 20 students fatally shot so far this school year
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's April and the School District of Philadelphia released alarming numbers Monday.
Since this school year began, the School District said 100 students have been shot and 20 of them were killed.
"Twenty school children in Philadelphia that will have no more hopes and dreams," Michelle Kerr-Spry, of Mothers In Charge, a violence prevention, education and intervention organization, said. "But there could have been 100 homicides, it is only by luck that there aren't."
Recently, police say 15-year-old sophmore Devin Weedon was shot on the way to Simon Gratz High School.
Back on Sept. 27, a deadly shooting outside Roxborough High School left 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde dead and four other teens wounded after being ambushed leaving a football scrimmage.
Kerr-Spry says they work with students in schools.
"What a lot of young people don't understand is that for a split moments decision, you could impact a life," Kerr-Spry said. "When we bring forth mothers who have lost children their very ages and what it has done to us as a family, they seem to get it."
Kerr-Spry says the work is far from done in the fight against gun violence.
"We have a heavy lift and a hard pull to do and I think we can make a change but we have to make our outreach much larger, much more impactful," Kerr-Spry said.
Kerr-Spry said they are grateful for every life they touched, and more importantly, saved. She also has a message.
"To my fellow neighbor: 'Don't give up, don't give up,'" Kerr-Spry said.
The district says only two incidents occurred near the schools.
They say they will continue to work with the police department to keep the students safe.