We use cookies and other tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience. If you continue to use our site, you agree to the use of such cookies. For more info, see our privacy policy.
Skip to main content

Hi. We love you. Be our Life Partner.

Support the show to get ad-free listening, bonus content, and our new Greatest Hits Archive.

Learn more
This American Life Partners logo
00:00
00:00
  • Transcript
  • Share
This American Life
  • Life Partners
  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Follow Us
  • Life Partners
487
February 15, 2013

Harper High School - Part One

We spent five months at Harper High School in Chicago, where last year alone 29 current and recent students were shot. 29. We went to get a sense of what it means to live in the midst of all this gun violence, how teens and adults navigate a world of funerals and Homecoming dances. We found so many incredible and surprising stories, this show is a two-parter.

  • Download
    Control-click (or right-click) Tap and hold to download
  • Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe in Apple Podcasts Subscribe
  • Transcript

Principal Leonetta Sanders and Social Worker Crystal Winfield Smith. Photo by Bill Healy.

More in this Series

488
Feb. 22, 2013

Harper High School - Part Two

Prologue

At the first day assembly, the freshman seem confused and nervous while the seniors are boisterous and confident. It's exactly the kind of first day stuff you'd expect at any school. Until Harper Principal Leonetta Sanders calls for a moment of silence to honor the students Harper has lost in the last year. Then Harper doesn't seem so ordinary. In the clean and orderly halls of Harper, we meet the staff as they shepherd the students through new schedules and rules while they also try to reassure parents about the frightening rise in shootings in the neighborhood. (7 minutes)

Photo Gallery

Harper High School

Act One

Rules to Live By

So many of the shootings in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, the neighborhood where Harper High sits, are characterized as "gang-related." Often, the implication is that gang-related means there is a reason to the shooting — huge, established gangs shooting it out over drug territory. Gang-related often implies you must've deserved it, a certain level of 'what goes around comes around.' Reporter Linda Lutton talks to dozens of Harper students who say adults don't understand that that's not the way it works. Gangs don't operate the way they used to. (13 minutes)

By

Linda Lutton
Act Two

A Tiny Office on the Second Floor

Reporter Alex Kotlowitz spends time in the social work office, where the effects of gun violence are most often apparent. Early on in the year, social worker Crystal Smith spends time with a junior named Devonte, talking him through his grief and guilt after Devonte accidentally shot and killed his 14 year old brother last year. Crystal also meets with Devonte's mother, who has some understandably confused feelings towards Devonte. (16 minutes)

By

Alex Kotlowitz
Act Three

Game Day

By early October, it's been pretty quiet at Harper, as far as gun violence goes. But on the day before the homecoming game, during a pep rally, a senior named Damoni who is both on the football team and nominated for Homecoming King, gets word that a good friend of his, James, has been shot. James is also a former Harper student with many ties to the school. Reporter Ben Calhoun follows Principal Sanders and the rest of the Harper staff as they jump into action and try to ward off more violence, keep the students safe and grapple with whether they need to cancel the Harper High School Homecoming. (18 minutes)

Theme music for our two-part series on Harper High School was composed by The Latebloomer. Hear the original.

Update 4/2013: First Lady Michelle Obama to visit Harper High School

Update 7/2013: Harper Student Murdered

By

Ben Calhoun

Song:

“Hang On In There” by Mike James Kirkland
Update

Donations for Harper High School

Related

If you enjoyed this episode, you may like these
366: A Better Mousetrap (2008)
Oct. 10, 2008

Act Three: Everything Must Go

Nellie Thomas sold ammunition illegally on the South side of Chicago.
488: Harper High School - Part Two
Feb. 22, 2013

Act Three: Get Your Gun

Chicago has strict gun laws but, obviously, teenagers are somehow getting their hands on guns.
343: Poultry Slam 2007
Nov. 23, 2007

Act Two: Last Meal

When Francois Mitterand knew he was about to die, he decided that the last food to cross his lips would be poultry...a tiny bird that is actually illegal to eat in France.

Staff Recommendations

View all
565
Aug. 28, 2015

Lower 9 + 10

We go to the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans to talk to residents about what matters most to them ten years after the hurricane.

488
Feb. 22, 2013

Harper High School - Part Two

Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

This American Life

This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.

  • How to Listen
  • Episodes
  • Recommended
  • About
    • Overview
    • Staff
    • Announcements
    • Fellowships
    • Jobs
    • Music
    • Make Radio
    • On The Road
    • FAQ
    • Submissions
    • Merch
    • Contact Us
    • Our Other Shows
  • Merch
  • Contact
  • Life Partners
  • Serial
  • S-Town
© 1995 - 2025 This American Life Privacy Policy | Terms of Use

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

Subscribe

  • on Spotify
  • in Apple Podcasts

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email