This story was published in partnership with The Trace , a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here .
As Philadelphia’s students settle into a new academic year, school administrators are tasked, once again, with addressing a persistent problem: gun violence in neighborhoods surrounding schools that threatens to steal or alter the lives of their students.
Though significantly fewer young people have been shot this year, three of the city’s most recent victims – a 17-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl who died, and a 15-year-old boy who was in critical condition — were teens.
The shootings were a stark reminder of the challenge faced by school officials in Philadelphia and across the country: how to protect students from a crisis they did not cause and cannot solve on their own. The volume of gun violence coming from outside school walls raises questions about what schools are responsible for doing to keep the young people in their care safe.