Parents, police guard Chicago kids on risky trek to school

CHICAGO (AFP) — In this gang-riddled Chicago neighborhood, keeping kids safe on the way to and from school takes an army of parents and police.

Cruisers block the road in front of Crane high school, cops stand guard on the steps and street corners and video cameras mounted on streetlights capture whatever they may miss.

As the students spill out of the towering building, Matthew Smith, 52, scans the crowd wearing a blazing yellow "Parent Patrol" vest.

"Where my babies at?" he mutters.

About 15 students find Smith and he herds them onto a city bus, where he and "Granny" Williams watch over them as they make the dangerous two-mile, (three-kilometer) two-bus journey home to their housing project.

A police cruiser shadows them as backup.

Some 24 Chicago public school children have been slain since the academic year began in September, 21 with guns. Nobody knows ...