Daley: Parents have to know where their kids are

April 21, 2008

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

It’s not often that a Chicago mayor is reduced to reading the police blotter. But, that’s what it came down to for Mayor Daley today after a weekend bloodbath that turned 13 Chicago Public School students into shooting victims.

One-by-one, Daley ticked off the ages of the young victims and the time and circumstances surrounding the shootings that left them injured.

Some were walking down the street with friends in broad daylight. Others were leaving a party, standing on a sidewalk outside their homes or in the process of entering their homes. One had come to the aid of a family member involved in a domestic battery.

Daley has tried rolling back curfew by 30 minutes -- to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends -- in a desperate attempt to stop the bloodshed. But, he knows that curfew is only as good as the parents who enforce it.

“What we’re asking people to do is know where their children are, No. 1. Children are important and these are all children. These are 15-, 16-, 16-, 14-, 17-, 16-, 16-, 17-, 13- and 12-year-olds … Parents have to know where they are at all times,â€