Out of school, risking violence

Shooting victims had poor attendance, system's data show

As a sixth-grader, Griffin transferred to four different schools and was suspended for bringing a knife to school. At the time of her death, she was enrolled in Woodbourne Day School, which serves students with emotional problems. She was enrolled there, off and on, for four and a half years and advanced only from ninth grade to 10th grade in that time.

Meanwhile, she joined a Bloods gang and ran wild on the streets as her family slipped into poverty. Her murder case remains open.

In late November last year, Ty'wonde M. Jones, 13, was stabbed to death, and his body was found in a Park Heights alley. The boy was among the youngest homicide victims of 2007.

When he was in elementary school, he had excelled. But entering seventh grade at Garrison Middle School, he began staying out late at night and hanging out with a rough crowd. "I talked to him. I punished him. I grounded him," his grandmother, Annabel Jones-Tillman, told The Sun after he died.

About a week before he was killed, Ty'wonde was suspended because he and some other kids jumped and beat another boy at school. His suspension hearing was set for the week after his death.

[e-mail] [e-mail]