Violence

A report of a teenager with a gun at a Center City elementary school and the threat of a rumble between girls from high schools in Olney and North Philadelphia had police and school officials on alert Friday afternoon. But neither incident led to violence. The Philadelphia High School for Girls in Olney let classes out an hour early because a fight reportedly was brewing between Girls High and Allegheny students, officials said. The cause was said to be an earlier argument over a boy. Allegheny is a school for girls with discipline problems.

WITH THE city seeing so much violence and so many shootings, why again are we so focused on activities that have been going on for years? As long as I can remember, all forms of bookmaking have been taking place in every neighborhood throughout the city. Yes, crime is crime, but the time and piles of taxpayers' money invested in following these people around is obscene. They have their own inner circle and bother no one else. And if gambling is such a crime, then why are we trying to put casinos here in the city?

A GENERATION KILLING ITSELF WINNING ESSAY I was assigned to write a paper on the topic of violence. Violence in schools, violence in the home, or in everyday life. For a brief moment, I had no idea what to write. Then it dawned on me. In 1992, on his way home from getting a haircut, my brother was jacked. In 1993, on his way home from hanging out with his friends, my 16-year-old cousin was shot point-black in the head by another teenager. He died. On Nov. 30, 1994, my brother and my five-year-old sister ran from a gun- toting teenager who wanted to do who knows what to my brother.

You can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio or television without hearing about an incident of teenage violence. In Philadelphia alone, 48 young people died criminally last year and 53 young people died in the same way in 1992. Further, in our nation, arrest rates for violent crimes committed by juveniles have increased each year from 1989 through 1992. Looking just at murders, law enforcement officials note that 52 percent of the murders committed in 1992 were committed by a person age 24 or younger.

Daily News reporter Yvonne Latty often writes about violence in Philadelphia. Yesterday, she got closer to it than she ever expected - or wanted. Latty was interviewing Linda Lassiter, who lost two children in an arson fire just before Christmas. Angered by what Lassiter was saying, her boyfriend started beating her, said Latty. And when Latty called 911, the boyfriend grabbed the receiver from her ear and slammed it against the side of Latty's head. Latty, 32, was shaken by the attack, but was not seriously injured.

WHAT A mistake moving the casino to the Gallery, nobody in their right mind goes anywhere near the Gallery at night - e.g., an 83-year-old man beaten half to death in the daytime. It's not safe, and who has the guts to walk around there at night? Unless of course you're packing. What a mistake. Joe Pineiro Voorhees, N.J. IFEEL sorry for the family of William Palmer, but to sue Hahnemann Hospital for $5.5 million is wrong. Why don't you sue the people who killed William?

This time it was not in the inner city where violence showed its ugly face, but in middle-class and usually tranquil Tacony: In a moment of madness, Christa Lewis, 16, an honor student and athlete at St. Hubert's High School, died a senseless death before she had a chance to live a meaningful life. Friday evening was going to be a night of wild fun, a night of laughter and of teenagers being young and carefree at a neighborhood carnival across the street from Christa's school.