When I read the lead of this story, my initial reaction was to shudder at the thought of sending my kids to a Chicago public school. A record number of students have been killed -- largely by gunfire -- in Chicago that the city is taking aggressive steps like installing security cameras in the schools, according to the Associated Press.

Since September, 20 Chicago Public Schools students have been killed, 18 by gunfire. Last school year, 24 of the more than 30 students killed were shot to death, compared with between 10 and 15 fatal shootings in the years before...

The number of violent deaths involving students in the nation's third-largest school district has increased so dramatically in the last two years that police are increasing school patrols and soon will be the first department in the country with live access to thousands of security cameras mounted outside — and inside — schools.

While the students say they feel safe at the school with its beefed up security, I could not help but think they were protected by a false sense of security. As the article later pointed out, none of the murders actually happened at the school. It sounds like the killings are more emblematic of the spike in violent crime in the city rather than lax patrolling of the schools.

Daley recently announced a new resource for police — access to the 4,500 security cameras mounted inside and outside about 200 elementary and high schools.

The real-time video from the cameras once was available only to school officials, but now police and the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications will be able to see it as well. Daley said indoor cameras will be used only in emergencies.

Daley also has rolled back the curfew times for minors by half an hour, to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 11 p.m. on weekends.

Many observers insist the issue isn't a school problem but a symptom of overall violence in the city. In fact, students in some of the city's most violent neighborhoods say school — with metal detectors, private security guards and uniformed police officers — is the one place they feel safe.