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North Philadelphia Schoolkids March Against Neighborhood Gun Violence

By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- In North Philadelphia today, classes at De Burgos Elementary School were put aside for a march for peace.

For two months, the school at 4th Street and Lehigh Avenue has been plagued by a series of lockdowns stemming from neighborhood shootings.

Tired of living in fear, students and faculty at De Burgos Elementary decided to go public. This march for peace was designed to let the outside world know what they've had to endure inside, on a daily basis.

   (Student montage:)

        "Sometimes we have shootouts and lockdowns."

        "And sometimes we even heard people screaming and everything."

        "It scares us."

"You have not taught until you've heard a sixth grader tell you how scared they are during the lockdown," one teacher told KYW Newsradio.  "It takes everything in me not to cry for them.  This is not normal.  This is their reality.  People need to know this happens."

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