Illinois State University senior Kierra Reese visits her family in North Austin but doesn’t stay long because she feels more comfortable at college.
“It’s hard to see so many people just on the street wasting their lives and killing each other off,” the 22-year-old Reese told the Chicago Tribune.
She grew up around North and Laramie avenues, near where 7-year-old Heaven Sutton was shot to death last summer.
Courtney Abbott, who just graduated from Illinois State, doesn’t walk around his Austin neighborhood like he did when he was back on campus. Instead, the 21-year-old drives, and he also makes sure to check in with friends to find out which spots to avoid and where it may be safer to visit.
Reese, Abbott and other students interviewed by the Tribune say coming home takes some adjustment and the contrast between their neighborhoods and being on a college campus can be great.
Read the rest of the story by Jeremy Gorner and Geoff Ziezulewicz here.