The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Chicago children" ...
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Fighting Postpartum Depression
The Chicago Tribune's two-part series about postpartum depression."Part 1: Descent into Darkness: Melanie Stokes had wanted a baby daughter for most of her life. But after child's birth, Melanie was stricken with a largely misunderstood mental illness that can be difficult to treat. It robbed her of her job and, ultimately, her will to live. Part 2: From pain, a new purpose. Jennifer Mudd Houghtaling turned to her mother for support after she fell into the grip of postpartum depression. Now her mother had joined with others to educate the public about the illness and to make sure no one else's daughter dies." According to the series, "postpartum depression, some experts say, is the most common yet most frequently undiagnosed complication of pregnancy, affecting somewhere from 10 to 20 percent of women who give birth, or almost half a million women every year."
Tags: depression; postpartum depression; baby; newborn; child; infant; mothers; illness; mom; Melanie Stokes; Jennifer Mudd Houghtaling; children; treatment; illness; misunderstood illness; sickness
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Ritalin Roulette
The Chicago Sun-Times found that "deciding which children in the Chicago area are prescribed Ritalin has more to do with where people live than how great a child's need is, the first extensive analysis of state Schedule II narcotic prescription-monitoring data shows.
Tags: Chicago; children; Ritalin; Adderall; discrimination; prescriptions; drug use; Illinois prescription-monitoring program; database mapping project
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A will to read: One man's journey to literacy
Kiernan tells the story of Calvin Cottrell, who "left school before he was 10 years old and he left his family's farm in Arkansas at 21, with little more in his pocket than a $12 train ticket to Chicago and the love of a woman whose broad smile lit him up. Like millions of other African-Americans who moved North during the Great Migration, he fashioned a successful life out of the little he had. Worked in a factory. Bought a house. Raised three children. He navigated his world without the simplest of tools, just as thousands of others did, without the help of a street sign, a map or a menu. Now, with faltering eyes and ears and a body made weak by a stroke, Calvin Cottrell has set out to win back the education he was denied by discrimination and the harsh demands of his life. In his 60s, he is learning how to read and write."
Tags: Calvin Cottrell; learning to read; write; North; African-Americans; literacy; money; words; understanding; knowledge; quest; Chicago; Arkansas; poor; discrimination; education; school
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CHA Parents Seek Stability As Housing Falls
As the Chicago Housing Authority closes down more developments due to failed inspections and uncorrected problems, low-income families are forced to move, ultimately putting their children into new school districts. School and housing officials informally agreed to pay for busing if students were moved from the development during the school year. However, the groups have interpretted this agreement differently. The CHA says "only children who are relocated outside a development because a building is scheduled for closure should be included." But school officials say "assistance should be available for any CHA family who moves, if a parent wants a child to remain in the school." Parents agree that pulling their children out of schools is not in their best academic interests, but many can not afford transportation. And while authorities thought moving people would create diversity, "most children who left schools serving Chicago Housing Authority developments between 1995 and 2000 transferred to schools with above-average numbers of low-income, black and low-achieving students." The Chicago Reporter provides insight on these issues.
Tags: Chicago Housing Authority; schools; housing; children; transportation; education; Illinois School Code; low-income; families; housing subsidies
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Deadly Lessons: School Shooters Tell Why
In a two-part series, the Chicago Sun-Times reports on the results of the Secret Service analysis of 37 school shootings, "the findings of the study deserve the attention of every adult. . . In their own words, the boys who have killed in America's schools offer a simple suggestion to prevent it from happening again: Listen to us." The study suggest that there are no stereotypes of a child who kills. They come from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities, incomes and family lives. Rather, the child sees this as the only option and many of the attacks were planned in advance. In addition, many of the shooters easily obtained guns and often told someone of their planned attack. "The answer, researchers believe, lies more in listening to children, dealing fairly with grievances such as bullying, improving the climate of communication in schools, keeping guns away from children, and investigating promptly and thoroughly when a student raises a concern." Bill Dedman reports more on these issues.
Tags: children; schools; violence; Secret Service; Department of Education; Center for the Prevention of School Violence; teachers; parents; police
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Kids In Confinement
In this two-part series and numerous follow-up stories, a hidden-camera investigation explores the underside of "time-out rooms" - a questionable disciplinary practice common in Chicago public schools and spreading nationwide. Reporters exposed the unsavory conditions and often inhumane treatment used to discipline school children, many of whom emerged with permanent physical or psychological damage.
Tags: VIDEOCLIP TAPE TRANSCRIPT education; abuse; FOI; Board of Education; Equip for Equality
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How Troubled Youth Became Big Business
The Chicago Tribune investigation of the "rapid privatization of America's youth jails and foster programs" reveals a scantly monitored service industry "rife with corruption and abuse." The newspaper found that such organizations used public funds to purchase luxury cars and country club memberships while the children in their care were placed in the hands of underpaid and ill-trained workers.
Tags: CAR child care; foster care; youth jail; business; service industry
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Getting A Grip on ADD
The Chicago Tribune Magazine reports that the true believers in Ritalin hold that, like Prozac, the drug of the '90s, Ritalin seems to clear symptoms once thought immovable and immobilizing. But, on the other side, the newfound faith in Ritalin's power to rescue people from the turmoils and anxieties of life has spurred controversy about the American quest for perfection. The increasingly vocal opponents of the drug are asking a pressing question: Do our rigid ideas about appropriate behavior and intolerance of individuality result in a Stepford society?
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The Miracle Merchants
For nearly two years, Chicago Tribune reporters sponsored more than a dozen children in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In May of 1997, eight reporters set off in search of those children. Eventually, all were found-except for one girl who had been dead for most of the time she was sponsored. Although a few of the other children received periodic handouts-often ill-fitting clothing and shoes, bars of soap, cheap cooking pots-several got next-to-nothing. In no case was any child's life changed, several of the children were even unaware they had been sponsored.
Tags: abuse; poverty; non-profit; charities; benefits
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Sex Abuse Cases Decline, but Blacks Still Main Victims
This report revealed that support services for victims of child sexual assault in Cook County are spread too thin. In Chicago, the analysis revealed a city very much divided by race and poverty. Of the 13,970 children under 18 who wer victimized by sex offenses in the 1990's, nearly nine out of every ten are minorities. The city's poorest communities suffer the highest rates of assault and abuse of children under 18.
Tags: SOCIAL SERVICES; MINORITIES; CHILDREN; POVERTY