Shooting erupts at high school basketball game

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CHICAGO — Five people were shot as spectators left a crowded high school basketball game Friday in what police called a possibly gang-related attack that sent panicked students running into a snowy street on the city's South Side.

Five males — three in serious condition and two in critical — were taken from Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy around 8 p.m., said Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez. Hospital spokespeople said later that at least three were expected to be treated and released.

"It was crazy. It was like killers on the loose," said Joshua Glaze, 15, a freshman at the school.

The game was in overtime and some students began to leave the building, Glaze said.

A vehicle then drove up and a person or people inside started shooting into the crowd, said Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis.

No suspect has been identified or arrested, but the shooting was "isolated" and possibly gang-related, Weis said. Two hundred officers were in the area looking for suspects, he said.

Dunbar freshman Shaneisha Turman, 15, said she saw a silver truck pull up to a bus stop outside the school. People inside the truck pretended to fire a gun and then "they really started shooting," she told the Chicago Tribune.

People were shouting, "'They're shooting!"' Turman said. "It was a lot of people shouting and running."

Police blocked access to streets at least two blocks from the high school to make way for ambulances and police cars.

Andres Durbak, director of the city schools' Office of Safety and Security, said video taken in and around the school has been handed over to police.

"This is a tragedy," Durbak said.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond declined to characterize the victims beyond gender and would not say whether they had attended the basketball game. She added that they were "not necessarily students."

The high school has about 1,600 students and is the alma mater of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson.

Mass. teacher accused of having sex with teen

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2009Jan10/0,4670,TeacherRape,00.html

ROCKLAND, Mass. —  An elementary school teacher accused of having sex with a teenage boy pleaded not guilty to rape charges Friday.

Christine A. McCallum, 29, of Rockland, is accused of having multiple sexual encounters with the boy that began when he was 13 years old. The alleged incidents occurred in Abington and Rockland.

McCallum was released on $10,000 bond after she pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape at Brockton District Court for the incidents in Abington. She also pleaded not guilty later Friday in Hingham District Court on four additional counts for the alleged rapes in Rockland.

The married fifth-grade teacher has been fired from her job at Woodsdale Elementary School in Abington, Superintendent Peter G. Schafer said Friday.

"We are aware and are deeply concerned about the disturbing allegations against her, and we will be fully cooperating with the authorities," Schafer said in a statement.

Rockland police Chief John Llewellyn said his officers and Abington police arrested McCallum at her home Thursday night.

Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz said McCallum was working as a teacher's aide and tutoring the boy's younger brother when the relationship began. Cruz said the father of the boy, now 16, went to authorities recently after he found some correspondence between his son and McCallum.

"The allegations are very disturbing, when you are alleging that a grown woman in a position of trust ... is allegedly having a sexual relationship with a child," Cruz said.

In court, Assistant District Attorney Michael Scott said McCallum had become like a surrogate mother to the boy, who lives in Abington and was being raised by a single father. He said the relationship progressed to kissing and sex after McCallum plied the boy with alcohol.

McCallum's attorney, Frederick McDermott, said there was no evidence his client ever had sex with the teen. He said she acted as the boy's surrogate mother, but that relationship ended in July 2007 after she caught the boy stealing liquor from her home.

McCallum was ordered to stay away from the boy, his family, and all children under 16. She also must wear a tracking device and surrender her passport.

A telephone message left at a number for a Christine A. McCallum in Rockland was not immediately returned Friday.