Last month, when 16-year-old high school student Blair Holt was shot to death on a CTA bus, allegedly by another 16-year-old, two very different worlds collided. Holt was an honor student, a schoolboy trying to survive in a community that a recent study says is now dominated by dropouts.

On a school day in Chicago, visit any predominantly African-American neighborhood, look closely enough and you'll see them: teenaged boys who dropped out of high school.

"Sometimes, it was just something about the teachers that just didn't interest me, you know, and certain things that made me not want to stay. I wanted to leave, you know," said Johnny Stevenson, high school drop out.

Stevenson quit during his sophomore year. Now, he spends his days on the street -- usually, he says, with a bottle -- and his nights working at a fast food restaurant.

"That's it. Chill, drink beer and go work," said Stevenson.

A University of Chicago study reported that 61 percent, or nearly two-thirds, of African-American boys who enter ninth grade in city public high schools do not finish. Theirs is the highest "dropout rate" in Chicago, compared to 49 percent of Latino boys, 42 percent of white boys and 24 percent of Asians.

"It is a huge loss of human potential," said Waldo Johnson, PhD, University of Chicago.

And researchers agree that dropouts are more likely to be charged with crimes. Last month, 16-year-old Michael Pace, who quit Julian High School in March, was arrested a few weeks later for shooting up a CTA bus filled with current Julian students. Police say he was trying to kill a teenager with whom he had feuded. Instead, the bullets hit five innocent children, including 16-year-old honor student Blair Holt who died from his wounds.

"My heart goes out to the Holt family," said Yvette Harris, the suspect's mother.

Pace's mother told ABC7 her learning disabled son left Julian after being suspended 20 times for fights related to gang activity.

"He came home and he told me that they chased him and they were shooting at him...the gangbangers up to Julian," Harris said. "He never been in no trouble with the law, he don't even have a record. He was hurting, he was scared. He never had no problems in life like this that ever happened."

Social worker Dian Powell says understaffed public school counseling programs have lost control. The not-for-profit agency where she works, Metropolitan Family Services, has surveyed hundreds of teens at risk for dropping out.

"We thought the kids were gonna define the biggest problem they have is finding a job. That wasn't it," said Powell. "You know what the kids said? 'Adults don't trust us'."

Building trust, as well as faith, is part of the House Covenant Church's mission on Chicago's West Side. Here, the hymns are hip-hop and the sermon is likely to be rapped and rhymed. The pastor is ordained Minister Phil Jackson, who says all institutions trying to reach urban young people should try new approaches during these desperate times.

"It's rough to do work with young people. It is hard to get a young man to look back at you to consider another way of life," said Rev. Jackson. "Churches have to get more grittier. There should be no reason that churches are not seeking to be as creative as they can be and to have that kind of impact."

Jackson says the House Covenant reached about 9,000 young people last year.

A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson did not dispute the U of C drop-out numbers. But he said the district's graduation rate had improved since the study was published in 2005. The study said the overall CPS dropout rate, boys and girls of all races, is 46 percent.

ABC7 will take a closer look at this issue in a special broadcast called "Stop the Violence: A Search for Solutions." It airs on ABC7 Wednesday evening at 6:30. The program will also be made available on-demand on ABC7Chicago.com

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