By Chastity Pratt Dawsey

Detroit Free Press Education Writer


First of two parts

In the dim early morning, Shantinique Skinner slips out the side door of her house and heads to school before the sun rises.The 18-year-old walks past a stretch of bungalows and colonials on her block, only three vacant homes stand between her house and the corner.

The next block has 11 abandoned houses. The blocks after that even more.

Shantinique walks 1.7 miles to Denby high school on Detroit's east side alone. Often in the dark.

She passes at least 88 vacant homes on her way there. And dozens of abandoned lots. She walks on blocks where the streetlights are busted or don't work. And she does it in a ZIP code that the U.S. Attorney's Office called one of Detroit's most deadly last year.
http://www.freep.com/article/2012041...sey=nav%7Chead