The 6600 block of South Ellis Avenue anchors one of Chicago's scarier neighborhoods. Students who attend the Alexandre Dumas Elementary School located there have had their $100 Nike sneakers stolen off their feet on the way to class in the morning. Drugs are everywhere. "It's a constant battle for the children to get here," says principal Sylvia Peters, who oversees the institution's 682 pupils and 40 teachers.
Dumas is a 100% black inner-city public school, the kind of place that has an appalling reputation. By all rights, things should be just as bleak inside the scarred cinder-block building as outside. But...
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