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The lessons kids learn in life start well before they get to class.

“The number one thing that the students have told us is that they do not feel safe walking to and from school,” Youth Advocates Director Charles Rotramel said.

Two months ago, any sense of safety students at Westbury High had was shattered by gunshots.

Someone murdered 16-year-old Julian Ruiz in a drive-by shooting as he walked to school.

Ruiz’s family believes the killer targeted Julian because he wouldn’t join a gang.

“Julian’s case is rare in how extreme it was,” Rotramel said. “But there are situations that happen on the way to and from school in many of these neighborhoods every single day.”

Rotramel runs Youth Advocates, an intervention organization for at-risk teenagers.

His office is not far from Benavidez Elementary in the Gulfton neighborhood of southwest Houston.

Rotramel said Benavidez is an example of the perils children face going to and from school.

How tough is the neighborhood?

A special computer program analyzed street by street crime data over the last two years and then checked how close the city’s 1,500 murders, rapes and assaults came to HISD schools.

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Julian Ruiz was murdered on his way to class.

Within a mile of Benavidez Elementary, there were nine murders, 39 rapes and six assaults since 2005.

“The problem is not inside the building,” Rotramel said. “The problem is to and from school.”

On the east side, the neighborhood near Dogan Elementary saw six murders, 20 rapes and four assaults.

To the north for Burrus Elementary near Loop 610 and Interstate 45, there were four murders, 16 rapes and five assaults all within a mile of the school.

Blackshear Elementary in the shadow of downtown near Texas Southern University also had four murders nearby, 33 rapes and three assaults.

Finally near Westbury, there were eight murders, 34 rapes and three assaults all within a mile of campus since 2005.

Julian Ruiz’s killing in December was one of the violent crimes by Westbury.

Rotramel’s group is meeting with council members and police Thursday, asking them to increase patrols within a mile of the school to create a safe zone.

So what keeps community crime from spilling over on to campuses? HISD said one reason is its 170-member strong police force.

It turns out another reason is that students telling on their classmates.

“It’s insulating the schools from crime,” Crime Stoppers Director Katherine Cabaniss said.

Crime Stoppers created a Safe Schools Program, convincing kids to report anything illegal during classes.

In the last decade, Crime Stoppers said students reported a 1,010 serious incidents --  that’s two a week.

Children also collected more than $157,000 in rewards.

“I think students recognize crime on campus when they see it,” Cabaniss said. “They don’t want violence in their schools. They want to be protected from this type of activity.”

It’s more difficult off-campus.

To this day, police have yet to catch who killed Julian Ruiz.

“Julian Ruiz was an isolated incident, but it could happen again,” Rotramel said. “We don’t know.”

What’s more certain is with crime so close to campus, kids are likely learning as much in class as they do heading to it.