Mexican drug wars affecting children

TIJUANA, Mexico, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Educators in Tijuana, Mexico, said they are worried about the effect the explosion of drug-related violence may be having on the city's children.

In a number of incidents, the bodies of tortured and decapitated victims have been dumped outside schools for youngsters to see, The New York Times reported Monday.

The Mexican attorney general's office says there have been more than 3,700 killings related to drugs and organized crime this year. In Tijuana, a wave of gangland killings has left at least 99 people dead since Sept. 26.

"There's no doubt these images affect the children," Miguel Angel Gonzalez Tovar, the headmaster of a school where drug traffickers dumped the bodies of 12 people whose tongues had been cut out, told the Times.

"They want attention, and they know leaving bodies in front of a school has impact," said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez told the Times his greatest fear is that the killings will lose their shock value among the young, making them an expected part of life.