President Barack Obama will visit a Chicago high school Friday as part of a three-day tour to talk about the economy.
Obama plans to make remarks at Hyde Park Academy High School, on the city's South Side, about "strengthening the economy for the middle class and those striving to get there," the White House confirmed.
Based on planning notes from the White House, the president should speak between 2 and 4 p.m. ET.
Though Obama is expected to speak mostly about the economy, it's anticipated he also will touch on the gun violence that has put Chicago in national headlines for months.
Obama's visit to his hometown comes days after his State of the Union address, which featured the parents of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old honor roll student who was shot and killed at a South Side park after school earlier this month.
The shooting occurred less than a mile from Obama's Chicago home, a point the president included in his annual address. Days before her death, Pendleton performed with the King College Prep band and drill team during some of Obama's inauguration events.
"In the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun," Obama said during his fifth State of the Union address.
"One of those we lost was a young girl named Hadiya Pendleton. She was 15 years old. She loved Fig Newtons and lip gloss. She was a majorette. She was so good to her friends, they all thought they were her best friend. Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed in a Chicago park after school, just a mile away from my house," he said.
Two suspects have been arrested and charged in Pendleton's murder. Chicago police Supt. Garry McCarthy on Monday said 18-year-old Michael Ward confessed to being the shooter, telling police that Pendleton was not his intended target.
"In fact, the offenders had it all wrong," said McCarthy. "They thought the group they shot into included members of a rival gang. Instead, it was a group of upstanding and determined kids, who, like Hadiya, were repulsed by the gang lifestyle."
Photo Credit: NBCChicago.com