Anti-gang strategies proposed
By Del Stover
Youth gangs are more commonplace and sophisticated than school officials realize, and elements of our society -- from Hollywood to rap singers -- are depicting gangs with a glamour and acceptance that inadvertently serve as a recruiting tool.
These were some of the disturbing messages shared with urban school leaders during a session on gang prevention and intervention sponsored by the Council of Urban Boards of Education.
There are more than 30,000 gangs across the nation, with a membership of at least 800,000, said Marc Wilder, a detective with the gang unit of the Sheriff’s Office of Hillsborough County, Fla. The county has at least 117 active gangs with 3,000 identifiable members.
“Every day, the numbers are growing,” he added.
Gangs vary in size and influence by community, but law enforcement agencies are seeing a disturbing sophistication in their operations, said Khaldun Everage, regional security facilitator for the Chicago Public Schools.
School board members can go online and find official gang websites, which read like a how-to guide with bylaws and advice for dealing with police.
Some gangs even hold weekly training sessions and force members to memorize state statutes to cite when stopped by police, he added. Some install video cameras on their cars to record their interaction with police.
School board members will find that most students have no desire to join a gang, he said. But students sometimes are recruited under duress, and others join for protection from street violence or in search of a sense of identity and belonging.
Meanwhile, rappers have given gangs a certain legitimacy, as have movies. Gangs have even gathered to watch movies like “Colors” or “Boyz in the Hood” as a form of training in gang behavior.
The panelists urged school officials to be diligent in their efforts to keep gang activity -- including symbols, colors, and hand signs -- outside the school building.
To do that, school board members must look beyond the schools and build collaborative partnerships with community groups and government agencies, said Kathleen Bowles, supervisor of safe and healthy schools for the Duval County, Fla., school system.
Joe Melita, executive director of the special investigative unit of the Broward County, Fla., school district and a member of the county’s multiagency gang task force, suggested better communications between school officials and police departments.
School resource officers (SROs) also are great assets, he said. Many students are afraid of police officers on the street, but SROs should be building relationships with students, gathering information about gang activity, and helping head off problems before they arise.
In Broward County, SROs also work to keep students off the streets, Melita said. At one school, a SRO started a band; at another, a SRO started a boxing club.
“There’s camaraderie at that school,” he said. “The kid that comes to that school, he’ll be safe. Kids know that someone really cares about them.”
In Chicago, Everage said, one of the most valuable strategies that school boards can support are those that simply keep kids off the streets.
“A couple of our schools now serve three meals a day,” he says. “They open at 6 in the morning and stay open until 9 at night. We’re trying to keep these kids safe.”
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