School districts take steps to confront gang violence

By Ellie Ashford

11/9/04 — When a student died after a fight in a bathroom at Westside High School in September, the Memphis City school district realized it had to do more to address the gang issue.

Tarus Williams, an eighth-grader at the 7-12 school, had willingly taken part in the fight as part of an initiation into a group called G-Unit, says district spokesperson Kirk Clayborn.

The boys left the lunchroom as a group and headed to a nearby boys’ room. During the fight, Williams received a trauma injury to the heart and died on the way to the hospital. Six boys in seventh and eighth grade were charged with negligent homicide.

According to recent news reports, gang-related incidents appear to be on the rise in several metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and San Jose, Calif. High school football games recently were postponed in Sayreville, N.J., and Durham, N.C., because of potential gang violence.

The number of communities experiencing youth gang problems increased substantially between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s, the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) reports. The prevalence of gang activity remained relatively stable in the larger cities and declined in smaller communities in more recent years.

Preliminary results from the Justice Department’s 2002 National Youth Gang Survey indicate a slight increase, “suggesting gang activity may once again be on the rise.”

Gangs among school-age youths appear to be growing in some cities, not in others, says John P. Moore, director of the Tallahassee, Fla.-based NYGC. “On the East Coast, we’re seeing the emergence of Hispanic gangs recruiting school-age kids from immigrant populations. But there’s still a much higher prevalence of gangs in Los Angeles and Chicago.”

A community issue

“Traditionally, schools have been reluctant to act as socializing agents,” Moore says. “Most administrators feel the best way to deal with kids acting out or throwing gang signs in schools is to kick them out. But all that does is give the problem room to fester and grow.”

He recommends that schools take a proactive approach by carrying out prevention and intervention strategies in collaboration with families, law enforcement, and community groups.

After the incident in Memphis, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.), city officials, school district leaders, civic organizations, and the police department held several joint meetings to develop a plan to address gang violence.

Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton appointed a committee to create a youth-friendly website and confidential hotline for reporting gang activity in schools.

Memphis Superintendent Carol Johnson has agreed to hire four more school resource officers and improve security measures. The school district is hosting several parent workshops at various schools and throughout the community. The district also is expanding parent patrols at schools.

Westside had not had a problem with violence before, Clayborn says. The school’s full-time police officer was on duty in the lunch room at the time of the fight, and Westside already had 16 surveillance cameras.

Westside Principal Jerry Smith had make progress in raising student achievement, Clayborn says. “That shows this type of incident can happen anywhere.”

Gangs have been growing “at an alarming rate in Northern Virginia,” particularly Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS 13, says Tim Murtagh of the office of state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore. That gang, with roots in El Salvador, is responsible for several recent murders and a machete attack.

From the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the gangs have spread to Richmond, the Tidewater region, and the Shenandoah Valley.

To attack the problem, Kilgore added a gang component in September to the ongoing state-funded Class Action program, which brings police officers to classrooms to talk about citizenship and the consequences of crime.

The gang component, targeted to students in kindergarten through grade 8, “teaches children that they must be their own person and that it is their responsibility to set themselves on the right path by avoiding gangs and gang behavior,” Kilgore says. “It is a message of empowerment.”

Ten school systems have adopted the program, including Chesterfield County, which plans to offer it in all 36 of its elementary schools.

Various jurisdictions in the Washington, D.C., region have been working on the gang problem.

The Prince George’s County and Montgomery County school districts in Maryland held a conference on gangs recently to help school officials deal with the increasing role of public middle and high schools as recruitment grounds for gangs, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments held a Regional Gang Summit in September.

And in northern Virginia, the Fairfax County Police Department and other county agencies ran a summer camp for 35 local teenagers that included gang resistance strategies, role playing exercises, and field trips to juvenile court and a detention center

Battles over turf

In Rockford, Ill., there have been four gang-related incidents in middle and high schools this year.

“A couple of gangs came into conflict with each other over turf issues,” says Superintendent Dennis Thompson. Some of the incidents stem from grudges between rival gangs over the summer that resurfaced when students came back to school. Neighborhood-based gangs are active in Rockford, as well as local branches of the Vice Lords and Latin Kings.

“After a while, most gang members keep a low profile at school,” Thompson says. “Gangs can be very violent, but they can also be disciplined at controlling the behavior of their members.” Gang “wannabes” can often be more dangerous than full-fledged gang members.

Thompson says he’s more concerned with “bad behavior” in general — including “fighting, disrespect, and lack of civility” — than just dealing with gangs. “I’m appalled at the behavior we’re seeing in school, and it’s getting worse.”

He says Rockford plans to create an alternative middle and high school next year that emphasizes discipline.

Meanwhile, the district is working with outside groups willing to come into schools on a long-term basis to work with the most troubled youths. The district is forming partnerships with church groups to establish mentor programs, provide role models, and teach respect, anger management, and positive attitudes toward school.

The Chicago-based Black Star Project, a program that motivates disadvantaged students to succeed academically, will work with two high schools, Thompson says, and an anti-gang organization called Cease Fire will work with middle and upper-elementary school students.

In Pomona, Calif., “There has been a surge in gang activity,” reports Richard Martinez, spokesperson for the Pomona Unified School District.

The shooting death of a state highway patrol officer last spring by a 16-year-old student who reportedly was trying to impress members of the 12th Street Gang, focused attention on the issue.

Most of the gang incidents in schools spill over from weekend incidents, such as a drive-by shooting, Martinez says. Most gang members tend to keep gang issues off campus, but older gang members or dropouts often wait for students as they leave school at the end of the day. Whenever there’s a fight, “other students gravitate toward it, making it appear larger than it is.”

To deal with the gang issue in schools, Martinez says, high school students have been trained as peer mediators to help their classmates resolve disagreements.

Teach life skills

The Pomona school district also recently got a two-year GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training) grant from the U.S. Justice Department allowing police offers to lead 13-week courses in three middle schools. Martinez says the program is directed at students in grades 6-8 because that’s “where we see students making decisions” about seeking gang affiliation.

Lt. Ronald McDonald of the Pomona city police department, who is in charge of the GREAT program, says the classes not only educate students about gangs but also teach them skills on conflict resolution, dealing with peer pressure and anger, and goal setting.

He says the gang issue in Pomona is “part of the racial divide,” with the Westside Mafia, an African-American gang, fighting for turf against the Hispanic 12th Street Gang. Several other gangs are active in the community, including Asian gangs.

“Youths face a lot of peer pressure from older brothers or friends in the community who are involved with gangs,” McDonald says. “Our hope with the GREAT program is to open a dialogue before they get to high school. This is my one chance. If we can get to them with communication and education, we can turn them against gangs.”

An evaluation of GREAT published by the Justice Department in June found the program “did not reduce gang membership or future delinquent behavior.” GREAT, however, did have two important benefits: “It educates youths on the consequences of gang involvement, and they develop favorable attitudes toward the police.”

Sociology professor Malcolm Klein of the University of South California, who has conducted extensive studies of gangs, says the most important thing school officials can do when confronted with gangs is “not make too much of it.” “Gangs thrive on opposition,” Klein says. “Deal with kids as individuals. If a kid is selling crack, go after him as an individual, not as a gang member.”

Klein has “mixed feelings” about dress codes that ban certain gang colors or symbols. “If this is done as a way to get kids to focus on schoolwork, it could work, but if it focuses on gangs and gives them more visibility, it is not effective.”