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School Gangs|
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Denial Versus Acknowledging Gangs
Gangs thrive on anonymity, denial, and lack of awareness by school personnel. The gang member whose notebook graffiti goes unaddressed today may be involved in initiations, assaults, and drug sales in school in the near future.
The condition that makes the school environment most ripe for gang activity is denial. The most common initial response to gangs in almost all communities and schools is denial because public officials are more focused on image concerns for their organizations while they should be focusing on dealing with the problem. The longer they deny, the more entrenched the problem becomes and in the end, the worse their image will be.
Even when school and community officials come out of denial and acknowledge a gang presence, they tend to downplay it and do a "qualified admittance" of the problem. They acknowledge it when they can't deny it any longer, but even then they tend to downplay it and underestimate the extent of a problem. They only people those who play this political game fool in the long run is themselves because the longer they deny and downplay the problem, the worse it becomes, and the bigger gang problem --- and image problem --- they will face in the end.
The flip side of the issue is that we also do not want to overstate the problem in a school or community, put people in unnecessary fear, or give the gangs more credit and status than they want to claim for themselves. The majority of kids in a given school are not in a gang and do not want gang activity in their schools. The problem, though, is that a small number of gang members, along with their associates outside of the school, can account for a very significant amount of violence in a very short period of time if their activities go unaddressed.
School officials can prevent such occurrences - or at least reduce the risks and impact of those which do occur - by training their staff on gang identification, behavior, prevention and intervention strategies, and related school security and emergency preparedness issues.
Managing and Preventing Gangs in Schools
School and community responses requires a balanced approach of prevention, intervention, and enforcement strategies. Schools must work very closely with law enforcement to share information on gang activity since what happens in the community spills over into the schools and vice versa.
Practical steps schools can take include:
- Communicate to staff, students, and parents that schools are neutral grounds and that gang, drug, and weapon activities will receive priority response
- Apply discipline in a timely, firm, fair, and consistent manner
- Institute student anti-gang education and prevention programs
- Establish a mechanism for student conflict mediation
- Train school personnel and parents in gang identification, intervention, and prevention techniques
- Obtain input from youth on violence-related concerns and prevention strategies
- Establish cooperative relationships and communication networks with parents, law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, social services, and other community members. Set up mechanisms and structures to promote information-sharing and coordination among agencies addressing youth, gangs, and related public safety efforts.
Gangs are a community problem, but schools are a part of that community and cannot operate in isolation while hoping that the gang members will drop their gang alliances and activities once they cross the schoolhouse door.
National Trends and Cycles
Gang activity in many (but not all) schools and communities seemed to hit a peak in the mid-90's, leveling off and declining in the late 90's in many areas. Of course, there are exceptions to this and it is important to say that the specific trends vary community to community. An upswing in school and community gang activity began appearing in many school communities around the 2003-2004 school year and today we currently see a clear upward trend in gang activity in many communities across the nation. Unfortunately, many of the gang prevention, intervention, and enforcement efforts in place in communities back in the 1990s have been disbanded, dismantled, and dissolved due to a lack of funding and community support, so many communities are starting fresh in dealing with gang problems.
Gang activity tends to be cyclical. It goes up, hits a peak, dips, and then eventually comes back up again. The problem is that when it dips, it always seems to come back up at a higher level of violence and severity than its last peak plateau.
Gang development is a process, not an event. Schools and communities do not simply wake up one morning and find that gangs suddenly appeared overnight. Schools must work with parents, youth, criminal justice agencies, social service officials, businesses, and the broader community representatives. The key rests with school and community officials quickly recognizing the presence of gang behaviors and activity in a timely manner to nip it in the bud before it becomes entrenched
Acknowledgement:
- The content for this page has been provided by the National School Safety & Security Services
Other Resources for School Gang Information:
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