As part of its Whole Child Initiative, ASCD emphasizes the importance of school safety. Youth gangs, and the violence associated with them, pose a significant threat to students, educators, and school staff.
The National School Safety Center (NSSC), in its Report on School Associated Violent Deaths, maintains a list of school shootings and other violent deaths within U.S. K–12 schools, from the 1992–93 school year to the present. The report is 48 pages long.
Some students on the list died from drug-related incidents or committed suicide; others were victims of hate crimes or bullying. The name of each student who died at Columbine appears in the report. On almost every page, you will find the name of at least one student who died from gang-related violence.
One of those names, David Clinton Albrecht, appears on page 19. For Bud Mayo, an administrator at Pimmit Hills Alternative High School in Fairfax County, Va., Albrecht isn't just a name on a page—he was a student at Mayo's school. Just 17 years old, Albrecht was killed in 1998 behind Marshall High School in Fairfax County when he was, according to NSSC's report, “shot by alleged members of the Tiny Rascals Asian youth gang.”
Albrecht, who was not part of a gang, was driving another student home who had beaten up a gang member the night before. Mayo explains that the shooters were aiming for Albrecht's passenger, but instead struck Albrecht. For Mayo, who trains teachers throughout the state of Virginia about gangs and his experiences with them, this incident is a reminder that gang violence can be found everywhere, not just in urban centers, and affects entire school communities. And Mayo says that gang activity in the United States has increased, not decreased, since that incident more than 10 years ago.
ASCD, as part of the Whole Child Initiative, places emphasis on student safety. “Children who don't feel safe can't concentrate on their studies, don't connect with their classmates, or don't go to school at all,” ASCD states inMaking the Case for Educating the Whole Child. With gang-related activities in the United States a growing concern, what steps can schools take to keep students safe from this type of violence?
According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, the U.S. Department of Justice defines a youth gang as a group “involved in a pattern of criminal acts.”
In the federal report, “Indicators of School Crime and Safety,” published earlier this year by the National Center for Education Statistics, almost a quarter of teenagers reported the presence of gangs at their schools.
As Mayo stated, gangs are not just found in urban schools. In the suburban Virginia district of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), for example, “there's basically not a part of the county that is not touched in some way by a youth gang,” Fred Ellis, director of the Office of Safety and Security at FCPS, said inGangs: A Community Challenge, a video the district produced about gang activity in schools.
Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, says, “We have definitely seen an uptick in gang violence in a number of school communities over the past three to five years,” he says.
“Gang activity tends to be cyclical: We see it spike over a period of several years and then, after an official response by government and community officials, it often levels off,” Trump explains. “The problem is the exact times can vary from community to community, and over points in time in these communities. The key lesson learned is while gang upticks and leveling off may vary, schools need to stay one step ahead of the cyclical patterns.”
Looking for Warning Signs
One way for schools to keep ahead of gang-related violence is to be on the lookout for gang warning signs. The National School Safety and Security Services' Web site lists a number of gang indicators, which are often subtle. For instance, identifiers may include unusual hand signals or handshakes; sudden changes in students' behavior or the appearance of secret meetings; unusual symbols or writing on walls and notebooks; or gang-related tattoos. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to differentiate between students who display these indicators and are involved in gang activity and those who are imitating gang culture.
Mayo says that at his school, which has representation from every major gang in the area, gang members will sometimes dress in similar colors or tie their shoes in a certain way. The gangs are also becoming more sophisticated by switching up their signs to avoid detection, says Mayo. Therefore, he encourages school administrators to contact local law enforcement about educating school personnel on current gang signs, indicators, and trends. Law enforcement will also be able to help administrators and teachers distinguish better between actual gang members and students who are just posing.
Recruitment Starts at an Early Age
Gang activity can sometimes pop up even at the elementary level. “Middle school–aged students can be quite ripe for the lure of gangs and it is not unheard of for upper elementary–aged students to become at least marginally involved with gangs,” says Trump.
“Gangs are multigenerational,” explains Mayo. Lots of family members sometimes belong to the same gang. Gangs will use young wannabes as runners and couriers to help the gangs conduct their business, he notes. “The gangs know if these young people get caught they won't be penalized as much for their actions because of their young age.”
Therefore, as a preemptive measure in an effort to curb gang recruitment, schools must educate students, even very young students, on the dangers of gang involvement. One school in Massachusetts, for instance, brought in prison inmates to discuss the perils of gang membership and show how it negatively affected their lives.
To be effective in curbing gang activity in their schools, educators also need to provide students with alternatives to gang membership, Mayo says. Schools should review their after-school activities and make sure they are meeting the needs of the entire school population. Mayo calls the time between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (when students are often unsupervised) the “arsenic hours,” or the most dangerous time for unengaged young people. “When kids are unsupervised and have nothing to do, that's when they find themselves involved in gangs and gang culture,” he says. After-school programs offer students a way to get involved in positive activities, such as music, drama, or athletics, says Mayo.
Trump agrees. “Gangs provide order, structure, and discipline for youth. If those factors are not present in a child's home, community, and school, the gang could potentially fill the void.”
Tapping Community Support
Mayo believes that in order to stop gangs and gang violence from spreading, teachers, administrators, parents, and communities must first educate themselves. “The majority of people in American education know very little about gangs and gang culture,” he says. “We still have a long way to go to educate our teachers and administrators about gangs.”
Mayo would like to see more colleges of education around the country include courses on gangs and school violence in their programs to better prepare graduates for the classroom. He also encourages teachers to take training courses on gangs and communicate with local law enforcement to keep up-to-date on gang activity and what to watch out for. “Education is the key; we have to be vigilant and be in tune with what is going on.”
In Fairfax County, videos like Gangs: A Community Challenge, developed by the Office of Student Safety and Wellness, seek to inform young people, parents, educators, and other stakeholders about the issue. “We wanted the public to know that the school system is aware of the potential danger of gangs and is taking steps to combat the problem,” says Matthew Fetters, producer/director of digital media production for FCPS.
When educators and communities are informed about the realities of gang violence, they will, in turn, be able to help students make better decisions to stay away from gangs, Trump notes. “Adults need to have age-appropriate communications with kids about the realities of gang involvement,” says Trump. “Discussions need to focus not only on how gang involvement affects the participating youth, but also how it can potentially have an adverse impact on their families, friends, and others who are important to them. Too many gang members, and for that matter kids in general, believe the consequences which could occur from gang involvement will not happen to them. Sadly, this is not true.”
Additional Resources
Flannery, M. E. (2008, April 1). In a gangster's paradise: How they're banging in the 'burbs. NEA Today. Retrieved from <LINK URL="http://www.nea.org/home/12804.htm">http://www.nea.org/home/12804.htm</LINK>
National Center for Education Statistics. (2009). Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2008 (NCES Publication No. 2009022). Retrieved from<LINK URL="http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/crimeindicators2008">http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/crimeindicators2008</LINK>
National School Safety Center. Report on School Associated Violent Deaths. Retrieved from<LINK URL="http://www.schoolsafety.us/pubfiles/savd.pdf">www.schoolsafety.us/pubfiles/savd.pdf</LINK>
Steindorf, S. (2002, June 25). Police give teachers a primer on gangs. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from<LINK URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0625/p14s01-lecs.html">www.csmonitor.com/2002/0625/p14s01-lecs.html</LINK>
