Gang Involvement In Schools Essay

Schools are supposed to be safe-havens and the surrounding community should be a place of amity and togetherness. A school’s culture is often a mirror image of the students that it serves. Working in urban education has allowed me to witness this concept first-hand. This chapter on assessment allowed me to realize the important factors that contribute to the negative culture of my school environment. The manifestation of gangs in schools affects the safety, security and educational progress of students. Gang involvement originates in the community and spills over into the school environment. Gang involvement has significantly amplified the amount of violence in schools and the number of students involved with drugs and weapons. Regardless of

the socioeconomic status of students, gangs will initiate any person that is willing to pay the price and make the sacrifice. Most students that join a gang have a previous history of violence. When conducting research at my school, I realized that the students who showed the signs of gang involvement had an extensive behavior record. Because I don’t take situations at face value, I started to dive deeper into the background of the students.

The majority of these students came from high crime neighborhoods where poverty and social injustice was rampant. In addition, most of these students were raised in single family households that lacked consistency and discipline. Gangs are a community epidemic and schools are a part of that community. Schools must be willing to not work isolation and create prevention programs to proactively combat gang involvement. After completing the gang assessment tool, I concluded that my school and community are definitely at risk for gang and violence involvement. There are several signs and indicators that prove that the results from the gang assessment are valid. Most of our students live in an environment where violence is a preferred means of coping. Throughout the neighborhood, graffiti walls have given the community a new culture. The walls exude the presence of gangs. It seems as if the gangs are competing with each other to mark buildings within the community as their territory. On most of the street corners, adults are engaging in drug transactions while draped in their dominant gang color. The accesses to drugs create a bigger problem for the community. Within the school building, students are not involved in the learning

process. Because gang members lack interpersonal skills with opposing gangs, most of the members come to school just to huddle with their perspective groups. The school administration noticed that this was a problem and is currently creating opportunities for the students to discuss and positively argue their opinions. Furthermore, I concluded that my school is at risk of gang involvement because we have lost 4 students within the past 3 months to drive by shootings. There are several indicators that will contribute to ensuring a positive atmosphere and safe environment are exist in our schools and communities. The answer resides within the school, community, parents, and law enforcement officials quickly recognizing the manifestation of gang behaviors and activity and collaboratively works to prevent gang involvement.