Proposal argument structure and strategies

Youth Gangs in Schools

In recent years, youth gangs and gang-related violence in schools have highlighted many news reports and is considered to be a rapidly increasing problem for cities and suburban areas.

Youth gangs in schools have become more prevalent, with a record number of students (25%) admitting to knowing someone in a gang, or knowing of a youth gang, or gun possession on school grounds due to youth gang presence (Howell and Lynch 1).

Youth gangs have been around for decades, from the Jets in West Side Story, to recent Hollywood films like Colors, and Boyz in the Hood, gangs have been showcased as having an honor system and a feeling of unity. Unfortunately most youths who join gangs suffer from low self-esteem; feel powerless in their own life; and/or feel rejected at home or in school (Toronto School District). Membership in a youth gang gives them a sense of belonging, and above all, a feeling of power.

The emergence of gangs in schools reflects on a shift of power, from faculty, to student. The safety of other students, and of the faculty and staff comes into play when we allow for youth gangs to gain credence in our schools.

Violence associated with student-orientated gangs eventually will spill into our streets and, worst off, into our schools. It is therefore, of the highest importance, that we as a community nip this issue in the bud, as it were, and create a program to counteract, and prevent youth gangs and gang violence in schools.

The first step towards diminishing youth gang violence, and gang presence in our schools, is education. The National Youth Gang Center offers outreach programs and seminars for schools that have proven to be educational and upfront about youth gang violence in schools. Research gathered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has shown that often times, gang problems are not resolved because a community denies they have a problem [with gangs] (Model Chapter 2).

Taking this into account, education on youth gangs in particular must extend the barriers of school grounds and into the community. Activities run and organized by school sports teams, and clubs would help initialize community education as well as providing an opportunity for donations for an Anti-Youth Gang program.

An Anti-Youth Gang program would model itself on education and prevention being the key steps towards decreasing youth gangs in schools, and therefore the violence, and drug trafficking associated with them.

Simply put, a volunteer run Peer Mediation and Conflict Resolution Program would assist students in an alternative to resolving their issues with each other, without having to resort to violence, or joining a gang to emit revenge on an individual.

Guidance counselors within the school district, in conjunction with local police enforcement would oversee the program and ascertain the need for intervention should a threat of violence ever be made towards a student or institute. Regardless of nature, all violent threats should be treated the same.

Along with education, early prevention is necessary to establish that students are not influenced to organize or join a youth gang as they progress from elementary to high school grades. Through Violence Prevention Programs, schools can implement schemes already proven successful in other districts.

Suggested programs are: Anger Coping Program, and BrainPower Program as outlined in the Department of Education's 1999 Annual Report on School Safety (ch3, p. 32).

Devised by John Lachman, Ph.D. Of the University of Alabama, Anger Coping Program provides cognitive training to 8 to 14-year-olds through role-playing and group problem solving and positive reinforcement activities. These activities include a reward reinforcement system for goal achievement. Students involved in the program for 12-18 weeks showed 30% less antisocial and violent behaviors (31).

BrainPower Program is a retraining intervention ideally used to decrease peer-induced aggression, as is often seen between youth gangs. This 12-lesson program implements activities and materials in late-elementary grades where the main objective is to train boys who are showing aggressive tendencies, not to use violence in negative social contexts.

Using three components, the program teaches participants how to recognize the intent of others; understand the meaning of their intent; and how to deal with it in a nonhostile manner.

In both these programs, students were from White, African-American and Latino backgrounds and showed positive responses to the methods and group-activities.

As community education is also a key influence on youth gangs, another suggested program is Metropolitan Area Child Study (MACS), a multi-component prevention program against substance use and violence. The program also aims to encourage prosocial behavior, and academic achievement.

While MACS affects the child's thinking and social responses, it also affects the key influences on development - peers, parents and teachers (Annual, 36). The program is devised of a 20-session small-group (6 to 8 children) component held over a two-year period. The third component involves families in 22 weekly meetings.

This program is diverse in being able to be adapted to all elementary and junior high grades, with the focus being made on skill training in the general curriculum, as well as within the small-group dynamic where children focus on conflict resolution, managing violence in the media, social skills and perspective taking.

The family meetings concentrate on parenting practices, problem solving, and aiding in reducing individual family and community risk factors for drug abuse, school failure and violence (Annual, 38).

As already mentioned, a key factor in students joining youth gangs is the feeling of being powerless in one's own life and yearn for the 'power' youth gangs offer. After-school programs need to be encouraged and extra-curricular activities established as an alternative for students.

Returning the power to students, and involving them in decision-making within schools will not only encourage the success of such programs, but also give students the power to 'disband' youth gangs in their schools.

Funding for such activities and programs should be included in the School District budget as well as paid for through fund-raising and donations from the community.

An alternative funding resource can also be found through the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC), which receives grants from companies to aid schools in implementing prevention and awareness programs.

Such programs and activities are low-cost and have proven to be less strenuous on budgets and communities as students take on the initiative of control and sustaining after-school activities and programs. MACS is an ideal program to encourage students to take control of, and interest in extra-curricular activities.