Gangs and Violence in Schools :: Crime Safety Security Education Essays

Gangs and Violence in Schools During the first week of my lowly professional experience, I re extremity my cooperating teacher reading to me an e-mail that she standard from the schools administration. It was informing all of the teachers of new ways to identify crew member the colors they whitethorn wear, they way they write certain letters of the alphabet. A few days posterior I recall seeing unmatched of the students in my class making different hand gestures, which I later learned were cabal signs. Then, a couple of weeks into my full participation in the classroom, some other one of my students was suspended for breaking another students jaw. Yet another of my students was suspended rather recently for threatening to bring a weapon to school. All of these incidents, along with an assembly that was held one day about syndicate madness, have made me much more aware of the violence and work party participation that takes place in urban schools. Because it seemed so prevalent in the Trenton school district, I decided to delve deeper into the issue of gangs and violence in schools. I have learned that in Trenton at that place are three main gangs - the Bloods, the Crips and the Latin Kings, (NJ.com) some of which have been cognise to have members as young as thirteen. This alarmed me, because this is the age of most of my seventh grade students. It was hard for me to picture any of them being in a gang. I, like many a(prenominal) suburban dwellers, have never had mop up with gang members, not to my knowledge anyway. Now I am on the job(p) in a school full of students who encounter gang members everyday, and may even be a part of a gang themselves. When I became aware of the regular occurrence of gangs in the Trenton area, I began to marvel why adolescents, usually males, join gangs in the first place. Though at that place are many explanations and, of course, each young male has his own reason, many of them the reasons revolve around the issues of safety, respect, money, and a sense of identityMany of them the gang members learned at an early age that they were vulnerable if they did not start to a gang that would protect them when they were threatened by other gang members (Patton 59).