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New Approaches to Resolving Gang Violence in Schools Morning Edition (NPR); 2/16/1993 Morning Edition (NPR) 02-16-1993 NEAL CONAN, Host: Several middle schools in San Jose, California, are teaching leadership skills to students who are believed to be at risk for getting involved in gang violence. But, since gangs provide a family structure that's often lacking in the home, the task is proving more difficult than educators and law enforcement officials had hoped. NPR's Isabel Alegria reports. ISABEL ALEGRIA, Reporter: Alicia is a pretty 13-year-old with a sweet, innocent face that belies her street experience. She has seen dozens of fights since she was a little girl, and has watched friends turn on each other at the slightest provocation. Her East San Jose neighborhood is crawling with gangs. ALICIA, 13 Years Old: CPL, BCP, LNL's, EHP - there was a lot of gangs. ALEGRIA: [interviewing] What do the initials stand for, do you know? ALICIA: Well, CPL is Capital Park Locals, and BCP is Barrio Capital Park- is that what it is? Yeah? And LNL's, that's Los Notengo Locos [sp]. I don't know any of the surenos [sp] or the other side, just the [unintelligible]. ALEGRIA: Alicia and her friends talk about gangs the way most teenagers talk about their local football teams. It's not surprising, at her middle school, about a quarter of the student body - 200 kids - is believed to be directly or indirectly involved in gangs. Gang membership, says school officials, typically starts at age 11. Alicia knows her gang colors and whose territory is whose. It's a survival skill she needs, and one a growing number of San Jose school teachers are also finding indispensable. ALEX PEDRAGON, San Jose Police Officer: Let me give you an idea, though. The bottom part, the blue, is SUR, which is south for- in Spanish, and the number 13, which is the 13th letter of the alphabet, which is M. That refers to another prison organization, prison gang, called the Mexican Mafia. ALEGRIA: Using a large state map, San Jose police officer Alex Pedragon [sp] gives the group of teachers a class on California gangs. The terms `norteno' and `sureno' - or, northerner and southerner - he explains, reflect a long-standing division of the state by violent prison gangs who are constantly seeking young recruits. Officer PEDRAGON: Now, I'm not saying that the kids out here are Nostra Familia [sp] prison gang members. What they are, though, are the foot soldiers for that prison gang. The Nostra Familia is one step below organized crime. Now- ALEGRIA: Officially, San Jose has about 50 gangs, but Pedragon says it's closer to double that number and growing. Law enforcement officials work closely with educators and parents, he says, because they fear a surge in violent crime as more and more gangs vie for territory and control of drug sales. He says a growing community of recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America has complicated anti-gang efforts, and put many young people at risk for joining gangs who might otherwise stay away. Officer PEDRAGON: For some norteno gang members, just the fact that you are from Mexico or El Salvador, or wherever it might be, that's enough to separate you from them and, in fact, label you as a sureno, whether or not you're involved in a gang. And, of course, when that happens, what many of the kids are doing to survive that, they, in fact, do end up joining up with a sureno gang just for survival. ALEGRIA: Pedragon says there is no time to lose. Youth gangs move rapidly from petty assaults to more violent crime. By age 20, if he or she is still alive, a gang member will likely be in prison or on parole, or have a drug or alcohol problem, and few skills. Ninety-five percent of gang members, says Pedragon, never graduate from high school. [Ambient school sounds] ALEGRIA: It's graduation day for Alicia and 29 other kids who attend her East San Jose middle school. They've just completed a program called Natural Helpers. The program was developed at the school by Judy Kendall, the school counselor, whose meager budget require she oversee 800 students. Natural Helpers teaches 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds - some from competing gangs - to listen to other kids' problems, provide them with options, and encourage them to seek counseling. Musette, a 7th grader, says her new skills come in handy nearly every day. MUSETTE, 7th Grader: There was a situation where these two girls, you know, they wanted to fight with each other today, and, you know, I was telling her, you know, `Why do you want to do it,' you know? `What caused it,' and, you know, it was all just a misunderstanding. And, if more people go to someone for help, they'll probably find out that it's a misunderstanding or something else that they really don't have to fight for. ALEGRIA: Fourteen-year-old Jason, another Natural Helper, moved to San Jose from Hawaii and was immediately identified by local gangs as an outsider, a sureno. JASON, Natural Helper: They consider me as one of them already. When I walk in, my cousin says, `Well, you mastered this group, and you're backing them up because your friends,' you know? `You're their friends, so you might as well be in it.' ALEGRIA: Jason's new understanding of gangs has kept him from joining one, and he says his mediating skills have helped him settle school yard, and even family, disputes. Like the time he put his warring cousins on the same basketball team, then proceeded to marvel at how well they played together. JASON: My cousin, my other cousin, got in a argument, like, I just get a basketball and just let them play, and next thing you know, `Oooh, I made a shot.' And I said, `You bad,' you know? And, like, and they make friends. ALEGRIA: Alicia says she wants to be a counselor some day. Her leadership skills are evident to her friends who have been pressuring her to join a local gang. `Jumping the girls in,' by the way, refers to the beating every new gang member gets upon being initiated into a gang. ALICIA: They were telling me, `Well, you could be the leader and, you know, you could jump all the girls in,' and this and that, and, you know, I'm all, like, `No, I don't want to,' you know, because, you know, I have friends that are surenos, and I have friends that are nortenos, you know? I don't want to, you know, have problems with my friends, you know, just because of a color or, you know, something else. ALEGRIA: Natural Helpers is just one of several efforts to curb gang activity at Alicia's school. School officials also work with parents of gang members. Service agencies target local neighborhoods with anti-drug funds, and police have even considered a special project for kids whose parents are prison inmates and known gang members. Officer Alex Pedragon says he's sure of one thing - gangs will not be eliminated by law enforcement alone. Officer PEDRAGON: In a perverse sort of way, gangs have substituted families, and, so, that becomes a very important issue. Do we have something as powerful, or more powerful, to offer them than gang membership? ALEGRIA: For now, and at least at some schools, the Natural Helpers program is offering kids alternatives to entering gang life. At other schools not far from Alicia, Musette, and Jason, the work is just beginning. This morning, this custodian found the elementary school where he works covered with gang graffiti. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CUSTODIAN: All day long, I never stop for second. The windows, the walls, all over. It's a big, big mess. It's problem in this area. Big, big problems. ALEGRIA: From San Francisco, Isabel Alegria reporting. [The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, in order to meet rigid distribution and transmission deadlines, it has not been proofread against audio tape and cannot, for that reason, be guaranteed as to the accuracy of speakers' words or spelling.] Copyright 1994 National Public Radio. All Rights Reserved. News Topics | Home | Research | History | Blood Gangs | Crip Gangs | People| Life in a Gang | Gallery | Iraqi Cards | Memorial | Migration | Graffiti | Resume| Injunctions Homicides | Maps | California Prisons | Contact

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