Gangs Infestation of Education

Diminish the taste for Art

Gangs are the menace in education which needs to be dealt with through prevention programs similar to D.A.R.E. Schools are the breeding grounds for gangs. Schools promote intellect and higher learning, but how is this achieved if books are defaced with writings of gang symbols? Gang symbols or graffiti represent the gang or crew, which has claimed a textbook as their property. Let's move away from the term gang and address the real issue, kid-like antics. These “antics” are aware that they originated from nothing. They are not meant to act out against society, but meant to survive by destroying everything.

            Wouldn't it be proper to repay a family who gave you everything they could with a sense of knowledge?  Here's the thing not a whole lot of people realize about the public school system. It's free. All one has to do is show up pay attention and just learn what is taught. One should treat education as if time was against you even though it is free. Unfortunately, Gangs make it difficult to attain this free knowledge. Gang activity such as drug dealing, tagging, and gang recruiting is frequently seen in underprivileged schools, infecting the school with members who sell what is needed to give back to the gang. This creates a sense of tribute that has clouded those who have a desire to learn. How can you learn if gangs make it difficult by defacing textbooks with pointless scribbles and drug selling? Gang activity will affect those who try to learn, and the ones with the desire to learn will become misguided.  Julie Medina, a caseworker, states, “Students who attend school with the outlook that they will fail will only show up to school for friends.” Being told knowledge is power only affects those who actually believe in it so gangs pick up on this emotion and lure the naïve.

            The public school system is free, but when it is manipulated by gangs, then education is nothing more than worthless. “To feel you are bound to fail will cloud your mind and thus the student is going to act out,” Medina states. She points out that it is not the students who feel they are bound to fail but it is the lack of support, so these students look toward their friends. Gangs are a group of hooligans who claim to support one another. In reality, the only support that they give is when your casket needs to be lowered six feet under the ground. Calling each other brothers as is if they were a family is fake, just as fake as the persona which these kids put on to act tough. False support will lead one to believe a fake family is a legitimate bond. As students realize they are going to fail, the next opportunity is to look for this “fake family”. The majority of the time this mentality is found at schools where students with the same mind set will create a bound of hate toward a system which has failed them. Soon the thought of destruction will cause these kids to act out, or live a life of antics. They establish their bond of friendship with a name to give them recognition.  “Friends will always be there for you even when your real family doesn't care about you”, states an anonymous student.

            Students have a mind-set of failure so instead of learning values of education they tear it down to protect their pride.  This idea will cause students to believe a fake family is needed, so instead of going to school to learn, students go to look for others with similar interest. It is not a crime that gangs are spawned in the heart of the education system; the only crime is the failure in proper preventions. Gangs are not an old problem from a previous generation, which is now being seen in society. It is and always has been a pre-existing problem. “Educators need to take the extra step and see everyone as equals, not one student to be better then the others”, says Medina.

            Programs such as D.A.R.E are the solution to gangs, because they offer true support as they guide proper values of education and tear down the façade of gang pride. D.A.R.E gives students knowledge about drug resistance, but if there were programs embedded in the school system to prevent gangs then students will have a different outlook on education. One program, which is being talked about, involves interaction instead of handing students the knowledge. By having guest speakers who were in gangs talk about the bull s**t a gang can be, instead of just saying “tagging is bad” it would go the extra mile. Also having a legitimate graffiti artist to teach young aspiring artists the fundamentals of graffiti art in sketchbooks would be great. Soon enough students who thought a gang is a stable support will see how the stable support will crumble to ruins. Instead of looking toward the fake family a student will change their outlook on their situation and be inspired to attend an institution of higher learning. Give it time and fake families will vanish, then soon enough families with values of education will sprout up as flowers in the ruins of a bleak civilization.  



Defaced and Obscured History