From the North Carolina News Record

Article published Nov 13, 2005

Depending on who you choose to believe, the seeds of gang violence are being planted in local schools. Or not.

The problem is evidenced by graffiti and hand signals and traditional gang apparel and colors. Or it isn't.

It includes ominous affiliations with national gangs such as the Crips and the Bloods. Or it doesn't.

And the police know what they're talking about. Or they're clueless.

People disagree on whether there is a problem and the extent of the problem. And therein lies a problem.

Police say they have seen telltale signs of a gang presence in some Guilford County schools. "It's here. It's not going anywhere," Greensboro Police Detective Ernest Cuthbertson, a national expert on gang activity, told members of the Guilford County school board on Oct. 25.

While conceding that overall gang numbers in the schools are low, Cuthbertson said the scope of the problem is broader than many people are aware of, or willing to accept.

Some school board members and school officials question that assessment. Already sensitive to what they see as exaggerated reports of disciplinary problems, some administrators even say they are unaware of some of the signs of gang activity that Cuthbertson says have surfaced at their schools.

An Aycock Middle School teacher said in a recent letter to the editor that she was "baffled" by Cuthbertson's observation that the Latin gang symbol "13" was scribbled on a student's sneakers. "Though I am certainly aware that gangs do exist," the teacher wrote, "in my three years at Aycock I have seen no evidence of them in our school."

School board member Deena Hayes, meanwhile, said Cuthbertson's report to the school board unfairly attacked and stigmatized Latinos and African Americans.

In one sense, she's right. Attention to gang activity shouldn't focus on any one group. Youth of any race or ethnic background are susceptible. But that doesn't mean you ignore the problem altogether.

In addition, you would think Cuthbertson, who is himself African American and who studies gangs for a living, should know whereof he speaks. He grew up in the old Morningside Homes community and has seen firsthand the impact of gang activity on a neighborhood. And the evidence he presented of gang signs and graffiti wasn't based on hearsay. He had pictures.

Even if the reports are not quite as serious as presented, here's what we do know: Gangs have had varying degrees of a presence in the Triad and throughout North Carolina for decades. Yet police throughout the state report an uptick in gangs, even in rural areas.

Part of the solution is acknowledgment that the problem exists. "Frequently administrators in school districts don't want to identify that they have a gang problem out of fear that it'll create hysteria among parents," said Robert Tornabene, president of the Illinois-based Gang Awareness Training Education America program.

"When an incident happens in a smaller school district, they tend to try to minimalize it. But that doesn't make the problem go away. That tends to make it worse. "So, we listen to the warnings or dismiss them as alarmist overkill.

We can face this problem honestly and proactively, or we can wrap ourselves in blanket denial.We can prune the roots of gang culture before they have a chance to grow and flourish here.

Or we can close our eyes and wish real hard.

It's hard to believe there are still officials anywhere who refuse to admit the problem of gangs and youth violence exists. Steve