Call It How You See It...But A Duck Is A Duck
School fight blamed on wannabe gangs
Facing trouble head-on
M. Ferguson Tinsley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When a teen was taken to the hospital Tuesday, East Allegheny High School administrators realized they had a tough problem that wasn't going away.
The East Allegheny student was taken to Forbes Regional Hospital at 9:23 a.m. after a fight with two other girls at the high school. She suffered facial wounds that required treatment, North Versailles police Chief James Comunale said.
Police charged the other students involved with simple assault, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and criminal conspiracy and took them to the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.
Neither police nor school officials would release the names of the injured girl or her alleged assailants.
"I call it Christmas vacation jitters," Chief Comunale said. "I don't know what gets into these kids."
But the incident, and a series of others since October, prompted Principal Gary Peiffer to call a meeting yesterday with a dozen parents whose sons and daughters have been named in more than one occurrence. The meeting was slated for 5:30 p.m. at the high school.
Mr. Peiffer said some students had declared themselves "wannabe" gangsters. They are called the "CTGs" or Crestas Terrace Gangsters, after a North Versailles neighborhood.
According to students at the school who asked not to be identified, the CTGs wear blue bandannas and blue T-shirts to style themselves after the Crips. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the California-based Crips established "sets," or chapters, from coast to coast.
The CTGs in North Versailles "step to," or actively oppose, a specific rival group at school that wears black bandannas and T-shirts, say students.
The clothing has been banned, Mr. Peiffer said.
But he downplayed any resemblance between the CTGs and the ultraviolent, drug-dealing Crips of decades ago.
"I wouldn't call them a full-blown gang," Mr. Peiffer said of the East Allegheny group. "Not as the Crips and the Bloods [are considered] full-blown gangs. The [CTGs] are ganglike. I don't think they have the organization or the initiation rites and the symbols that a full-blown gang has."
Although he knows of only two major fights at school, Mr. Peiffer said he understood why parents have become alarmed by violence that has boiled up inside and outside the school.
More than a week ago, after a dance at a McKeesport community center, rivals waited for CTGs to exit. A boy who was mistaken for a member was badly beaten.
That fight resulted in two student suspensions. By Tuesday, the beating at the dance and less serious, "loosely related" incidents at school had resulted in a total of six suspensions, Mr. Peiffer said.
Mr. Peiffer said one source of friction among the students was disparaging Web messages. He is appealing to parents for help.
"Parents can help us by being proactive and coming to us with any rumors about any type of activities," Mr. Peiffer said. "And by monitoring any MySpace.com [blog] activity, text messaging and Internet e-mailing. This is occurring outside the school, but it's having an effect inside the school."
Facing trouble head-on
M. Ferguson Tinsley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When a teen was taken to the hospital Tuesday, East Allegheny High School administrators realized they had a tough problem that wasn't going away.
The East Allegheny student was taken to Forbes Regional Hospital at 9:23 a.m. after a fight with two other girls at the high school. She suffered facial wounds that required treatment, North Versailles police Chief James Comunale said.
Police charged the other students involved with simple assault, aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and criminal conspiracy and took them to the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.
Neither police nor school officials would release the names of the injured girl or her alleged assailants.
"I call it Christmas vacation jitters," Chief Comunale said. "I don't know what gets into these kids."
But the incident, and a series of others since October, prompted Principal Gary Peiffer to call a meeting yesterday with a dozen parents whose sons and daughters have been named in more than one occurrence. The meeting was slated for 5:30 p.m. at the high school.
Mr. Peiffer said some students had declared themselves "wannabe" gangsters. They are called the "CTGs" or Crestas Terrace Gangsters, after a North Versailles neighborhood.
According to students at the school who asked not to be identified, the CTGs wear blue bandannas and blue T-shirts to style themselves after the Crips. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the California-based Crips established "sets," or chapters, from coast to coast.
The CTGs in North Versailles "step to," or actively oppose, a specific rival group at school that wears black bandannas and T-shirts, say students.
The clothing has been banned, Mr. Peiffer said.
But he downplayed any resemblance between the CTGs and the ultraviolent, drug-dealing Crips of decades ago.
"I wouldn't call them a full-blown gang," Mr. Peiffer said of the East Allegheny group. "Not as the Crips and the Bloods [are considered] full-blown gangs. The [CTGs] are ganglike. I don't think they have the organization or the initiation rites and the symbols that a full-blown gang has."
Although he knows of only two major fights at school, Mr. Peiffer said he understood why parents have become alarmed by violence that has boiled up inside and outside the school.
More than a week ago, after a dance at a McKeesport community center, rivals waited for CTGs to exit. A boy who was mistaken for a member was badly beaten.
That fight resulted in two student suspensions. By Tuesday, the beating at the dance and less serious, "loosely related" incidents at school had resulted in a total of six suspensions, Mr. Peiffer said.
Mr. Peiffer said one source of friction among the students was disparaging Web messages. He is appealing to parents for help.
"Parents can help us by being proactive and coming to us with any rumors about any type of activities," Mr. Peiffer said. "And by monitoring any MySpace.com [blog] activity, text messaging and Internet e-mailing. This is occurring outside the school, but it's having an effect inside the school."
posted by Braye Cloud at
2:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home