These are the six main reasons children join gangs, a school safety conference was told yesterday.

"If parents aren't able to teach a child, someone else will teach that child," said Steve Nawojczyk, who has studied gangs firsthand, on the streets of Little Rock, Ark., for eight years. "I know a ton of gang leaders and they've never asked for a transcript to get in," he said.

Nawojczyk spoke to a group of educators, law enforcement representations and clergy as a part of "Marking our Schools Safe," a conference sponsored by the Massachusetts Teachers Association in Marlborough.

Nawojczyk is a former coroner of Pulaski County, Ark., who has studied street gangs since 1987. He has more than 20 years of death scene investigation experience and is a former director of the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.

Nawojczyk doesn't consider himself an expert, but a conduit of the experts - gang members and their families - who is qualified by his experience to speak on gang culture, why kids join gangs, and how to combat them.

After 11 years as coroner, Nawojczyk retired last December and began traveling and teaching others what he has learned. He peppers his presentation with grim statistics, sobering slides and sometimes graphic videos to reinforce his message.

Nawojczyk told the group the typical methods used to combat gang activity aren't working and offered some interesting suggestions for the future.

Jail, he said, may not be punishment as intended.

"Their heroes are in jail," he said. Also, gang members get their hardcore training in jail, and some score points within their gang for doing time.

"We have to come up with some creative alternative solutions," Nawojczyk said. Maybe some of the punishments we're using aren't working."

He then presented a video on a program in Los Angeles and replicated in Little Rock in which convicted juvenile felons work with disabled students. He said the program fills a void for all participants. The disabled students receive the individual attention they need, and gang members receive the love they crave.

Another strategy he offered for battling gang activity is making school year-round and having uniforms for students.

A three-month break in the summer gives kids a chance to form groups and develop rivalries, he said. Structure the school year differently so they don't have such long breaks, he suggested.

Uniforms, he said, would put all kids on one level.

"Kids use clothing to show what gangs they're in and they use clothes to disrespect other gangs," he said.

Graffiti is another way kids disrespect other kids. When one group puts their "tag" on a wall, and another group crosses it out, that's a bold-faced challenge.

"Graffiti is the billboard of gang members," he said. Nawojczyk suggested that every school district have someone who understands, and can translate, graffiti. Remove it right away, he added, so a challenge isn't allowed to fester.

The only effective way to combat gangs is for an entire community to form coalitions and work together, Nawojczyk said.

"Come up with nontraditional solutions to this nontraditional problem," he said. Be proactive, not reactive."

For every dollar spent on putting more police on the streets, Nawojczyk said, we must spend at least one more dollar for prevention and intervention type programs.

"Not only must we look for the gang member in every child, we must look for the child in every gang member," he said.

More importantly, Nawojczyk said, involve the young people in these efforts and listen to what they have to say.

"We must hear them," he said. "We must know whey they're forming their own societies, why they feel like they are failures in ours."