Anti-gang activists 'fighting for our kids'
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http://www.gazette.net/200533/weekend/a_section/290443-1.html |
by Erin Uy and Sean Sands
Staff Writers
to offer alternatives for at-risk youths
Nobody has been asleep on the gang issue in eastern Montgomery County, say parents, school officials and activists who have spent years battling the causes, working on solutions and publicizing the problem.
"This is not a wake-up call for us, and frankly, it shouldn't be for Montgomery County either. People knew this was coming," said Jim Johnson, coordinator for the Long Branch Weed and Seed, a federal program designed to rid targeted areas of crime and drug activity.
"What we're doing is really fighting for our kids. We may not be their parents, but as community leaders and responsible adults in the community, they're our kids and we have a lot of concern about them."
But community activists also acknowledge that the fallout from the two Aug. 5 stabbing incidents, which occurred during daylight hours outside a county high school and inside a department store, may help call more attention to the cause.
Members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 attacked two teens attending summer classes at Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, and an attack followed later with the stabbing of four men at the Target store at Westfield Wheaton. All victims are expected to survive their wounds.
Police have charged 12 men and youths in the attacks. Five are under 18.
Supporting families
The attacks were frustrating for community members like Johnson, who have struggled to keep social service programs alive. Johnson's Weed and Seed program, for example, has used its federal money to pay for a social worker at Montgomery Blair High School to work with youths who were in danger of dropping out and joining gangs. The program offered them job training skills. That grant also helped provide recreation supplies and domestic violence counseling in Spanish for the east Silver Spring and Takoma Park areas.
This year's grant has been designated for police work in the Northwest Park/Oakview neighborhood. Renovation work at a neighborhood school, Broad Acres Elementary, will involve refurbishing a local park.
At-risk youths and their families require significant support, Johnson said, because the influence of gangs can be violent and brutal.
"In Long Branch, we've had gangs of every description in times gone past. But because this is a national organization, the real fear that I have is that all it will take is for the MS-13 organization to send in some enforcers and then begin bringing discipline and order to the kids who are in the gang," he said. "Then we're going to see some really serious trouble. That's why you're seeing such a strong response from every level of law enforcement -- they know what's up, and that we're going to have a real struggle on our hands if something isn't done now."
Wheaton High School Principal George Arlotto said he frequently discusses the gang issue with his colleagues because youths often turn to school staff with problems.
Students face pressure among their peers to join while others may feel trapped in a gang, he said.
"[The incident] certainly underlines the fact that something needs to be done [and] that we really need help," Arlotto said.
After-school programs
To lure youth from paths toward violence and gang activity, school officials focus on providing after-school programs. The activities aren't as focused on anti-gang strategies as much as on general strategies to keep students engaged in school and a positive lifestyle, Arlotto said.
For example, at Montgomery Blair, an after-school indoor soccer program drew significant participation from the student body, which numbers more than 3,000. The program was designed to allow students who were not academically eligible for the school's sports teams a chance to participate.
Arlotto said police do provide school staffers with updates on gangs and with training on how to identify students who may be involved in gangs and how to intervene. That way teachers know who needs help and can get students' parents involved, he said.
That kind of involvement is among the best defenses for negative behavior among youths, said Anne Fletcher, a Sligo Middle School counselor.
"We are not looking for anything monetary -- just bodies making sure that kids get a connection," she said. "They get this feeling of 'Hey, someone is looking out for me.'"
In March, county police hosted a forum at Wheaton High School where they invited parents and their children to address issues involving after-school activities, drug abuse, education, employment and behavioral issues among middle and high school students -- all elements that, if not dealt with, police say could lead to potential gang activity.
Parents in the John F. Kennedy High School cluster area invite police officers to their community meetings so they can get updates on issues that their children might not feel comfortable talking about at home, said Mark Rother, a Kennedy cluster coordinator.
The challenge now will be maintaining the level of awareness that has surfaced recently because the gang problem "only seems to come to light when something occurs," said Bruce Wright, a state Department of Juvenile Services counselor at Albert Einstein and Wheaton high schools.
That reactionary approach will not help anyone, said Wright, who sees the new attention on gangs as a good opportunity for people to address the issue before the hype dies.
Looking for more money
Earlier this year, Takoma Park City Councilman Doug Barry (Ward 6) joined a community protest in Rockville about the county budget not having enough money for gang prevention.
"It's a long-term systemic problem that is not going to be solved just because we want to will it away. People need to realize that it didn't happen overnight and that it's not going to go away overnight, and that the cost is going to be significant," said Barry, who represents the Takoma Park portion of the Takoma/Langley Crossroads, a densely populated area that is home to many immigrants and low-income families, and also an area that has been targeted by gangs.
Now, he said, it's time to revisit the work of the Joint County Gang Prevention Task Force and focus on all aspects involved in addressing the problem, including policing, education and social services.
"There was a lot of concern expressed about gangs, and that translated into a very forceful demand for more funding, particularly for more police resources to focus on gangs," Barry said.
In addition, everyone in the community should be concerned about gangs. "Gang violence isn't always gang on gang. It's everyone's problem from a quality-of-life standpoint," Wright said.
Everyone includes all parts of the county, said Marc Elrich, a teacher at Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park who represents the Long Branch portion of the city as a Ward 5 councilman.
"People are dealing with it on a daily basis here -- that's why we're involved with the cross-jurisdictional crime prevention in Langley Park," he said. "We recognize that this isn't a Takoma Park problem. It is something that requires the work of all jurisdictions together, but it's not new for us."
Elrich cautioned against labeling people or the perceived causes for the gang problem.
"If you listen to what some people are saying, the code language is pretty unmistakable: 'There is a lot of low-income housing around here,' but if you identify that as a problem, then what's the solution? To move it, and then put the problem in someone else's neighborhood?"
And as for the overcrowding in areas like Long Branch and the Crossroads being a factor in the rise in gang activity, Elrich said, "The overcrowding doesn't force people to become gang members. I think that parents who are working all day long -- morning to night -- and aren't around for their kids, that's a gang problem. And not having after-school care and recreation activities, and not having economic prospects. Gangs and gang activities become attractive alternatives. To a little kid, that can be seductive -- they don't know that these guys are really bad."
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