KIDS IN GANG FIGHTS AT SCHOOLS
Hamilton children are turning up at school ready to fight for their gang affiliations.
Ref. https://www.stuff.co.nz/hlc/1,,93498~3791200a11~,00.html
School gangs are something that we really out grew in the United States and moved on to something more dangerous. The biggest gang in the United States is a mexican gang, and the biggest danger in schools are the outcasts not the gangs. How odd that we simply moved past the threat of gang violence into something less social and more outcast related, where the unaccepted person is stereotyped as being a threat and gangs
We haven't outgrown them in SoCalif. I think we just have a gang mentality in this area, and school gangs just prepare kids for the bigger gangs when they get older. Sad but true, I don't see how we will ever eradicate this from our society.
But as for the question of how can you tell if your child is in a gang, there are several ways, based on my own personal observations of kids in gangs.
- Baggy clothes (this has been the "fashion" for gang-bangers since I was in school 30 years ago)
- Change in friends ( to those, as parents, we may find unsavory)
- "Colors" are worn all the time, denoting which gang they are affiliated with
- Starts getting in trouble with school admin, skipping school, becoming defiant with authority, failing or barely passing classes
- May change hair color or hair length ("skinheads" actually shave their heads)
- Becomes defiant at home and is gone a lot
- May become violent at home
- Probably involved in alcohol or drugs
And other signs. I think most of us as parents would start to notice the defiant behavior before any of the others, because usually that's the most severe.