Because I live in Los Angeles, I often get asked if I worry about raising my sons in a city with so many gangs. I used to think I’d only have to worry about it when my sons got to middle and high school. But the truth is, here in LA, gangs sometimes start recruiting when the kids are in elementary school.
For example, a few years ago, two guys with all the requisite tattoos began sitting on my front porch. This kid that lived next door, Anthony, would sit out there with them. Where was Anthony’s mom? She was at work because she had to pay her rent and she had no one to watch her son after school. She probably figured that her son was in fourth grade and so he could come home and stay in the house after school. Where was Anthony’s dad? He was out of the picture, but it often seems like a missing father is only seen as a bad thing if you’re poor. Rich people are single parents too and no one’s shaking their head at them, even if they should.
The kids with no fathers think the gang members are cool guys that are just trying to protect the neighborhood, even if everyone is terrified of them. Those gang members have the cars, the cash, and all the tattoos that everyone from ball players to rockers have these days. It’s all very appealing to a young mind.
The reality is that gang members are often the guys who didn’t know how to read past a third or fourth grade level. They were the guys who only knew basic math. And they were the guys who’d never been given leadership opportunities because teachers were so busy labeling them as bad and sending them to the office.
Most of the prison population in the State of California can’t read about a fourth grade level, so it’s no surprise that studies show that a good education can do more than anything else to keep gangs in check. If kids learn the things they’re supposed to, they’ll actually believe they have choices in life beyond becoming a part of their neighborhood “set.” They’ll strive to meet high expectations.
But, as a former teacher, I’ve unfortunately heard things like, “Let’s face it, these kids just aren’t that smart and at the most, they’ll be going to jail, flipping burgers, or cutting lawns.” It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Why do these teachers say these things yet keep working in a school? Is subconscious racism at work? Prejudice against immigration status? Prejudice against folks from a low socio-economic status? It could be one or all of the above, but the irretrievable fact is the impact it has on kids.
Anthony ended up getting kicked out of two elementary schools, two academically low-performing schools. I firmly believe that the level of ineptitude and the lack of academic rigor that went on at those schools would not have been tolerated in a middle-class neighborhood. Anthony was a tough customer for sure, but, given the things I’ve seen in schools, was he given up on too easily? Did his mom really know how to advocate for him at a school site? Did people really care enough to make sure he didn’t just become another gang statistic?
Anthony’s family ended up moving to a different building a few blocks away and I haven’t seen him in a while. I only see his graffiti tag, “FACTS,” all over the neighborhood. I ran into his mom the other day. Anthony’s been kicked out of his middle school, has been arrested several times, and is in a juvenile detention home—where he, of course, is probably learning how to be a better criminal instead of learning in a math or English classroom. His mom is just trying to hold it together for her younger daughter. She’s given up hope on Anthony because, as she said, “The gang owns him now.”
Should she have moved Heaven and Earth to make sure her child didn’t end up in that gang? Yes. Should Anthony have had some sort of intrinsic motivation that made him, “Just Say No,” to those gang members? Some sense of right and wrong that made him say no to that pressure? Absolutely. But sadly enough, fourth graders don’t always have the resources to make that decision on their own. I can’t help but wish that Anthony’s teachers had told him they weren’t going to let him fail and then held on to him no matter what.
