Memphis School Board Official Raises Parents' Awareness of Gang Problem
by Jim Brown
March 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A school board member in Memphis, Tennessee, is voicing concern over the growing infiltration of gangs in the city's elementary schools. A local Memphis TV station recently showed footage of a fifth-grader flashing gang signs outside his school. Stephanie Gatewood, a member of the Memphis City Schools (MCS) Board of Commissioners, says this issue is not just a city problem but a Shelby County problem as well.
"Throughout the district, as our children start doing different things, once they go into the inner city it goes out to the suburbs," Gatewood observes. "So it really is -- or should be -- everybody's concern and everybody's problem."
To address the gang problem, the MCS commissioner recently organized a forum where parents could seek input from local officials, police, criminal court judges, and the local District Attorney's Office. One of her objectives, she notes, was to educate community members about things they could look for -- signs indicating gang activity and influence.
"It could be the color of the bandana or a color of a type of pin that your child is wearing," Gatewood points out, "or even something so subtle as the way that ... he or she wears a hat, or shoestrings in the shoes." The event proved useful and was "definitely an education for parents" she says, "because they were in the audience saying, 'My goodness, we had no clue that this was going on.'"
The Memphis-area education official notes that many parents in Shelby County are unfortunately unaware of how bad the gang problem is. She says, "Most families say, 'Well, my child doesn't belong to a gang.' And then my question [to them] will be, 'How do you know that? What time do you get up and go to work?'"
If a parent responds, "Well, I leave for work at 7:00," Gatewood continues, her reply is another question: "Okay, what time do you come home?" And if the parent's answer is something like, "Well, I work two jobs, so I come home at 11:00 at night," the commissioner says she will tell them, "So, your child, from the time he leaves school, is home by himself, and he can do whatever he wants to do -- is that correct?"
If the parent then concedes that all this is correct, the school board commission representative asks again, "Okay, so how do you know your child is not in a gang?" The effect of this cross examination is often a wakeup call to mothers and fathers previously unaware of how vulnerable their children are to the influence of gangs and gang culture.
Gatewood believes many of the young people joining gangs in Memphis are looking for a "safe haven" or a sense of belonging they are not getting at home. She is currently planning a comprehensive Saturday training workshop to educate parents about the area's growing gang problem.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
