Q: How many kids that are in gangs go to this school?

A: We don’t keep a solid number of how many gangs members go here but we do document gang validations but it is in term of how many gang members go here. I do know that we have our fair share of gang members here. As far as specific statistics we don’t have that available, but I can say is during my fourth year at Burbank myself and the school research officer has come in contact or have validated close to 400 students.

Q:What are some solutions to keep gangs out of school?

A: Community resources like a neighborhood recreation center, boys and girls club, faith base programs like churches, sports recreational activities, arts, dances, spend time with family, and many other opportunities out there. For me sports and music was my alternative to staying out of gangs

Q:How do you work with people that are in gangs?

A: I work with them by doing gang awareness training, offer training to staff, training to community based organizations, offer training to parents, and  we offer gang awareness training to elementary schools all the way to high school levels. We also document the gang population on school campuses, and the component of that is a gang validation process. There are a total of 10 different criteria’s but students  only have to meet two out of the 10 criteria’s to be put on a gang file. The gang validation is the process in which law enforcement can identify who is a part of a gang or associated with a gang. The three ways I work with them is training, identification, investigations, and communicating with their parents in conferences.

Q: Why is it dangerous to be in a gang?

A: It is dangerous to be in gangs because there are so consequences of being in gangs to break it down into different areas of consequences.  There are physical consequences anywhere from bruises, to head trauma, broken bones, paralysis, drug and alcohol addiction, and of course death is the most common physical consequence. Some social consequences on being in a gang can be poor school record, school dropouts, work record, harm to your family and others, getting locked up in prison, being on probation, guilt that will lead you into killing people, innocent people getting killed, getting abused by older gang members and many other consequences.

Q: What are some ways to stop gangs in school from causing trouble?

A: We have a motto, gang suppression in high schools, and how to obtain a neutral school. First of all you got to have rules, dress code, policies, and regulations,  you got to have a zero tolerance policy when it come to gang activities, and you have to enforce this policy. You can get it through with law enforcement, administration, teachers, faculty, the student body, and student population. You have to have expectations and the students at school should know about the policy. You have to identify the key players within your gang population and usually they are the leaders so identify them, remove them, and eradicate them because their like the cancer because they are like the head of the dragon. Whatever they do they have so much power and influence from the other gang members.