Frustration within the System

Today, I would like to talk about gangs within my classroom.

Students today are being faced with a serious problem. They are facing gangs of all shapes and sizes. Students are recognizing a dangerous problem in our society and they are afraid. Students tell me that you cannot attend a middle school in South Seattle without joining a gang. Gangs are an issue that concern teachers, parents, administrators, and students. I cannot count the times that I have had, in my few short years teaching, students complain about the pressure to join. My question is, "How do you stop it?"

I have been searching the Internet for the last few months trying to find strategies to fix this situation and I have been unable to find anything. I am tired of loosing students to this lifestyle and I am tired of putting my heart into trying to stop it only to have the student sent to another school.

I reached the brink of my frustration this evening and realized that this is why I am choosing the educational path of a MPA. I found myself literally crying out, "someone has to have figured this out, someone out there has to have figured out how to stop this!" I want to center my life around changing this situation that too many of my students find themselves in. I don't ever want another teacher to feel that they are loosing students to gang pressure against all interventions. I want to find away to teach students in E/BD programs how to make positive choices and not resort to gang banging.

I have absolutely no idea how I will do this but I figure someone has to. I will continue to do what I can, I will continue to put myself out there, and I will do it because my students will know that I do so because I care.

Maybe I can save one.