Schools at risk: new government report shows alarming rise of gangs in schools - Cover Story

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- They're bad. They're mad. And they may be coming to a school near you.

According to a new government report, the presence of gangs in U.S. schools has jumped alarmingly. The report, released last month, found that nearly twice as many teens reported gangs in their schools in 1995 than they did in 1989.

The report, based on national surveys of students ages 12-19, found that 28.4 percent of students reported gangs in their schools in 1995, compared with 15.3 percent of those surveyed in 1989.

Reports of gangs increased not only in central-city schools but also in suburbs and rural areas. In central-city schools, students reporting gangs in schools rose from 24.8 percent in 1989 to 40.7 percent in 1995. In suburbs, reports rose from 14 percent to 26.3 percent. In rural areas, reports went from 7.8 percent to 19.9 percent.

More Violence

As gang presence in schools has risen, so have incidents of violent crimes in schools--from vandalism to beatings to shootings, the report said. One in twenty surveyed students nationwide said they saw a student with a gun at school.

The report, however, noted that a higher incidence of gangs in schools was reported in 1993 than in 1995. Violent crimes by juveniles peaked in 1994 and has declined for two years since then.

The bad news in the report alarmed government leaders. President Bill Clinton called the report's findings "unacceptable."

"Gangs--and the guns, drugs, and violence that go with them--must be stopped from ever reaching the schoolhouse door," Clinton said in a radio address.

Reasons for Increase

Part of the reason for the increase in gangs in U.S. schools, said Kathryn A. Chandler of the National Center for Education Statistics, is simply that kids are more aware of gangs and their symbols--and thus more readily recognize gangs. But there also has been a real increase in gangs and in gang membership.

One reason for this increase, some experts say, is that gangs are glorified in music (see Sidelights), on TV, and in movies, which often portray the gangster lifestyle as thrilling.

Kids also join gangs for other reasons. Psychologists say gangs often provide the kind of group approval that many teenagers who are poor students don't get at school or in their communities.

"When you join a gang, you feel like somebody," a Los Angeles gang member said. ". . . if you're not a movie star or a sports star, you not nothing. So a gang, like it gives you something."

Although gangs provide a kind of "us against the world" unity, experts such as Terrence C. Thornberry, an authority on youth violence, and Malcolm Klein, author of The American Street Gang, say gangs bring out the worst in group behavior. A desire to fight the world, combined with anger, aggression, drugs, and guns, can lead to a frenzy of gang violence.

Stopping the Violence

In his radio address, President Clinton called on Congress to pass antigang legislation that he first proposed last January. The president proposed a crime bill that, among other things, would provide $50 million for new probation officers to work with juvenile offenders. He also called for a law prohibiting young adults convicted of violent crimes from buying guns before they turn 21. In addition, the president proposed spending $95 million for school safety, including keeping schools open later to discourage vandalism and crime.

In the wake of the increase of gangs in schools, Congress is looking at the president's proposals with urgency.

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