What Every Parent Should Know About Gangs

By
Tony Fleming
– December 21, 2012Posted in: Security

Montpelier Parents and Grandparents,

I attended “What Every Parent Should Know About Gangs” which was an exceptional powerpoint program by Sgt. Michael Rudinsky, Gangs Expert with City of Hyattsville Police.  In case you missed this excellent presentation, here are some of the points made by the police:

The number one reason gangs start is because of bullying.  Kids are bullied 24/7 because of school, social activities, phones, texting and the social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

There are Neighborhood Gangs, National Gangs, and Transnational Gangs (multiple countries).  There are 33,000 officially designated gangs in the US.  Since a gang is comprised of three or more kids, there are many more than the
official number.  The police say that there are a minimum of 300 gangs in Prince George’s County.

Kids join a gang initially for protection from bullying, and then learn they get respect, love, recognition, and identity.

Kids are influenced by YouTube,  songs, movies, TV and video games.  It is very difficult to ID gang members
because they have “a color of the day” for hats, shirts, shoes and shoe laces, and various sports team shirts. Just look for similarities.  Their hand signs change constantly.  The Police have forced some of these continual changes  because they now understand more about the structure and purpose of gangs.

RED FLAGS:  Look for change in dress style about the time they reach 6th or 7th grade.  They might have a new nickname, a tattoo, more cash, new friends, and graffiti on their notebooks.
The best way to address this is to help them occupy their free time with sports, music, scouts, and other healthy activities.  The most important thing the Sgt. said was for you, the parent, to have good communications with your child.  Take
time to listen to them, too.  Make sure they wear proper clothing and set limits on how they spend their time, especially with a computer, cell phone, or TV.

Be sure to check their notebooks for drawings to make sure they are not graffiti.

Both Sgt. Rudinsky and the PG County Police emphasized that there is at least one police officer in each of the PG County schools.  The county also has 63 Security School Board Officers that are assigned to schools. There are also Probation Specialists where needed.  Security is very important to school administrators and the various police departments.

Richard Mason
MCA Security Chairman