Gang Life: What’s the story?

adviser — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:01:52 +0000

Gangs are defined as “a group of people who through organization, formation, and assembly share a common identity and use it to do criminal activity.” Gangs are responsible for roughly half of all homicides and other crimes in major cities. There are over 21,000 existing gangs with 731,000 active members some of the biggest gangs are MS-13, 18^th Street, Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips, and also Folk Nation. From this huge number of active gang members they estimated that 49 percent of gang members were Hispanic, 37 percent were black, 8 percent white, 5 percent Asian, and 1 percent had another ethnicity.

Now the real question: Why would someone join a gang? You might think it’s just a big group of people with 1 person in charge, and that 1 person is telling you what to do and how to do it. If you don’t obey you get jumped by your own brothers or members. The truth is that it’s still something that more and more kids are getting into for a variety of reasons. For one, gangs are known to make a lot of money and they are able to do this by selling drugs or hitting licks (another term for doing any kind of theft). Another reason is peer pressure. Seeing your older brother, cousin, or anyone you look up to in a gang will initially lead you to wanting to join a gang too. Seeing how cool they are and how they have protection towards anything. Some might say gangs are like a brotherhood. Does that remind you of anything?

Fraternities are a lot like gangs they both go through initiation to get in and must obey the so-called leader. Just look at gangs as an underworld fraternity that instead of planning mixers and parties they plan crimes and instead of helping each other with their college work. Instead of throwing keggers or helping the other member get a guy or girl they help each other hit licks or sell drugs.

I interviewed some gang members who would rather not be named, for obvious reasons, and asked them why they joined them and what’s a typical a day in the life of a “gangbanger”. One told me “ I joined because I was going through a lot of problems with my family and being with the gang took my mind off of it, my big brother was in it too and the gang was always at my house because of him so I just figured why not just join. Usually through the day all we do is just chill, smoke, drink and sometimes go out together to clubs which just cause problems because we run into other gang members and we have to fight or murk them.” Another told me “ Being in a gang is not just something anyone can do it takes a lot of guts to be able to do it because you don’t get to run free and do what you want you are told an order and no matter how crazy you have to follow through with it.”

Gangs are on the rise and growing rapidly by recruiting peewees (gangbanger in training). While law enforcement tries to contain them it seems to be a never ending battle of back and forth.

AP, Advanced Placement or Another Political move?

Carlin Littles — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:42:02 +0000

AP classes; many of us have them, but do you know why? This year, the school district plans to make the grade by the number of students passing Advance Placement (AP) exams. In previous years, schools were graded on an 800 point criteria, predominately on percentage of students passing the FCAT with a 3 or higher and percentage of students making learning gains. Now, an additional 800 points are being distributed: 300 of these from “accelerated courses”. However, school grades are appointed prior to the release of AP exam scores. Thus, 200 of the accelerated points are gained through participation alone. In simpler words, more than 66% of the AP point criteria is awarded for having a high number of students enrolled in these more difficult classes.
At the beginning of the school year, many students were shocked to see an extra AP class on his or her own schedule (for a good sum of these students never before enrolled in such a class.) Guidance is usually willing to help students out of unwanted classes; not this year. An “I don’t want this” or “I’m not capable of this” is no longer sufficient. The withdrawal of these courses requires a guardian’s complaint. Unfortunately, school hours are often the same as office hours. Thus, all parents can do for a struggling student is provide a pat on the back and a calming, “You’ll just have to try harder.”
So great… students are pushed to apply themselves and are given the opportunity to achieve college credit if they are to pass the AP exam. However, if a student is forcefully pushed into an AP class, given the stress to excel, it is only hurting the learning environment of these classrooms. Some students, mainly freshmen, are ill-equipped for the mental aggravation and lack the proper work ethic to be placed in these classes. A prime example is AP Human Geography. Whether one is an honors or IB student, at the age of fourteen and fifteen, no student should feel the burden of a college level course. Unfortunately, without a parent physically speaking to a guidance counselor, students have no choice but to endure it.
If a student does not wish to be in a class, why is it that they are expected to show such mastery? An unmotivated student can take up valuable class time and resources. Therefore, by removing these students into an easier class should be the obvious and most advantageous course of action, right?
If it has been proved that students learn better and work more efficiently in a class of less students, why is it that students fill the classroom to the maximum capacity? As a result, some students were left without books for the entire first nine weeks while there were students with books that would prefer to take an easy elective. “Last year, there were eight of us in an AP class. Now, I’m struggling to keep up with the other twenty-some because there is no time for individual help,” says one AP student. A class so crowded makes learning nearly impossible, add the factor of not having a book and you’re failing.
What Administration and the School Board fails to understand is that by including AP exam passing ratings to the school grading policy, and thus forcing unwilling students into AP classes, they are endangering a student’s ability to learn. Is that worth gaining the appearance of a strictly academic school?

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Gang Life: What’s the story?

AP, Advanced Placement or Another Political move?