Are gangs and School violence a problem in South Gate?

“Gangs and school violence can turn into a problem if no one does anything about it.”

Nicholas Antonelli, a freshman at Granada Hills Charter High School, thinks it’s really dumb to get into a gang. “Gangs aren’t needed, it’s very unnecessary in schools,” Antonelli said. He has no experience in gangs or anything related. Although he has no experience in a gang, he has friends that are in a gang and fight and do drugs. “I personally think they get into gangs because of an older brother or a family member. I think this because I have a friend and his brother is in a gang and now my friend is in a gang.” Antonelli thinks they get into gangs just to look cool and tough. “I think they just get in one to impress and scare people,” Antonelli said. He thinks they don’t have weapons. “People should not get into a gang because if they do it’s going to be really hard to get out of it.”
According to Louise Gerdes, “Children are more than 100 times likely to murder outside the school walls than within them.” Many kids don’t die on school grounds, they are most likely to die somewhere outside of the school. Drive bys are is an example how kids die outside school grounds. According to Barbara Aufiero, gangs are a group with individuals who share alike traits. “Mostly commonly, teens become gang members to fill their need to belong.” Maybe their parents don’t care about them or their parents are involved in these problems too.
Jesse Meza, an 8th grader at South Gate Middle School, says, “I don’t care if there are gangs, as long as they don’t mess with me. There are so many gangs at my school, the school has to call the police.” He has about 20 friends that are in a gang but he doesn’t want to join them. “If you get into a gang, you’re basically stuck,” Meza says. He says there’s always a fight with other gangs and if there not fighting they’re smoking something. He thinks there are gangs just because they don’t care about their life and their future. “I think maybe their parents are in a gang, they got influenced by them. Maybe they just feel left out by their parents and they start a gang just to feel the love or something.”
The gang culture isn’t anything new. According to Gary Burnett, “Researcher’s agree that most gangs share certain characteristics.” Gangs love the neighborhood they are in and show really strong loyalty to their neighborhood by their mark with graffiti. It has some impact in schools, but not as much as people imagine. According to Kenny Leones, “Some teens find it necessity in order to gain recognition and fame whether in school or in other circles that they belong to.”
Some kids feel that no one cares about them so they don’t care about themselves so they get into a gang. “Joining a gang is sometimes too much to handle for teens with unstable characters.” Gangs can harm them forever and they can’t understand why. Joining a gang will change your life and it will be bad for the people in a gang.
Isaac Serrano, a freshman at South East High School, thinks its okay as long as they don’t mess with you.” You know which people are in a gang, the people that look scary.” Serrano thinks they join gangs because of family members or because they feel left out by their parents. “I can tell when they are in a gang, the way they dress and the way they look at you. Some parents may not know their kids are in one and maybe they do know there in a gang,” Serrano said. He thinks they do carry weapons most of the time with them.
School violence and gangs is a sad thing to see in the community of South Gate. It’s all cool when you’re in it and at the end it’s not cool when until someone sees their best friends dead on the floor. Hopefully, school violence and the gangs will end up stopping before it’s too late.