The CASA survey revealed that one in three middle school students say that drugs are used, kept or sold at their school, a 39 percent increase since last year (32 percent in 2010 vs. 23 percent in 2009).

Compared to teens in families with strong Family Ties, teens in families with weak Family Ties are:

•Four times likelier to try tobacco;
•Four times likelier to try marijuana;
•Almost three times likelier to drink;
•Twice as likely to have a friend/classmate who abuses prescription drugs; and
•Twice as likely to have a friend/classmate who uses illegal drugs such as acid, ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine or heroin.

Other Key Findings Related to Teen Substance Use

•When teens that can get marijuana were asked who they would get it from, 76 percent said a friend/classmate; 30 percent said that their parents know the person supplying the marijuana.
•Eighty-six percent of parents support social host laws that make it illegal for parents to allow underage children (other than their own) to drink in their home.
•Seventy-five percent of teens say that teens they know who drink or use drugs are more likely to engage in sexual activity.
•Compared to teens who say that none of their friends drink regularly, those whose friends drink on a regular basis are 13 times likelier to have tried marijuana.
•Teens who have tried tobacco are 12 times likelier to have used marijuana compared to teens who have never tried tobacco

My Take on the Survey

At first, I was inclined to give a quick glance at the survey and move on. But given the U.S. Department of Education believes surveys are the best and most reliable source of data on school safety, I thought I’d take a closer look (even though I believe the fed’s overreliance on surveys is off-base and fails to take into account incident-based, law enforcement data in addition to surveys).

As you drill down into the survey results, you find more interesting details on gangs and drugs.  I encourage you to at least give it a good scan.  It gives a different perspective than what you may see or hear from other sources, especially inside the D.C. Beltway.

My gut feeling is the general trend of gang activity is going up in those schools around the nation where there is an active and/or growing  gang presence in the broader community. We’ll also see the typical drug trends with kids (alcohol, marijuana, etc.), along with the drugs-of-choice in the community at the time, show their ugly faces in our schools, too.  Given the declining economy and increased stressors on families, kids, and communities, it would be logical to think these issues risk increasing.

It is likely we may see an uptick in school gang and drug issues since the feds eliminated the formula grant component of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program.  And given the Department of Education is proposing a skewed focus on ‘incivility” and “bullying” and “climate,” it also makes me wonder if issues related to drugs, drug prevention, gangs, and violence will now take a back seat in federal school safety policy and funding.

The philosophical, political, and funding biases tend to swing from one extreme to another.  We never seem to strike a happy medium where a comprehensive and balanced approach to school safety is taken — whether we’re talking about the federal level or down to our local school-communities.

One thing is for sure:  If we continue to over-emphasize one particular area, issue, or strategy  over a comprehensive and balanced approach, we’re never going to get it right.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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My colleague, Chuck Hibbert, and I were fortunate to spend the past two days providing professional development training at a renewal for school administrators in a Midwest district which applied for and received a Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant last year.  Managing media and parent communications was the topic of our first day in-service.  The second day, today, was focused on gangs and school safety.

We were fortunate to work with a district where the superintendent has been supportive of the REMS grant and in making sure the necessary time was allocated to implement the training and multitude of other activities associated with the grant.  His grant project directors, like many REMS grantees, pulled “double duty” in administering the grant in addition to their already busy central office administrative responsibilities.  The superintendent was also supportive of spending a half-day of annual renewal meeting time to focus exclusively on gangs.

Our structure for the gang training was designed to be practical and useful.  The half-day session was broken down into four segments:

1. National trends in gang violence and management, and school safety best practices for prevention and response provided from a national school safety consultant’s perspective (me);
2. A historical review of gang-specific trends and incidents over the past 20 years from the district’s now-retired school security director;
3. A presentation by a detective from the local police department who focused on specific gangs, gang identifiers, recent cases and local trends, and related information unique to the city and, in particular, to the community served by the school district.
4. Q&A, along with discussion, by school administrators, school police, and security personnel about what works in adult relationships with gang members in their schools, gang involvement by children as young as elementary school level (the police detective shared one recent case involving a 7-year-old gang-involved male), and putting gangs into the overall context of school safety and day-to-day education issues.

My belief is simple:  Outside consultants from hundreds of miles away should not be paid to come into a local school district to present a workshop primarily of identifiers (graffiti, signs, clothing, etc.) of gangs they believe may exist in a community.  Local police are the best sources and should be tapped for this task.  They know the most current information and trends, and will be the person who the educators actually see coming into their schools to investigate gang-related incidents which may occur.

The consultants can bring a perspective on national trends, best practices in prevention and response, and a bigger picture view of the impact of gangs on school safety.  They can also say some things which, for political reasons, local school administrators and police officers may or may not be able to candidly say in a training session.  These things often need to be said, but out of fear of political correctness or not upsetting other agencies, information presented can sometimes be “couched” in politically-correct manners or not said at all.

On-site feedback today was positive.  None of the presenters stepped on the toes of the other presenters, and each presenters’ comments built upon those of the other speakers.  It was a nice way of offering a balanced but candid presentation, the “big picture” nationally, an in-depth look at local gang activity, and some practical advice for preventing and managing school gang activity.

Are your school leaders willing to have open, candid conversations about the impact of gangs on school safety? Will they dedicate time to do so?  Will the presentation be properly structured to be comprehensive but also to make it useful and practical for participants?

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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I spoke at the California Gang Investigators Association (CGIA) national conference in Anaheim on June 29th.  My topic was on gangs and school emergency preparedness.  The workshops were designed to emphasize the need for solid school emergency guidelines which are “ready to go” due to the quickly escalating and violent nature of gang violence.

Several themes and observations from other conference sessions I sat in on, as well as “hallway conversations” with CGIA officials and other attendees, should be of interest to educators and public safety officials:

1. Everyone is suffering from the economic crisis.  Law enforcement budgets, like education budgets, are being sliced left and right.  Overtime is being cut, officers are doing more with less, and the need for “smarter” and “better targeted” enforcement with fewer resources is a sign of the times. (Sound familiar, educators?)
2. Liaison across agencies and jurisdictions is critical.  Gangs are mobile.  Gangs communicate.  So should law enforcement, educators, and their community partners.
3. Knowledgeable experts on gangs are often at the grassroots level and with non-traditional partner agencies. One police commander talked about the value he saw in working with code enforcement, animal control, domestic violence shelters, child service social agencies, community-based agencies, and even cable company front-line workers. Reach out and use “force multipliers” to be more effective, especially during times of tight budgets and limited resources. 
4. Involve the community and include the news media to promote your efforts.  Town hall meetings, youth input, and similar outreach can provide a wealth of information.
5. Collect and analyze data, and implement accountability processes.  Use the data to target your limited resources and to hold front-line staff and management accountable. 
6. Get local politicians on-board, briefed, and part of the process on the front-end. Public safety often is, or at least should be, their top priority.

These themes are good advice whether they are applied to managing gangs from a law enforcement agency perspective or if applied to managing gangs and broader violence issues at schools. 

What’s working for managing gangs and school safety in your school-community?

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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Just since the beginning of this school year last August:

• A 16-year-old female high school honors student in Long Beach, CA,  was shot and killed while leaving a high school homecoming game. Police reported the victim was an innocent bystander in the middle of two rival gangs engaged in a conflict. 
• Two 19-year students were shot, and a 10-year-old was hit by a bullet, outside of a Phoenix, AZ, charter school at dismissal. A 16-year-old former student was arrested. Police reportedly believe the incident was gang-related.
• Middle school students in Yakima, Washington, were caught in the middle of gunfire by two gang members firing as the students were walking home from school.  One male was wounded with a gunshot injury to the arm.

In “Gangs in Schools: Signs, Symbols, and Solutions” (Research Press, 1998), Drs. Arnold Goldstein and Donald Kodluboy advise us:

“A proportionate, considered response early in the evolution of the gang presence will help prevent more serious problems on down the line.  If educators can agree with their colleagues, administration, parents, the community, and the school board that it is better to plan ahead than it is to apologize for not being prepared, all are served.”

School officials too often deny the existence of gangs until a tragedy occurs and they can no longer be denied.

Are your schools being proactive or reactive about gangs? 

Ken Trump

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