Young Gang Members

This Youngstown, Ohio, news story highlights an important fact for anyone working with gangs in schools. 

“The FBI said Youngstown gang recruits are getting younger and younger, with some of them as young as 10 to 12 years old. And a lot of it starts in school hallways. 

"The kids go from that high school to the neighborhood and they are already a gang member or they are already associating with gang members and being recruited," Mahone said.”

Early prevention programs and direct intervention for children who are involved in gangs or drugs can have long lasting, positive effects.  As has been a running message in many of these posts, seek help!

The age range quoted here is generally when students go from 5^th grade to 7^th grade.  Many experts believe that the majority of children begin to experiment with gangs and drugs during the middle school / junior high years.  However, there are a growing number of kids across the country that begin this dangerous lifestyle while they are still in elementary school.  The youngest professed gang member I have dealt with was in 3^rd grade.  A few years ago, my co-worker was doing an anti-gang and anti-drug presentation to a group of 4^th grade students when one of them stood up, walked out of the room and subsequently the school, and went walking down the neighborhood street in search of “cheese”, a deadly mixture of heroin and cold medicine such as Tylenol. While schools are safer now than in the previous years, what happens with these children outside the confines of the school building has a direct impact on them inside the building, which has a direct impact on the safety of the school as a whole.