For parents and other community members who showed up at Charlotte Amalie High School Thursday night, there was a detailed presentation by the police department's School Security Bureau on the extent to which big-city gang organizers have infiltrated the local public school system.
Police officials called the meeting to share information that officers have gathered during the months and years of fighting campus violence, and there was an impressive display of it, including contraband confiscated regularly from students. School security officer Linda Raymond identified some of the weapons and other items, some of which were confiscated as recently as Thursday at Addelita Cancryn Junior High School.
"These guns, knives, bandanas and blunt objects were all taken from school students," Raymond said.
Officer Tracy Richardson said police have gathered intelligence indicating that fights and other forms of rivalry disrupting campuses and threatening students, teachers and others are not chance occurrences, but part of a well-organized effort to recruit Virgin Islands youngsters into some of the nation's most notorious gangs.
"The gangs share a common identity, mostly red and blue," Richardson said. "The red signifies themselves with the Bloods gang while the Crips following is usually engaged in blue colored clothing." Richardson said intelligence gathered so far that students from the Oswald Harris Court community, Paul M. Pearson Gardens are associated with the "Bloods" while students from Altona, Bovoni, Hospital Group and Savan are affiliated with the "Crips" gang.
Police Chief Jose Garcia promised that the department plans to come up with a strategy to include law enforcement, school personnel, parents, and other community members in the effort to halt the violent trends on school campuses, but he believes
that ultimately, parents will prove to be the most important component.
"This initiative is one that calls for the community and parents to become involved. We are here trying to get them on the right path," Garcia said.
For parents who have no idea where to begin in determining whether their child is involved in gang-related activity, Richardson says there are recognizable signs such as the color of clothing and body language. "One gang may choose to wear their bandanas on left arm, cross their left arm over their right and when they stand they may prop up their left leg behind them." He said after a while, the young people's involvement with the gangs becomes very noticeable.
The information provided by police surprised many of the parents and other who attended the school security meeting. Officers of the school security unit planned the gathering so that the community would begin understanding the scope of what confronts them daily. But while the opportunity to share the information was appreciated as a beginning of a partnership with the community.
School security supervisor Sgt. Elvin Fahie was somewhat disappointed that it was not shared with more. "We are here to find solutions that will help the young people who are totally in problems. It may not be my problem or your problem but together we all suffer," he said.
Among the more encouraging developments at the School Security meeting, parent and schools administrators among those attending appealed to police to make similar presentations at parent-teacher meetings and other functions, in order to make more people aware of alarming developments on school campuses.
