Gangs in Madison County schools may not yet be an epidemic, but according to some in the local education community, there is enough evidence lying underneath the surface to cause alarm.
“We know that Richmond has some influence from Lexington," said Sgt. Brian Maynard of the Lexington Police Department.
Maynard was one of the main presenters Thursday at the Madison County Teaching and Learning Conference conducted at Madison Central High School.
The Lexington Metro Police began training educators on gang-related material about two years ago, Maynard said.
“We’re not experts (on gang-related issues), but this is what we’re seeing in Lexington,” Maynard said.
Lexington is home to at least 10 known gangs: S.O.T., White Mafia, SQAD (Silent, quick and deadly), Sur 13, Norte 14, Crips, Bloods, 22 Boys, Ambrose and the Latin Kings.
“By state definition, a gang must have five members and there has to be some type of criminal behavior,” Maynard said.
The training sessions have three main focuses: prevention, education and enforcement.
“Things are not necessarily what they appear on the surface,” said Doug West, principal of the Madison County Area Technology Center, located next to Madison Central. West helped coordinate Thursday’s event, inviting local law enforcement and educators, as well as police and education representatives from neighboring counties like Estill and Clark counties.
“I’ve noticed around town some of the same (gang) symbols they’ve shown here today,” West said.
Karen Bothun, principal of the Clark County Area Technology Center, said she attended the workshop not only because it is an interesting topic, but because of Clark County’s close proximity to Lexington.
“We haven’t had any (gang-related) incidents,” she said. “We are a county that is right next to Lexington, and we wanted to make sure we know what’s going on in Lexington.”
Clark County teachers are beginning to notice the doodlings of their students and some gang-related graffiti has surfaced in certain parts of the community.
“We just want to make sure that we’re aware enough to keep our school safe,” she said. "We want to be aware and be ready to stop any kind of gang activity, or at least know enough to intervene a little bit before it gets out of hand.”
Gang recruiting in schools is beginning to become a “ ... big issue,” Maynard said.
Teachers should pay attention to students who are regularly seen drawing crowns and pitchforks, he said.
Symbols are a large part of gang culture.
Teachers also should pay attention to fights that break out during the school day, Maynard said.
“You have to ask the question: ‘Why, all of a sudden, is he (or she) getting beat up when the next day, they’re buddies with the rest of the group?’”
Maynard was referring to the same group who beat the person the day before.
That possibly could be an initiation ritual, he said.
Teachers also should be on the lookout for a sudden drop in a student’s grades and pay attention to their personal behavior and appearance.
If a student all of a sudden begins wearing a certain color every day of the week, that could be a sign of gang affiliation, Maynard said.
“It could be nothing, but it also may be indicators that it is something you should look into,” he said.
When a gang member is arrested, he said he talks to them and tries to find out the reason why they decided to join a gang.
“They’re there for a reason,” he said. “They are joining to make money, for protection, for the glory of it, there are several reasons why.”
Becoming part of a gang is not an easy process. Several forms of gang initiations were discussed at Thursday’s conference.
The most common form of initiation is called a “beat in” where the person wanting to join a gang must sustain a severe beating from members of that particular gang.
Another initiation process discussed was the “blood in, blood out” method. This means a person wanting to join a gang must shed their own blood (via a beating) or the blood of someone else. “Blood out” is used when a gang member wants to sever ties to the organization, meaning they are either killed by fellow gang members or beaten severely.
Females who want to join a male gang must be “sexed in,” Maynard said. This means that they could be forced to have sex with multiple gang members.
As far as what race and social class has the most gangs, Maynard said there is no discrimination.
“It’s all across the board,” he said.
Socioeconomic status, age or race mean nothing.
“We’ve got educated people who are gang members to drop outs,” he said.
Anyone in Madison County who has gang-related information or suspects gang activity can call the Richmond Police Chief Larry Brock at 623-8911. All callers may remain anonymous.
For more information about gangs in Kentucky’s schools, visit www.kysafeschools.org, and click on “gangs” listed on the left side of the Web page.
Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@ richmondregister.com or 624-6608.
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Lexington police officer Todd Phillips speaks Thursday about gang graffiti in Lexington during the Madison County Teaching and Learning Conference for educators and law enforcement officials at Madison Central High School.
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