Counting gangs in schools
Charlotte-Meck Schools find 70 gangs, with 450 members, in their system, the Observer reports.
One school board member wants to expel all gang members.
Officials say gang members account for only 1 percent of students facing disciplinary hearings.
That's a low number but, if there are only 450 identified gang members, it's still disproportionate. Gang members make up just one-third of 1 percent of the CMS student population of 132,000 -- meaning gang members are three times more likely to face disciplinary action than other students.
It looks like CMS is trying to get a handle on its gang problem. With Mo Green heading this way, maybe Guilford County Schools will, too.
Comments (10)
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Your stats are skewed. How many gang members are in grades k-5? And what percentage of Charlotte-Meck students are?
If you assume all gang members are grades 6+ (I'm not sure at what age gang indoctrination occurs these days), and 6/13th of the Clt-Meck students are in grades 7-12, you'd get 450 gang members for ~61000 students, or about 0.75%. With such a small sample, I'd say the statistical difference is irrelevant.
Not that I'm advocating gang membership - just saying your math needs work.
Posted on August 13, 2008 9:01 AM
Sorry - Looks like I'm assuming gang members are in grades 7+. If you assumed 6+, you'd get ~0.65% of students in middle and high school in gangs.
Not sure I'd really trust the 1% stat either. I'd think gang members are more likely to be involved in fighting but less likely in cheating/plagarizing. Anyway, I'm rambling.
Posted on August 13, 2008 9:08 AM
I should have consulted my CPA first.
Posted on August 13, 2008 9:09 AM
Kenny,
I don't think you can equally distribute the total students among the 13 grade levels because we know that students drop off most often in the 9th grade. I would think that there would be fewer and fewer students from grades 9 - 12 proportionately than the earlier grades.
Posted on August 13, 2008 9:18 AM
Despite the relatively small numbers, gang members can cause huge problems in a school. A small group of organized, violent thugs can intimidate an entire student body.
I sure hope Mo Green cracks down on this gang problem in Guilford County Schools. However, student discipline has been completely neglected by the Guilford County School Board and by Mr. Green's predecessor.
The School Board (well, the majority of the board) has completely lost sight of priorities. Their primary duty is to protect the good kids who want to come to school to learn. Their duty is not to provide a haven and endless "second chances" to aspiring felons who prey on fellow students. However, in their warped view of reality, the gang members are the "victims" while the good kids are "elitists" and "snitches."
I know for a fact there are particular parts of campus at certain Guilford County high schools where students purposely avoid because those areas "belong" to particular gangs.
Posted on August 13, 2008 9:47 AM
I agree - I was just evenly distributing for simplicity sake. My point, really, was that the stats used in the original post are essentially meaningless.
Posted on August 13, 2008 10:47 AM
I have an idea. Have the parents of these gang members, no matter how many, show up en masse at a GCS boardmtg. and demand to be sent, at taxpayer expense, to a convention someplace, say like San Francisco, that tells them how to prevent their kid from joining a gang. Problem solved!
People are always trying to make this stuff too complicated.
Posted on August 13, 2008 10:57 AM
Better yet, send the kids with them. Just make sure it's a one-way ticket.
Posted on August 13, 2008 12:05 PM
Mr. Clark, sir. Any chance on posting a strand on Debateables or Your Voice about GCS finanacing would- be conventioneers to the Title I school convention?
Posted on August 13, 2008 3:18 PM
I've posted one here. Have at it.
Posted on August 13, 2008 5:32 PM