 Gang Involvement
Warning Signs of a Youth's Possible Involvement in Gang Activities:
Beware if your youth is:
- Buying (or wants to buy) an excessive amount of blue, red, black, green or brown for their wardrobe
- Wearing their pants sagging too low on their hips
- Will only wear certain types of tennis shoes or laces
- Wearing a lot of gold or silver jewelry (how or where did they get it?)
- Having and using a street name, possible different than the one the family has given him
- Using gang slang in conversations with you; or mostly with others
- Withdrawing from family members, and not wanting to be around family
- Hawing troubles in school: lowered grades or failing, fighting, suspensions, skipping, carrying weapons in school, getting home late, etc.
- Associating with undesirables, especially those wearing too much of the same colors
- Not willing to tell you where, with who, or what they will be doing when they are out
- Not willing for you to met their friends or give you any information about them
- Breaking Curfew frequently
- Desiring too much privacy
- Develop a major attitude problem with you, teachers, or other in authority
- Starting to use alcohol, tobacco, and/or other drugs: having drug items around
- Using hand signs to their friends and others
- Receiving and/or having money or other items without your permission or awareness
- Carrying or talking about weapons, beepers, mobile phones, drugs.
- Getting tattoos (gang signs, names, slogans, insignias)
- Writing gang-type graffiti on their clothes, notebooks, and other things
- Saying that he/she has been initiated, blessed, jumped into, or is in gangs, wants to be, or hangs out with other youth you know to be in a gang or want to be
- Getting caught (and maybe charged) with other youth in gang related activities
- Police, neighbors, family, or friends tell you that you child is in a gang
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