Angelina Reyes admits she was in denial over the gang ties of her 17-year-old son, Antonio Marks. After the last of five youths and young adults was convicted last week in the brutal murder of her son, she urged other parents to learn from her tragedy.
Sadly, it’s another in a series of lessons for parents, school and public safety officials, policy makers and others throughout Snohomish County. Gangs are here, in virtually every community, high school and many middle schools, and they’re recruiting children as early as the third grade.
They can be lethal — the stabbing and beating death of Marks in Sultan last summer is just the latest example. They’ve also been linked to rapes, robberies and drug activity, among other crimes.
Efforts to combat gangs in Snohomish County have intensified, with various grants funding coordinated police and social-service strategies. They’re allowing police to focus on areas of known gang activity, increasing their interaction with suspected gang members and other children who, largely because they have little or no supervision, are prime candidates for gang membership.
School resource officers are assigned to nearly every high school in the county, and some middle schools, keeping a close eye and ear on gang behavior and signs that can precede it. The Snohomish County Gang Community Response Team is working with schools and agencies such as Cocoon House — a resource for homeless and at-risk teens — to identify youths who are or could become involved with a gang and intervene.
Funding for such efforts must continue. Strategies also need to be developed to help non-English-speaking parents keep tabs on their kids’ progress at school. And judges need to send a clear no-tolerance message to wannabe gang members by handing down stiff sentences for gang-related crimes.
But the success of efforts to keep a lid on the gang problem depends on adults, especially parents, having a clue about what kids are doing.
Tips to parents from the Gang Community Response Team are straightforward: talking with your kids about gangs and how to deal with peer pressure, getting to know their friends and their friends’ parents, setting firm limits, and being aware of Internet use — social networks have become virtual meeting places for gangs.
“Don’t let your guard down,” is the message Antonio Marks’ grieving mother delivered last week.
Not only parents, but entire communities, should take it to heart.
For more information, go to www.wevaluekids.org/gangs, or call Snohomish County’s Gang Help Line, 425-388-6666.
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