Zone defense could stop gangs at Valley high schools

SUNNYSIDE, Wash. -- As lunch ends at Sunnyside High School, police descend on four teenagers standing outside an apartment complex about two blocks from the school.

The apartment manager who called police says he doesn't want them there.

The teenagers tell officers they're waiting for someone; two are known gang members displaying gang colors.

Ordering them out of the area, Sunnyside Police give the teenagers written notice that they'll be arrested for trespassing if they return.

Without a complaint from the apartment manager, police would not have been able to break up the group unless a crime had been committed.

School officials statewide hope to change that by getting legislation passed that establishes "safety zones" around public schools to prohibit gang activity.

Under the proposed law, anyone displaying colors, flashing gang signs or believed to be involved in criminal activity could be removed from areas within 1,000 feet of public schools without probable cause. If they return before being allowed back into the area, they would be subject to a civil injunction and could be arrested for trespass, a gross misdemeanor.

The proposed safety zones law is outlined in a recent 67-page report by the Gangs in Schools Task Force commissioned by the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

The report also calls for information sharing among school districts about students who are gang members, and additional school funding for prevention and intervention programs.

Law enforcement officials have expressed strong support for civil injunctions, and two years ago, state Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches, tried to get them approved in legislation as another tool for police to use against gangs.

But the provision was removed by Democratic lawmakers who worried that the injunctions would result in racial stereotyping.

Supporters are hoping a renewed push for civil injunctions -- one that would include political backing from school districts and educators -- will be more successful. Their proposal is to use the injunctions in more limited areas near school campuses.

It's just one piece of a larger solution needed to combat a growing gang problem, said state Attorney General Rob McKenna. He's working with the Gangs in Schools Task Force to draft legislation.

"We're seeing many instances of one teenager shooting and killing another teenager, and that has changed from what we were seeing in the late 1980s and 1990s," McKenna said. "The violence is so much more obvious."

In Yakima County alone, at least eight of the nearly two dozen homicides so far in 2009 have been gang related. And shootings were dangerously close to schools twice this year in Yakima.

On Dec. 3, a 19-year-old gang member was injured when rival gang members fired more than a dozen shots in the 200 block of South Naches Avenue, where students were walking home from Washington Middle School.

And on Oct. 28, a 22-year-old man was injured in a drive-by shooting near Davis High School just as students were leaving campus.

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A2008 state Department of Health survey -- the Healthy Youth Survey -- found that the number of high school students admitting involvement in a gang has doubled since 2002, surging from nearly 5 percent to 10 percent of the students surveyed.

Beginning in sixth grade, students are surveyed every two years. In the 2008 survey, 30,346 of the state's 46,416 students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 participated.

In Yakima County, 594 students admitted gang membership -- 7.7 percent of the 7,638 students surveyed in grades eight, 10 and 12.

The survey also found that gang membership peaks in 10th grade, mirroring national statistics, and drops off after that.

Many students who are connected to gangs drop out or are kicked out of school by the time they reach their senior year, said Tyson Vogeler, program supervisor for school safety with the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

No one knows just how many students in public schools are involved in gangs statewide because there is no way to track them all.

"It's a huge issue, and when you're looking for numbers, they're hard to come by," Vogeler said.

The Gangs in Schools Task Force, composed of school officials, law enforcement and crime prevention representatives, was created as the result of a bill approved by state lawmakers in 2007. Its mission was to assess how gangs are affecting schools in Washington and to propose solutions.

McKenna and others believe that one potential strategy for combating gang membership may lie in California, where civil injunctions have been used by schools and law enforcement since 1994.

Authorities in Los Angeles say civil injunctions there have created a safer environment for students walking to and from school.

Studies show crime has dropped anywhere from 5 percent to 40 percent in the 41 safety zones covering roughly 100 square miles of the 500-square-mile city, said Bruce Riordan, chief of the gang division for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.

Civil injunctions there identify specific gangs and gang members to be excluded from areas, and they help police quickly gain control of an area when gang violence touches off, he said.

"When you have the injunction in place, police can get out immediately and enforce the injunction, quiet the neighborhood and stop the retaliation," he said.

In Washington state, enforcement of gang-free safety zones would rest on school officials and police, including student resource officers, which many schools have.

There would be both verbal and written warnings issued, depending on the level of situation, said Vogeler, who worked on the task force and proposal.

A verbal notice would exclude a person from the area for 24 hours, while a written warning would bar them for up to a year. Notices would be subject to appeal.

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School officials and law enforcement officers say they see it often: Gang members hanging out across the street from schools and in nearby parks where students walk to and from school.

The gang task force commissioned by OSPI heard a common complaint from school officials: gangs reaching into their campuses to recruit members, said Randy Town, school safety coordinator for Education Service District 105 in Yakima.

"We've got gang houses across from schools intimidating kids," said Town, co-chairman of the gang task force that produced the report. "So we wanted to empower schools against this activity."

Although the proposed law wouldn't force any gang members to move, it could be used to keep them from bothering others in streets and on sidewalks, he said.

"I'm all for it," said Toppenish School District Assistant Superintendent John Cerna. "The farther we can keep those undesirables away, the better, because what's happening is they are waiting for our kids after school, recruiting."

Gang culture has not only overrun many neighborhoods in the Yakima Valley, it has caused even good kids with bright academic futures to get sucked into gangs, said Yakima School District Safety and Security Director Lee Maras.

For some students, it's not so much a desire to join as it is a desire to survive.

"I've had more than a few kids tell me that 'if I don't act like I'm part of this, then I'm going to get hurt,'" said Maras, also principal of McKinley Elementary School in Yakima. "I can't tell you how many times I've had parents say, 'I can't keep my kids home at night.' They're staying out all night and they're only 10 years old."

Sunnyside High School Student Resource Officer Joey Glossen said breaking up the group of teenagers at the apartments not far from the high school on Dec. 3 may have quashed recruitment efforts or a clash with rival gang members. He hasn't seen those teenagers in the area since police warned them away.

"I know that at least one of those four kids is not a gang member," he said. "But he's hanging out with them, and that concerns me."

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A legislative bill has yet to be drafted on the safety zone, but lawmakers are interested.

"If it will create a safer environment for students at schools, I'm all for that," said Ross, who has been a leading advocate of anti-gang legislation. "I think we need to investigate and go forward with it."

Attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union said they'd oppose any law that excludes anyone from any area without probable cause.

ACLU spokesman Doug Honig in Seattle said a law excluding a certain group of people from a public place without good reason would violate constitutional rights.

The civil liberties group would be concerned about a law that targets "not just how someone may look or speculation of what someone might do," he said.

Town, ESD 105's safety coordinator, countered that the proposed law would specifically target activity, such as any gang activity that may interfere with students or disrupt school operations.

"We realize that this may potentially be challenged by other legal authorities, but we are ready to jump in with other legal authorities and create the legal language until this meets constitutional muster," he said. "California had been challenged and had to retool bills to meet constitutional muster."

In Olympia, legislation for civil injunctions may depend on Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, who added an amendment stripping the language from the bill Ross co-sponsored in 2008. She told colleagues that civil injunction laws in California had led to racial and ethnic harassment rather than a decline in gang activity.

"This gave the opportunity for rounding up people with brown skin like mine," said Prentice, who is Latino. "This is just a reaction to our own failure (as a society). ..."

While it's not known how receptive lawmakers might be to the idea of safety zones near schools, they'll be wary of any legislation that comes with a price tag given the state's budget problems.

The task force says there would be no direct cost to implement safety zones, but they would likely seek funding to create prevention and intervention programs in schools.

Ross is still trying to get money for that 2008 gang bill, which was ultimately signed into law. The legislation he co-sponsored with Rep. Christopher Hurst, D-Enumclaw, also called for community intervention programs. The money was never allocated.

Something has to be done to put a lid on the gang problem in the state, said Ross, a member of the House Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee.

"I hope at the end of the legislative cycle, the Legislature as a whole does not use the budget as an excuse to not do something," he said.

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

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