School Gangs Prompt Father to Send Son Out of Cumberland County

Fayetteville, N.C. — A Fayetteville parent is so worried about his son's safety because of gangs in a high school that he has pulled his teenager out of class and sent him to another county.

Gangs are a dangerous trend that authorities say is only getting worse.

The case in point is Cape Fear High School. James Herring believes gangs are out of control there, and he pulled his 15-year-old son out of class after the boy was threatened by gang members.

"He was scared to go back in there," Herring said Friday. "These schools right here are getting bad."

He charged that school officials did nothing, even though there were witnesses to the incident with his son.

"These kids witnessed it and told the principal they saw it, and the principal said, ‘We'll talk to them.’"

Principal Jeffrey Jernigan declined to discuss the case with WRAL,

However, Tim Kinlaw, associate superintendent for auxiliary services for the Cumberland County Schools said there is an issue for educators to deal with.

"I think it’s getting worse throughout North Carolina, and we're seeing it at a younger age," Kinlaw said.

According to school records, nine students at Cape Fear High were punished for gang-related activities last year. It's easy to find evidence of those gangs’ “tags”—their markings—even on street signs just down the road from the school.

"There's no real wanna-be's. If they wanna be, they're gonna be," said Fayetteville Police Lt. Mark Bridgeman. “You have to take it seriously."

Police are working with schools to divert gangsters from a lifestyle of violence, and the student code of conduct now has a separate category for gang activity and says it is punishable under a zero-tolerance policy.

Herring is skeptical.

"The principal, teachers and officers on duty are scared of the gangs, or the don't have the resources to control the gangs,” Herring said. "If they can't handle it, the parents need to get more involved and take care of it."

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Latest Comments

Harsher punishments. I can understand what you are saying. Taking someone who spends their day on the corner or at the public basketball courts, hanging out with their friends and putting them in prison is like throwing Brair Rabbit in the briar patch. To take that person with that life and put him in a community/prison where all he has to do is stand around, play basketball with his inmate friends, lift weights, and tell lies to each other about the things they've done, that is foolish.

However, take that gang member/criminal and put a 20 pound sledge hammer in his hands, leg irons on his ankles and drop him in the corner of a rock quarry by himself and make him bust rocks all day every day, rain or shine, hot or cold, for every day of his sentence and I doubt he would want to go back when he is finally released.

mikeNC
February 12, 2007 9:36 a.m.

Another story, I graduated from High School in 1988, the student who graduated #1 in our class lived in a homeless shelter with his mother. I attended East Carolina with that same student, his education was funded by scholarships and loans and HARD WORK, but he did it. Nobody is saying that it is easy, but I just think using a person's economic background as the reason they can't get an education is an excuse and is not true.

mikeNC
February 12, 2007 9:27 a.m.

Hail2opeth, you made the statement "I ain't no kid's savior" and I ask why? If you saw a 12 year old boy, standing on the pedistrian/bike bridge over the beltline, about to jump into traffic. Would you try to talk him out of it or would you stand back and watch that kid ruin his life and possibly the lives of the people driving down the beltline? A kid jumping from the bridge will be no more/less harmfull than that kid joining a gang.

mikeNC
February 12, 2007 9:21 a.m.

I agree with you Hail2opeth. Regardless of your specific economic situation growing up, you can still encourage a kid to stay in high school and stress to them the importance of education. I'm not saying it needs to be your job, however maybe if you just visited a local high school chemistry class once you could encourage a kid to follow your foot steps. I'm not saying it would be easy for eveybody, but thru loans and scholarships and other means it is possible. I agree if a young man or young woman is capable and WILLING to study and learn, they should be allowed the opportunity to get a college education regardless of the economic background.

mikeNC
February 12, 2007 9:14 a.m.

Regarding harsher punishments for criminals, I predict it would have a minimal effect on instilling fear in criminals. The problem is not that criminals don't fear the justice system. It's that they have nothing to lose when they get caught. Take you and I for instance. If either of us had the desire to commit a crime, the risk to our reputations - our good name among our family, friends, and colleagues - would far outweigh the potential benefit. Thus we restrain ourselves from any temptation, say to blow away the Yankee driver who rudely cuts in front of us in traffic. But if you have no job, no education, no loving parents to disappoint, no kids to take care of, no wealth to lose, no self esteem, nothing but the shirt on your back and the Glock in your pocket, what have you got to lose if you get caught robbing a bank? If you had any hope tomorrow would be better, then you might care whether you risk serving 1 year verses 10. But without that hope, what's the difference?

hail2opeth
February 12, 2007 12:54 a.m.