Springdale wrestles with gangs in schools

Two fatal, gang-related shootings by youths in the community spotlight gangs in Springdale schools

SPRINGDALE -- Lalo Sanchez brought his 11-year-old son, Emmanuel, to Elmdale Elementary School on a warm April night so he could hear Springdale Detective Fredy Villeda talk about gangs.

Villeda showed photos of schoolchildren police believe are in Springdale gangs, and Sanchez leaned close to Emmanuel.

Timeline

• March 13, 2015 — Fabian Rodriguez, 18, is shot and dies at a hospital.

• March 14-15 — Police arrest two boys after they drove by a house on Pierce Avenue and shot at it.

• March 16 — Hector Saul Ramos, 17, is charged with shooting Fabian Rodriguez and two other people, both of whom survived. He pleaded not guilty March 17.

• March 19 — Police arrest another boy, 17, in connection with the shooting at the Pierce Avenue house. Separately, another boy, Luis Angel Perea, 17, was arrested in connection with stealing the gun that ended up used in the drive-by shooting.

• April 11 — Jimmy Rodriguez, 20, is shot in a drive-by shooting and dies at Northwest Medical Center-Springdale. Police arrest a 13-year-old boy connected to the crime. The name of the boy is not being released due to his age.

• April 12 — Police arrest Jose Delatorre, 18, in connection with the shooting of Jimmy Rodriguez.

• April 13 — Police track two suspects — Rodolfo Martinez, 18, and Giovanni Vasquez-Sanchez, 18 — to Hartman where they are arrested. Martinez is believed to be the man who shot Jimmy Rodriguez, according to a police news release. Vasquez-Sanchez drove the vehicle, police said.

May 6 — The three men police say are involved in the shooting of Jimmy Rodriguez plead not guilty. They remain at the Washington County Detention Center. The 13-year-old boy police say is connected to the shooting must be charged as a juvenile.

Source: Staff report

How to keep your child from joining gangs

  1. Spend time with your children, not just in front of the TV.
  2. Get involved with your child’s school activities.
  3. Be a positive role model and set the right example.
  4. Encourage good study habits.
  5. Monitor your child’s use of the Internet, and look at the websites he visits.

Source: Springdale Police Department Detective Fredy Villeda

OneCommunity

Founded in 2009, OneCommunity is a nonprofit organization that promotes communities working together to improve health, education and leadership skills. Al “Papa Rap” Lopez is a co-founder and the artistic communications specialist for the organization, which works with Springdale Public Schools.

Source: Staff report

"Do you want to be a gang kid?"

"No," Emmanuel said.

"Good. Stay like that," Sanchez said.

Parents worry their children will join gangs or be shot by them, Sanchez said.

The Springdale school district has a strict policy against gang activity, which can include drawing symbols on notebooks, wearing clothing perceived as those that gangs wear or flashing hand signs. Discipline can include suspension or expulsion.

Some parents say students involved in gangs should be expelled to maintain a safe school environment, but experts and other parents argue a strict policy doesn't deter gang activity. The policy also may disenfranchise at-risk youths who then drop out of school and end up in the justice system.

Emmanuel must take gangs seriously because they aggressively recruit children, Sanchez said. Police say gangs want children for criminal activity because children often receive lighter sentences if caught.

Teenagers have been connected to gang-related deaths, shootings, burglaries, thefts and drugs in the past three months, police and residents say. Villeda started speaking at churches and schools after two recent shooting deaths were linked to gang activity.

Jimmy Rodriguez, 20, was killed while standing in his uncle's driveway April 11. Police arrested four teens -- one as young as 13 -- in connection with the drive-by shooting. Rodriguez's shooting came on the heels of the fatal shooting of Fabian Rodriguez, 18, a month earlier and only a block away. Jimmy Rodriguez is not related to Fabian Rodriguez, police and family members said.

At Villeda's presentation, the detective showed a photo of five schoolchildren -- their faces blacked out to protect their identities -- flashing gang signs. Three of the boys later were arrested in connection with the the shooting of Jimmy Rodriguez, Villeda said.

"If (Emmanuel) joins a gang, all of his dreams will go away -- he'll be dead or in jail," Sanchez said.

Police have been tight-lipped about which gangs operate in Springdale, what their gang signs are, what symbols they prefer and who their members are. Police said previously the department tracks gang activity in Springdale. Police Chief Kathy O'Kelley, who retires next month, said she didn't want to impede any investigation by revealing the information.

Capt. Derek Hudson, recently promoted from department spokesman, said the police did not want to give gangs publicity. The district does not track gangs or have a formal plan to fight them, said district spokesman Rick Schaeffer and others.

Schools should identify the type and level of gang activity and share that with parents to develop a strategy, said Steve Nawojczyk, a gang and youth violence expert. Nawojczyk works through the Arkansas Department of Human Services.

"Knowledge is power," Nawojczyk said in email. "Denial is disaster."

Gang activity

Police and school officials have met several times in the past few weeks, Hudson said.

Al Lopez, community liaison for the Springdale School District, said officials are talking about ways to address gangs in the schools.

The district has relied on a strict policy to stop gang activity, Superintendent Jim Rollins said. The district has the highest rate of expulsions among the four largest school districts in Benton or Washington counties, state records show.

"You cannot behave that way and come to school," he said.

Teachers look for gang-type behavior, but teachers had not been trained to identify gangs until last month when Villeda held a course for Elmdale, school officials said.

Most information comes to the school via resource officers, who are provided by the police department, Schaeffer said. The resource officer program "is an excellent example of something that specifically may be used to thwart gang activity," Schaeffer said.

The school district has 10 resource officers and seven more coming this fall, Schaeffer said. One of those will be a full-time officer at Elmdale, Villeda said.

"These SROs will now not only be involved in the schools, they will also patrol the school neighborhoods," Schaeffer said.

Resource officers protect the children, enforce the laws and act as positive role models, Hudson said. They build relationships with students.

"A small group of kids are the troublemakers, so most of our contacts are positive," he said.

Sanchez said many people in the Hispanic community do not trust police.

Until recently, school officials said gangs were not in the schools. After the most recent shooting, Rollins said students who might be involved in gang activity don't bring it to school.

Froylan Perez, whose 15-year-old daughter is in the Springdale district, said expulsions are good because the policy keeps students involved in gangs out of school. The school offers enough programs, including after-school clubs and extracurricular activities, for those who want them, he said.

Other parents interviewed outside the school setting said the school does not tell them when their children start having problems. Communication is a problem, they said.

Rollins said communication between parents and the school is good.

Tough love?

Children who end up in gangs often are those who feel "unsupported in some way at home or in school," Carmen Mosley-Sims, assistant director of the state Division of Youth Services, wrote in an email.

"Gang involvement should not be seen as misbehavior in and of itself, but more as a warning sign or symptom of some other underlying problem," Simon said. "Teachers and school administrators should make earnest attempts to engage with families at the first sign of a student's involvement in a gang, not to cast blame or make demands, but to find out if the family needs assistance, support or intervention in some way."

Moises Andrade Jr.'s mother died August 2013. After that, he hung out with the wrong crowd, tried marijuana and was finally expelled last month for trying to sell 13 grams of marijuana, said Moises Andrade, his father.

Schaeffer said he couldn't talk about the expulsion.

Andrade is the father of four children who live at home. When his son was arrested, he was at work on a construction site out of state. Andrade said his son is a good boy who got caught in a downward spiral after his mother died. This is his son's first offense, said Andrade, who was interviewed through an interpreter.

Just months earlier, Andrade's son had given up smoking marijuana and hanging out with children who seemed to have no curfews, Andrade said. He even took drug tests for his father.

Andrade wants his son to be in school. He begged school administrators to have mercy -- anything but expulsion, he said. The expulsion means Moises Andrade Jr. didn't graduate last week. He is one credit shy.

The Washington County Detention Center and Springdale Police Department did not have information on Andrade. Children under the age of 18 are often charged as juveniles and their names are not released. Andrade said his son was charged as a minor.

Moises Andrade Jr. was working with his father at a construction site instead of going to school, Andrade said.

Expulsions

Springdale has the highest expulsion rate among the four largest school districts in Benton or Washington counties, according to state education records for 2013-14.

The overall number of students expelled is a small percentage of total enrollment, but students who are expelled are often the ones who drop out completely, records show. In Springdale, 22 students were expelled last school year and 16 of those never returned, state records show.

Drop-outs are more likely to end up in prison -- more than 60 percent of inmates at the Arkansas Department of Corrections dropped out of school, Nawojczyk said.

"Putting a child on the street turns them into a 'public' problem and makes immersion in the juvenile justice system more likely," Nawojczyk said.

Among the three 18-year-olds police arrested in connection with the shooting death of Jimmy Rodriguez, one was expelled from Springdale High School in August 2012, Schaeffer said. Another moved from Southwest Junior High School to the alternative learning center before he was expelled in September 2013. Neither ever returned to school, Schaeffer said.

Suspensions can be for any length of time, but expulsions are for one full calendar year, Schaeffer said.

The school district should not use expulsion as punishment at all, said Hipolito Rodriguez, father of Fabian Rodriguez, through an interpreter.

Fabian Rodriguez was expelled in February -- about a month before he was shot, family and school officials said.

"The schools are doing bad things," Rodriguez said through an interpreter. "They don't need to expel, it leads to more bad things. Why don't they make (students) stay and do harder work?"

Schools should change the rules, involve parents more and send students to counselors, Rodriguez said. Send students involved with drugs to rehab, just don't expel them, he said. Students must stay in school "so they can have a future," Rodriguez said.

Schaeffer said the district already does "everything possible to keep from expelling students."

The school never called about Fabian Rodriguez, family members said. No one from school called to say Andrade's son was struggling either, Andrade said.

The strict policy in Springdale doesn't allow for second chances, Andrade said. There is a better way to treat children than as disposable, he said.

Teaching Peace

A little more than a week after Springdale residents held an April anti-gang peace march, students at Walter Turnbow Elementary School students raised their hands over their heads, shuffled their feet and sang: "Give peace a chance!"

Lopez, known as "Papa Rap," stood on stage wearing a neon-colored T-shirt and encouraged children to sing. The music is part of an effort to keep students out of drugs, gangs and trouble, Lopez said.

"This is the age to have an impact," Lopez said, pointing to the elementary students.

Lopez is a founder of OneCommunity, community-outreach nonprofit organization that works with schools, he said. The idea is to teach students to be leaders, he said.

About twice a year Lopez visits Turnbow, which is tucked, nearly hidden, just past a junkyard on Habberton Road. He also sings at Elmdale and Jones elementary schools, Lopez said. Since the gang-related shootings, more schools want him to visit, he said.

Schools must re-evaluate what they have been doing to stop children from wanting to join gangs, Lopez said. New programs need to be considered, including programs that help children get out of gangs, he said.

Rollins said the school district does work to dissuade schoolchildren from joining gangs. Schools have mentoring programs, after-school programs, resource officers, camps, numerous clubs and activities and before-school programs -- all to keep students busy, safe and out of trouble, school officials said.

"Every child is important to us," Rollins said. "It does not make any difference if they came from across the street or from across the ocean."

NW News on 05/24/2015

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