I have to admit that, as a teacher, this story probably bothers me more than most people. Both because I have known many naive 15 year old girls who could easily be taken advantage of, but also because I have known many predatory young boys/men who would be fully capable of this kind of brutality. We often take comfort in the belief that the kind of boys who would brutally rape a 15 year old girl are rare. That is far from the truth. I’ve had contact with at least one such male every year I’ve been in teaching, and some year I’ve had contact with much more than one boy with that kind of cruelty. I’ve dealt with young predators of every race, and the one thing they all had in common was aspirations to the gang culture.
A recent story by the San Francisco Chronicle basically points out that Richmond High School had at the very least a strong gang presence, and was quite possibly ground zero for gang activity.
The courtyard where the attack erupted was the most infamous spot on campus, an out-of-the-way, poorly lit venue for gang initiations and dopers lighting up joints.
[…]
Take the poverty-driven frustration of inner-city Richmond, a youth street culture that glorifies thugs and applauds degradation of women, and the desensitization of young men through violent video games, music and language, and you have a template for trouble.
“This is like a lot of schools, where most of the kids are good kids - and then, we know which ones are going wrong,” said Charles Johnson, one of Richmond High’s security specialists.
“You wouldn’t believe the stuff we have to put up with those few who go wrong - guns, dope busts, fighting,” Johnson said. “We know that courtyard, and we’ve been waiting for something to happen there.
[…]
Johnson, teachers and students at least partially blame the attack on the lack of lighting, sturdy fencing or security cameras on the courtyard, which abuts a rough neighborhood on the northern end of the campus on 23rd Street. Signs for the Norteño and Crips gangs are scrawled in huge letters on a wall near the driveway leading into the courtyard.
It’s worth noting that not only did the gang infestation of the school and surrounding set the stage for the gang rape, but it also contributed to its duration. It’s precisely in area like this where the “don’t snitch” agenda promoted by hip-hop artists resonates. It’s believed that 10 individuals actively participated in the attack. But as many as 15 more watched, cheered, and videotaped it as passive participants. These passive participants could have stopped the attack at any time. But the gang culture “don’t snitch” attitude is far stronger than compassion or decency.
Shorty after first hearing about this attack I watched a group of boys walking around campus with their sagging baggy pants, exposed boxers, and backwards baseball caps. They weren’t gang bangers; they were too middle class. Still they effected the attitude of the gang banger. They spit frequently, called each other “dog” and spiced their language with liberal use of the words “bitch” and “mother****er.” They were of course pretending to be something more sinister than these comfortable young men actually were. But in a way they were also aspiring to something. And those aspirations will surely shape their lives and characters the way your aspirations shaped your character and my aspirations shaped mine.
Knowing that I have to wonder why so parents allow their young sons to leave the house styling themselves after street criminals. As a society we would be justifiably repulsed if young men decided to dress like Waffen SS officers to go to the mall. Yet we tolerate our young men dressing up like members of prison gangs to go to school.
We shouldn’t wonder how something like a 2 ½ hour rape could happen on school grounds, but why we’re so lucky that it happens infrequently enough to shock us.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/01/MNR41ACRGU.DTL