In the late 1980's, my kid went to Fayette High and a group of black kids use to block the walkway in the back behind the auditorium and would only allow other black kids to pass. Others, after being threatened, would have to walk around a longer way which usually made them late for class.

My kid told me it was some gang that had formed at FCHS.

I reported it to the BoE and they installed a video camera and monitored the area for a couple of weeks. Then after watching the tapes, one of the head guys at the Board casually wondered by there one day when they had the area blocked and asked what was going on. They gave him a little "lip" but he pointed up to a rooftop and told them that they had been on "Candid Camera" for a while and if they didn't break up and stop what they were doing, they would all be in for some trouble from him.

After that, there weren't any other problems for the rest of that particular year.

Heaven help us if that'd been "white kids" doing that blockade.

Gangs have been a problem in town for years. I remember learning the phrase "jumped in" when a good friend of mine joined the crips in middle school (in the mid 90's). The fact that gang related issues have only recently come to light demonstrates the ability of local officials to turn their heads on important safety concerns until absolutely necessary to take action (at which point their actions are usually ineffective and serve only to placate people who complain, not to repair the source(s) of the problem).

My neighbor told me that she went to drop her daughter off at a sweet 16 party off of Kenwood Rd on Saturday night. She said when they got there she turned right around and took her daughter back home. She siad there was already well over 100 kids there. (Rumor at school is that it was a minimum of 200 kids.) She felt this was a recipe for trouble. She found out that her instincts were right. There was gunfire at the party. Word is that no one was hurt.

I can't believe the number of parents that dropped their kids off and left them. Parents, we see this kind of stuff on the news all the time. It is better to have a child that gets mad for a while because you tell them "no" than to have to put your child in the ground permanantly.

There were three guys sitting in the back of the Dick's Sports parking lot last night with blue bandanas around their heads. Those are gang signs.

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