Parents have been guided about the warnings signs of troubled teenagers but now it has been brought to the attention that teachers should know what the signs of troubled teens are as well. Clark County teachers are getting their lessons on how to spot the signs of a troubled teen before he even causes a ruckus in class. About 12 teachers joined a workshop which was held by school police. The kinds of signs of trouble in adolescents which are not that clear were brought to the attention of these teachers in order for them to catch trouble quickly.
For a change, in the classroom the school police were there to provide the teachers with a lesson to be learned and the teachers were the ones with the questions to ask. Teachers asked not only about the signs of troubled teens but how to approach a suspected teen in trouble. These teens may not only show defiance at home but in school as well and these teachers were given tips on how to manage defiant teens in the classroom also. The main subject was aiding adolescents before violence comes into the picture. Detective Calvin Walker said "The thing of it is, there's so many kids, so many schools - you never know where the problem is going to be. Kids are smart, and they're finding ways to start trouble without teachers even knowing it.”
Teachers are now noticing that the teens who are members of gangs want to make their presence known, and they are doing it in the classroom. Vickie Kilbury, from Phi Delta Kappa International, said "Because that's where they meet, that's where they are, that's going to be their extension of home and their extension of the community, so it makes sense it would happen in school."
Walker explains this further by pointing out how an area code can represent exactly where the gang is from. “It's scribbled on the sides of their notebooks, on backpacks, even sunglasses. To teachers who don't know, these gang symbols may look like just a bunch of numbers. These kids can be saved - they're not stupid. They are educated; you just have to divert their efforts to another direction.”
The number of known gangs in Clark County reaches more than three hundred, while gang members reach about 8,000. Surprisingly, young adolescents are among the most violent of the members out there.
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