Parents Should Be The First Line Of Defense
When it comes to gangs and other related activities, who are the people who should be the first one to keep children in check? For some, the responsibility automatically points to the school safety officers. Yet according to Danny Aguilar, an old timer of the Lynwood Unified School District’s Security and Safety Division, parents should be the first to check these things.
He says that “parents cannot expect the school district’s safety officers to be the ones screening students for gang affiliations, drug use and truancy.” His rationale is that even though schools can try to teach kids and keep them in check, the bottom line is that ethical and moral standards are formed at home. Parents should be held accountable for their children’s views in life.
I totally agree with Aguilar’s point of view. The family was founded as the basic social unit for a reason. A child’s first experience with socialization is within his family unit. He sees his mother and father as the first role models in his life. How his family thinks and behaves greatly affects how he thinks and behaves as an autonomous person. If a child learns at an early age how to perceive life, then there would probably be not much need for school safety officers. A breakdown in family values and relationships results in anomalous behavior in children.
That is why it is admirable that Danny Aguilar is conducting workshops that can help parents realize the crucial role that they play in resolving the issue of school safety.
The workshops are designed to teach parents how to identify the early signs of gang affiliations and drug use.
While Aguilar is an advocate of the saying “it takes a village to raise a child,” parents are the ones who can thwart gang influences and drug use at their earliest stages.
“When you become parents, you usually have a sixth sense about things,” said Aguilar, a parent of three. “The signs of gang affiliation show up in how kids start to dress, their behavior, and especially in the friends that they have. If a parent thinks a child’s friend is not a good influence on him or her, then parents should go with that, because that’s their sixth sense talking to them. They should trust it.”
“A lot of parents don’t know the signs,” Aguilar said. “Collectively, we are all in this together in raising students, but schools and security can only do so much to teach discipline.”
Indeed, times continue to change and there are parents who may not be informed about the specific details of current problems such as gangs. With workshops like this one, parents can equip themselves to handle their children’s problems better.
If you have not attended such a workshop, maybe it is a good idea to look for one in your area, or even start one of your own.
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Posted on September 29th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, Bullying, Drugs, Gangs, High School, K-6, Parents, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues
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