Inner City High

I used to work at Locke High School. Home to the Saint's and lots of chaos.

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs.

Not a damn thing has changed in 9 years. When I was employed there it was in every sense of the word a jungle. There was no order, no discipline, and no morals. The teachers and administrator had given up a long time ago. They let the students run amok in the classrooms, in the halls, at lunch etc. There wasn't a dress code, girls could show up in tube tops barring their midriff. Boys in saggy bottoms showing off their gang color underwear. Kids selling drugs in the halls.

The school does not bear the brunt of the blame because self respect and good manners are thought at home but here we get to the greater problem ---> The parents and the neighborhood.

Although houses in and around Locke High are selling for $397k. The median household income is only $30,760. 33.5% are living below the poverty level. The school is bordered by Watts and Athens, home to two rival gangs formed decades ago. Plus all the other Latino branches of greater gangs. So what we have here is poor parents who might possibly have a background in gang banging raising kids to be thugs or we have very poor hardworking parents working 2 jobs which allows little to no time to raise Junior. And what does Junior do with all the unsupervised time? He hangs out with the thugs. Finds easy ways to make money the way his parents never could. Or gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant. Starting the cycle which doesn't let them move out of this neighborhood all over again.

This is where the school should come in and help the kids. They should advocate for safer streets, better community programs and teenage centers. But the school shuts down once the last bell rings and the kids are let out on the mean streets where anything can and does happen.

I know the roadblock is huge. Kids refuse to go to certain corners/centers/areas for fear of being beaten or shot by rival gangs. Even those who are not in gangs are targets.

The problems in the inner city are huge. It's not a simple fix. But we can start at home and teach our children to respect themselves.

Sex and young Latinas.

Hispanic teenagers hold the number 2 spot in teen pregnancy. 131 out of 1,000 Latina teens will become mothers whereas 48 out of 1,000 white teens will become pregnant.

Immigrant Latino parents are less likely to talk about sex with their children. They skip over the Birds & the Bees only to find out their teenage daughter has given birth or has been arrested for dumping a newborn in a trash bin.

Here is a huge failure in communication. Who's addressing the issue? Not the parents, relatives or friends. The school fails in this regard by turning the other cheek when it comes to teenagers having sex thus robbing them of another outlet for them to become inform about their choices. They don't have to become teenage moms and they do not have to throw a baby in the trash.

Let's empower our girls with knowledge. That's what celebrating 15 should be about. Being informed. Making the right choices. Not having to hide a pregnancy for 9 months.