Parents critical at keep

Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times

Parental involvement is crucial to keeping children from joining the more than 400 gangs in El Paso, police said Wednesday night during a gang awareness meeting with parents at Irvin High School.

"Parents are always the last to know, (or) sometimes they are in denial their children are in a gang," Officer Efrain Griego said after the meeting, as he put away confiscated gang weapons, including pistols, a baseball bat and a medieval-type mace -- a stick with a ball at the end of a chain.

Though gang violence, such as the brawls last year on the Irvin High School campus, has diminished, Griego warned that parents need to remain vigilant as gangs try to recruit even preteen members.

"My son has told me they want to force him" into a gang. "He says, 'Mommy, they are going to beat me.' He doesn't want to go to school," said a woman at the meeting. She was among the 25 people at the gathering in the school cafeteria.

The meeting was part of ongoing efforts to improve parental involvement at the Northeast school, said Estela Amaro, the campus's parental involvement assistant. "We are trying to ... (create) a better community," she said.

Cristina Aguirre, whose child is a student at Irvin, said the neighborhood has concerns about gang activity.

Griego said, "The best advice I can give you, whether your child is in middle school or high school, is to talk to them, know who their friends are, (and) have that communication line open with your kids."

Parents should also keep their children away from gang clothing styles that can lead to trouble even if the wearer is not in a gang, Griego said. "When you walk and swim and talk and quack like a duck, the hunter thinks you're a duck," he said.

Keeping teens busy with positive activities such as sports, school and church groups can also keep them too busy to join a gang, officials said.

"Whether you want it or not, when you join a gang you involve your family, your friends and innocent people," Griego said.