Safety Behind School Walls

             One of the biggest questions that we ask ourselves when we send our kids into schools are whether or not they are safe. We tend to compare the United States to Canada when deciphering whether or not our kids are out of harm's way while receiving an education. Being in Canada we like to think that our kids are protected by violence in schools, but are they? This raises another critical question, which will be the main focus here. Are the Canadian youth gangs and the school violence in Canada starting to emulate the gangs and violence within schools throughout the United States in their structure and severity of their impact on society? Evidence has shown that Canada is indeed starting to emulate youth gangs and violence in the United States. It is important to understand what this all means before deciphering whether or not our youth is safe. .
             In order to understand the definition of the question at hand, the terms will be dissected and defined individually. Firstly, "youths" are defined, and generally known as people between the ages of eleven and twenty-one. Once the term "youth" is connected with the term "gang" a new, and somewhat scarier definition arises - people between the ages of eleven and twenty-one who associate together or act as an organized body especially for criminal purposes. After establishing the meaning of "youth gangs" we come to learn that it only gets worse. Youth gangs in "society," is the same as saying "youth gangs in a community in which people live become educated and settle down in." Now that it is understood what we are dealing against, we need to know what kind of life we are leading, and more importantly how to protect our kids. Only when the severity of the task at hand is understood will people work towards resolving it and making society a better place for our kids and us. In order to examine whether society is a safe or dangerous place, issues such as: what is happening in our schools, the culture behind the gangs, the portrayal of gangs by the media, and what exactly happens once in gangs, will be exclusively focused on and answered.