Youths Could Make a Fatal Mistake If They’re Dressed to Kill : Advice for parents: A gang outfit is not a fashion trend; it’s a quick ticket to eternal rest. Wake up, take control and force your children to live past age 18.

I support the Burbank public schools’ efforts to impose a reasonable dress code on students by banning gang clothes. I know something about the subject, because when it comes to gangs, I’ve been there.

I was raised for part of my life in the housing projects of Mar Vista Gardens. If you weren’t loosely affiliated with a gang, you had big trouble. I never went through a full-scale initiation and made the gang my whole life. But I went as far as I had to to get out of the projects.

In Venice High School, I went through the whole series of gang symbols: khakis, Sir Guy shirts, spit-shined French toes, short hair combed straight back and, of course, tattoos. I’m not proud of it because that’s not what I want for my children or grandchildren. But I guess I’m what they call a veteran.

Dressing the way I did got the attention of the wrong people, such as school disciplinarians. Our dress identified us. You received that attention whether you were a gangbanger or not, and I was!

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When I was a 10th-grader, some guys took a couple of shots at me and a friend when we were coming back from a party, dressed for the occasion. If we’d been dressed as anything but cholos, it probably would not have occurred.

A few weeks ago I saw a TV show on gangs and guns in schools that showed me that clothes still make the gangster.

The audience were all students, and the panel were all gang members. The topic was innocent kids being shot and killed. A boy in the audience stood to ask a question something like this: “Two friends and myself came out of church one Sunday. We were standing on the steps talking when a car pulled up with several guys in it. They pointed guns at us and yelled out their gang name, then drove away without shooting. Why would they do something like that?”

The panel’s answer was, “You were probably on the wrong side of town.”

The boy: “We go to church there every Sunday.”

The panel: “They must have thought you belong to another gang and were infiltrating.”

The boy: “But I don’t belong to any gangs and have done nothing to make them think so.”

The panel: “Hey man, look at the way you’re dressed. I would think you were a gangbanger also.”

This is how gang members think. Maybe the schools should get a copy of this show and present it at an assembly.

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One thing that has changed since my youth is the weapons. We used tire irons and bicycle chains. Today’s gangbangers use guns.

In 1966, at 19 years old, I decided my life was going nowhere and enlisted in the Army. When I got married and started having kids, I decided my kids were not going to take the route I had. I have six boys and two girls. Their mothers and I took a lot of interest in their schooling. We stressed respect for not only others but for themselves, and we believe part of that is how they dress.

I said a long time ago that if I work hard enough and show them that I care how they present themselves, they will go a lot further than I have. My kids didn’t dress like gangsters, and they weren’t considered gangsters, and they were allowed to lead a normal childhood.

Parents, a gang outfit is not a fashion trend. What it is is a quick ride to their eternal rest. Wake up! Take control! Force your children to live beyond the age of 18, whether they like it or not.