‘Rich Parents Just Pick Up the Mess’

An Encino woman, 20, was recently convicted of being the getaway driver in a drive-by murder committed by her boyfriend. Why are kids from “good families” attracted to gangs? Is it rebellion, boredom, the attraction of playing with fire? JIM BLAIR asked teenagers why this happens.

DIANTHA ACEVEDO

17, senior, Taft High School,

Woodland Hills

I think there are two scenarios.

There’s the one where they have to get back at their parents. Since they’re so wealthy, sometimes the parents get caught up in what they do as a living. This is the kids’ way of getting attention.

The other scenario is that the kids feel, since they have all these privileges, Mommy and Daddy are always going to be there to get them out of it. So they feel there’s no risk. Unlike poorer students whose parents will more likely come down on them, rich parents just pick up the mess at the end. They don’t really reprimand them.

I know there’s involvement at school by teachers and so forth, but teachers can’t reach everyone. If kids have a strong upbringing and their parents are paying attention and caring about what they’re doing, then the children are not necessarily going to go down the wrong road.

When minors do things, they’re not really punished. If we don’t start punishing then they’re not accountable for their actions.

GEORGE SHABAZZ

117, senior, Canoga Park High School

I know a lot of people who are privileged and have gotten involved in these activities. It’s because they don’t want to be labeled the “goody-goodies.” They don’t want to be called spoiled because of what they are, meaning: They mostly get the things they want. So they want to show that they’re not the big-time wealthy guy.

They try to fit in.

I think everyone has to help, but basically it starts with themselves. They shouldn’t be worried what other people think about them. It’s all up to them.

I’m not from a wealthy background, but I know what I want in life so that’s what I’m going for. It’s perserverence. They can’t let anyone drag them down.

MATTHEW BERG

17, senior, Chatsworth High School

My analysis of this whole thing is that self-esteem does not come with social class. Social class or wealth has absolutely no affect on your self-esteem and I think that is what drives kids. Kids from good families, who may have low self-esteem, try to fit in with the kids in school. And to fit in they enter the drug scene, the gang scene.

They feel they have something to prove, that they aren’t the stereotypical pretty boy or pretty girl and that’s the way they express themselves--through negativity.

Dealing with this starts with the parents, but at a certain age, the parents can’t necessarily communicate with their kids and that’s where the school should come in--the teachers, the counselors. Even on a senior, a great teacher, a good person, a good friend can have a profound effect on helping a student turn the right way.

ART IMLA

17, senior, Granada Hills High School

Just because you have money, it doesn’t mean that you’re happy.

Some students who seem to be well off, who have nice clothes and have their own cars, seem to be involved on the other side of the tracks with people who smoke or do drugs. Gang banging? They wouldn’t get involved directly, but they’re quite influenced by it.

I believe that some families give their children material, not emotional wealth. They don’t talk to them. The kids are happy to get the material things they want, but sometimes they need something more and so they turned to their friends and sometimes their friends are not as affluent and so they end up in gang bangs.

If you get everything you want, sometimes you need a thrill and gang activity gives them thrill.

Other factors? Probably ethnicity. More often that not I see the people who are most likely to get involved in gang bangs are kids from Asian families who are well off. I’m Thai, but I’ve observed this in pretty much every Asian community. Back in Asia, the parents were raised strictly but coming over to America where there’s great freedom for teenagers, parents don’t know how to cope. They don’t know how to communicate with their kids. They have arguments with each other. There are two different societies. The teenager wants to be American and the mother just wants the child to behave as she did when she was a child.