THE WORK DAY IS OVER. I JUMP IN the car. I’ll pick dinner up at the drive-through window, buying me the time to set the table (at least) for the kids to eat it. I’ll give them milk, that’s healthy. I can eat mine on the way to the board meeting. Hopefully, I’ll get there on time.

We have all cut the corners that allow us to maintain the mania of our hectic schedules—but are we forgetting some-thing important?

Breaking the trend of ignoring our health is at the forefront of issues that impact education in New Jersey. Health has become an important focus of the federal and state government as well as for our school boards. State and federal legisla-tion is forcing schools to rethink the quality of the food our children eat and the air they breathe and to consider new ways to protect them from disease. Today’s school boards are called to respond with policy and program efforts to promote health.

Three of the most prominent health issues in New Jersey that affect the operation of schools are wellness and nutri-tion, diesel school bus idling and pandemic influenza. All of these issues have been a recent focus of federal or state leg-islation and/or research. The schools are seen as ground zero for the implementation of policy and programs addressing these issues. The law presently requires schools to implement standards for good nutrition and physical activity and to restrict diesel school bus idling.

World, federal and state governments are urgently planning and preparing for a pandemic of avian flu. Significant ini-tiatives are currently addressing planning, preparedness and procedures at every level of community operations for a pandemic, including those for schools.

Healthier food and better air quality will improve the learning environment in our schools. Planning and preparing for the prevention and spread of disease furthers safety and security in our school environments. Considering the physical wellbeing of our children is the role of the school board.

Wellness and Nutrition Poor nutrition and low levels of physical activity have led to an increasing epidemic of overweight and obese children today. In the past 20 years the number of overweight children ages 6-19 has increased from approxi-mately 7 percent in 1980 to 16 percent in 2002 (Center for Disease Control). Overweight children, particularly those who eat a poor diet, are more likely to suffer health problems, such as diabetes. Additionally, nutritional deficits can contribute to academic problems such as low achievement scores, behavior problems, low energy and difficulty concentrating (Fact Sheet, Action for Healthy Kids TM).

Overweight children may be at risk for problems with social adjustment in school. A study published by the Nutrition Research Center in 2004 titled Familial Links in Fat Stereotypes – Obesity in Children and Adolescents, showed that chil-dren as early as age three demonstrated negative attitudes toward obese persons, including associating obese appear-ance with laziness, sloppiness, overindulgence, poor hygiene and a lack of self-discipline.

To the contrary, good nutrition and physical activity can contribute to school success. Participation in school break-fast programs has been shown to reduce absenteeism and tardiness, improve academic, behavioral and emotional func-tioning, as well as relieving hunger (Fact Sheet, Action for Healthy Kids TM). Physical activity has also been linked with better health, elevated mood and better academic performance (http://www.fitness.gov/mentalhealth.htm., The Influences of Exercise on Mental Health, Daniel M. Landers).

Since good nutrition and physical activity help our children succeed in school, it follows that healthy standards for nu-trition and physical activity be incorporated in the operation of our schools.

New Jersey has been proactive in the effort to improve the nutritional and physical education in the school environ-ment. The Healthy Choices, Healthy Kids campaign, spearheaded by the Department of Agriculture in 2003, initiated a coordinated effort with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education to promote better nutrition and physical health in school programs and curriculum. In 2005 federal and state legislation mandated that dis-trict school boards create policies and programs that prioritize nutrition, nutrition education, physical activity and physical education in school. New Jersey requires schools to implement healthy nutritional standards for snacks and beverages sold in school cafeterias, school stores, vending machines and fund raisers by 2007. Sample policy language is available through the New Jersey School Boards Association. You can locate the model policy at www.njsba.org under Member Services, Policy page, under the Tools for Effective School Governance section or e-mail NJSBA at mlalumiere@njsba.org.

Diesel School Bus Idling In addition to the healthy eating and exercise policies and programs, school boards must address the air our children breath. It is the law that diesel vehicles, including school buses, are prohibited from idling for more than three minutes. Enforcing this law in the schools is a small change that promotes good health. Turning the engines off reduces the air pollution, so that when our children line up at 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM they can take deep, clean breaths.

The soot in diesel exhaust is known to aggravate conditions like asthma, bronchitis and allergies. Diesel exhaust is also thought to be a carcinogen. Children are more affected because they are smaller and their lungs are still forming. Over 795,000 children receive mandatory and courtesy busing across the state (DOE, pupil transportation).

In 2005 the Diesel Risk Reduction Law (P.L. 2005, 219) was enacted and requires that all New Jersey school buses be fitted with the appropriate technology to filter out pollutants. The cost of this program is funded by the state through reimbursement to districts. The state Department of Environmental Protection is currently developing regulations that will help guide the implementation of this law. The regulations will be proposed this year for public review and comment. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has information and resources available for school districts at www.StopTheSoot.org.

Pandemic Avian flu may become the next pandemic. The avian flu is a virus that was traditionally carried by birds and transmitted from bird to bird. This, however, is no longer the case; the virus has mutated to infect humans that have come into contact with birds carrying the virus. In the current outbreak in Asia, Europe and Africa more than half of the people infected have died. This indicates that it is a virulent and dangerous virus. Avian flu has mutated to allow transmission from bird to human. Now that humans can carry this virus there is a danger that the virus may mutate again allowing it to be transmitted directly from human to human. If this mutation occurs, avian flu can quickly cause widespread or even global infection.

Why is this important to schools? No federal or state legislation currently requires schools to prepare for a pandemic or adopt policy. However, in the same way that we know summer vacation is coming we know a pandemic is coming, mak-ing it critical that schools take the initiative.

There are resources available to assist school leaders in developing a plan. The web site sponsored by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, www.pandemicflu.gov, provides a Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist to assist schools in developing a school response in the event of a pandemic. Schools are encouraged to de-velop a plan that includes coordination with the community and cooperation among local and state health care organiza-tions. Schools are also encouraged to plan for the impact of a pandemic on student learning and core school operations, develop policies and procedures for infection control, and account for the dissemination of information and communication with the community.

It is 11:00 PM and the meeting is over. I drive home slowly with a head full of choices to make about the wellbeing of the kids at my school. The hamburger I ate is sitting like a lump in my stomach and I am feeling just a little guilty about the dinner I served my children. Did I even make them wash their hands? It’s ok—cutting corners from time to time to ac-commodate a day’s hectic schedule is unavoidable.

In the same way, addressing the health and wellbeing of the children in our schools is unavoidable. With the same certainty of knowing junk food is bad, we know the health of our children is integral to their education. The work day isn’t over until school leaders invest in action to support good nutrition, physical wellbeing, and air quality and begin preparing to prevent the spread of disease. The health of our children has to be the corner we don’t cut.

Jean Harkness is a policy consultant for the New Jersey School Boards Association. She can be reached at jharkness@njsba.org.

By Donna Martini

“YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.” NO TRUER WORDS SAID, but how many of us live by it? Don’t we continuously stuff ourselves and our children full of worthless fodder doused with chemicals and harmful ingredients, deciding that we can survive just fine? But ask yourself this: If the chemicals in a miniscule pill called Prozac popped in your mouth can alter your mood and keep you from jumping off a roof, then what is the possibility that components in your daily diet are making you feel like jumping in the first place?

In 1999 I answered a phone call from my daughter’s grammar school. “Ms. Martini, we are having trouble with Heather. It seems she is acting a bit aggressive with the other children.” “Well, what is she doing?” I asked, while considering what “a bit” meant to this principal. He blurted out, “Ms. Martini, your daughter is biting children.” “Oh my,” I managed to whisper, completely dumbfounded. “My Heather? Well that is not good.” “No, it’s not,” he said, and began to suggest causes and the possibility of therapy.

“I understand your position and will look into it,” I promised and ended my conversation in complete dismay. I knew it was tough being the product of a divorce and having a working mom, but biting? This seemed so unlike her. There must be a reason.

After gleaning what I could from my sobbing child (“I didn’t mean it Mom, I swear. It just happened!”), I decided to go the psychiatric route and started investigating child therapists in the area. I also made an immediate appointment with her physician for blood work. At the time, I had been researching issues with my own health and was learning about the corre-lation between hormones, food and mood swings. I thought my daughter could benefit from my own experiences, so I booked her an appointment with a naturopath, practicing biochemical nutrition in Farmingdale, Long Island.

He had just put me on a strict diet of meat, vegetables, fruits, nuts and a colorful array of amino acid supplements, after discerning from my blood chemistry what foods were going to help or hurt my body, physically, emotionally and men-tally. I was only on the diet a short time, but felt better, more alert and even-keeled (not to mention thinner!) so I thought the visit couldn’t hurt Heather and could possibly shed some light on the bleak situation.

We entered the nutritionist’s sparse quarters open-minded and eager. He took the faxed copy of the blood work supplied by her pediatrician, glanced at the numbers and began to hmmm and ha. “Well, well! I see we have a little aspar-tic girl here!”

“Excuse me?” I said moving forward in my seat for fear that I didn’t hear him right. “What is she?” “Aspartic Girl!” he hissed with a wild look in his eye. I was envisioning my daughter in a miniature superman suit with a big “A” on the front. “Well can you explain that?” “Suuurrre!” He bellowed. “You see aspartic acid is an amino acid neurotransmitter. It is responsible for male-type aggressive behavior and helps in the release of testosterone. Her levels of aspartic acid are very high. Let me ask you Donna, is she a bit aggressive?” I was dumfounded. How did he know? “Yes, as a matter of fact” I continued, “she’s biting kids in school!”

“Well,” he said, “that’s understandable.” Too much testosterone in little girls isn’t a good thing! Let me ask you an-other question; is she eating a lot of chicken?” Again I was stunned.

“Doctor” I groaned, “Every day! She loves it. She has chicken nuggets for lunch, chicken breast for dinner, chicken legs sometimes for breakfast. What do I do?”

“So we know the problem,” he said shrugging. “Cut the chicken down to twice a week and follow the rest of the diet. Let me know how she does.”

So we did and Heather completely stopped getting in trouble in school. We also lessened the damage done to her self-esteem. She was too young to fully comprehend, but having chicken to partially blame for the situation helped me in explaining that she wasn’t a “bully” and her body was “acting” angry even though she didn’t feel angry. At times, she felt physically out of control and I understood her reaction. For years I had been positively manipulating myself, constantly keeping anger, fear and anxiety in check. For an adult, this is a tremendous feat. For a child, it has to be monumental. But by alleviating the physical precursor for her aggression, Heather was able to deal with the emotional. Without getting off the chicken, she would have been continuously fighting a battle that was beyond her control.

In my own life, diet has played a major role in managing moods, but also learning disabilities like dyslexia and ADD. When sugar is added to a diet, neural connections are temporarily boosted, but then hindered as soon as the blood sugar drops. In a system that is already at a disadvantage, this could mean the difference between me being able to work that day or just race around like the proverbial headless chicken. Unfortunately, because I have the learning disabilities, my body craves the sugar and carbs to keep it going, but once you stop the addiction, your system starts to readjust and find ways to function on its own using the nutrients from healthy foods instead.

When my diet is clean of sugar, wheat, dairy and other simple carbs, I can function optimally and I don’t feel like my brain is a radio under water. And that is not all. When I ate those foods, I would get other physical symptoms, such as leg swelling, sinus congestion, stomachaches, gastro-intestinal distress, itchy rashes, breakouts, and even arthritic pains and physical depression. That was my body’s way of telling me “STOP”!

If you are reacting negatively to foods, it means you are abusing yourself. The more you abuse your system, the more it needs to fight, taking away precious time and energy it should be using to work and function normally. Eventually, your body’s histamines stop the constant warfare and then the annoying symptoms become more serious ailments and finally, disease. This sensible food/mood approach has helped many children and adults (with the aid and supervision of their physicians) get off drugs, including Ritalin, Prozac and cholesterol medication--—simply by recognizing what chemis-try your body needs or can’t handle.

And the knowledge spreads. A client of mine called recently to boast about his new diet. He had been taking allergy medication daily for almost a year and was distraught over his never-ending sinus condition. While complaining to me dur-ing a business breakfast of his nasal milieu, I noticed the bagels and croissants in his dish, so I took the opportunity to explain my own issues with gluten. He was motivated enough to try eliminating wheat for one month and was so excited to announce, “Donna, I haven’t eaten a single bagel, piece of bread or pasta for three weeks, but guess what? I haven’t taken a single pill either! This diet changed my life!”

Of course, there are many reasons for reoccurring symptoms, but most doctors are not trained to understand the ef-fects of food on the body. They only know how to cure what is considered disease. But what if your body is healthy, just fighting too hard? You will have symptoms but no permanent malfunctions. They won’t be recognized through normal di-agnosis and testing processes. What do you do in the interim between distress and disease? You are on your own, but I can attest, you are all that you need.

Consider that food is made up of chemicals and enzymes that convert into energy and waste in your body. It makes sense then that we would not be able to eat certain combinations without negative effects. We can help ourselves by lis-tening to our bodies’ symptoms, which are an S.O.S, or “sign of stress” and then eliminate what food is causing these physiological and psychological “signs.”

With children this is especially true because most kids are obvious about their ailments. A child who constantly rubs his nose, or blinks may be considered “anxiety ridden” but truth be told, he/she may have a chronic rhinitis due to a dairy or wheat intolerance. The “bully” in school may be overloading on aspartic acid rich foods. A “lazy” child may be chemi-cally sensitive to sugar and carbohydrates that drop her blood sugar and make her tired and listless. Even not drinking fluids can put a healthy person into the beginning stages of dehydration—forcing the body to go into “preservation mode.”

When it comes to your body, and every aspect of your life, especially the physical, you are the only person who is qualified to recognize a reaction that needs to be examined. By eliminating what your body doesn’t need or want, you could be doing more than just losing weight. You will be putting your body and psyche at an enormous advantage, helping instead of hindering your life tasks. So from now on, don’t look at that bagel as being so innocent. Instead, eat what you need to produce a positive response, and you could be setting yourself up for the most prolific physical experience of your life.

By Rosa Cirianni

ANTHONY MESSINA OF THE EWING Township Police Department knows when there is a dance in the next town over, when there is a fight in the works for after a basketball game, and when a student gets arrested.

He finds out his information the old-fashioned way: by walking his beat. Messina, a school resource officer at Ewing High School, talks to students in hallways, in lunchrooms, and in classrooms, where he also teaches students about gang prevention, search and seizure, and what to expect if they get pulled over by a police officer.

“The (driver’s ed) manual doesn’t tell you things like, ‘Look, don’t be a wise guy. Roll the window down. Take the keys out of the ignition’,” he said.

The number of school resource officers, like Messina, who give students a dose of reality in the classroom and often act as mentors and counselors, has increased nationwide in recent years as a result of federal grants given by the U.S. Department of Justice’s COPS in Schools program. Funding for that grant program ends this year.

Bill Barnaskas, school board president in Lyndhurst, Bergen County, said his district has two school resource offi-cers, one whose salary is partially funded through the federal program. His board recently issued a resolution urging New Jersey’s congressional leaders and President Bush to continue funding the program. He admits that when the school re-source officer program was first introduced in his district, he wasn’t convinced of its importance.

“I was not a believer when it happened, I felt it was like a Big Brother-type of thing,” Barnaskas said. Messina remembers when he began his new role in 2000, the same year his high school installed video surveillance, his community was a bit skeptical as well.

“I don’t know what was more of the talk—me or the cameras,” he said. “Once we got in and we began working with schools, I think everyone saw what a great asset (the program) was. I wasn’t only here to be the law enforcement officer, to lock people up, and put handcuffs on them. Now people see it almost as a necessity.”

Barnaskas’ mind has changed, too.

In a post-Columbine world, school districts need to be prepared with proper security in place, and an in-house officer helps, he said.

“Sometimes little things may build up and happen, and they can prevent things from happening,” Barnaskas said.

For the second consecutive year, President Bush has proposed cutting the grant program that began in 1999. The program offered municipalities throughout the nation up to $125,000 in grants per officer position to help pay for salary and benefits over a three-year period.

So far, more than $351 million in COPS grants have been awarded to put officers in schools and on the streets of New Jer-sey, with 467 local and state law enforcement agencies directly benefiting, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Although the federal grants end this year, districts like Lyndhurst and Ewing plan to continue their programs with money of their own, or from their respective towns.

Raymond Broach, superintendent of schools for Ewing Township, which also has an SRO assigned to its middle school, said the collaboration between the district and the police is significant.

“Good decision making, being safe—not only in schools but in the community, gets students to see law enforcement in a good way,” Broach said. “We are staving off problems before they happen.”

Kevin Campana, executive director, St. Paul, Minnesota-based National Association of School Resource Officers, said before school resource officers became the norm, with about 20,000 nationwide now, there was resistance from parents, communities and in particular—principals.

“I think some of them were unsure about the power balance shifting, and also there were some parents who were un-comfortable about somebody in the schools wearing a gun and, “Why did they need to wear a gun? Is there something going on?” he said. “Columbine kind of calmed down that discussion.”

“If there is some kind of an attack, people want them to have a gun in case something like that happens, because they’re the first line of defense,” Campana said.

Aside from the obvious law enforcement expertise, school resource officers have three main functions: To act as on-site security experts, teachers and counselors. Campana gave an example of a school resource officer who taught a les-son about the physics of a bullet for a high school class, and another whose friendly counseling led to a major lead in a case. In Baltimore, a girl asked to speak to a school resource officer about an “awkward” situation. The student said that while she was on the phone with her boyfriend, he went downstairs in his home to get something to eat out of the freezer, and he discovered a human foot.

The boy told his girlfriend and she told the officer. “He was totally freaked out,” Campana said.

The school resource officer relayed the story to his department’s homicide unit, which already had a search warrant, because the boy’s stepmother went missing the year before.

“Sure enough, it was the mother on the bottom of the freezer. It led to that crime being solved and the father being charged, and it all stemmed from this girl having this burden (lifted) from talking to her boyfriend.” Campana said.

While that story may be extraordinary, students do form bonds with school resource officers. So much so that former stu-dents come back to visit Messina, send him e-mails from college and the military, and ask him for references. After 18 years serving in patrol, in tactical response, as a crime scene evidence technician, as a detective and in other law enforcement roles, Messina said working in schools the past five years has been the most satisfying.

As a school resource officer, his typical school day starts at 7:10 a.m. with a walk outside the school building to see if anything looks out of place, then he stands in front of the school to monitor the safe arrival of students along the busy stretch of Parkway Avenue near the New Jersey Department of Transportation headquarters. He checks his e-mail and the school’s tip line for important messages, and then touches base with the principal.

“It can be as simple as, ‘Hey, have anything for me?” (Principal responds), ‘No, we’re good’, ‘OK, call me if you need me,” said Messina, also the former high school football coach. During the day he will monitor the halls, meet with students and parents, offer counseling, and after work he conducts another “sweep” of the building and visits with his supervisor.

Some school resource officers also attend sporting events, assist school administrators with attendance issues, con-duct address search probes, and keep outsiders from entering their schools.

“The school day does not end at 2:30 p.m. To me, that is when the school day becomes alive,” said Messina, who makes it a point to attend extra-curricular activities three days a week.

This year, Ewing began a mentoring program for at-risk students who meet once a week, and over the summer Messina also will participate in an Extended School Year (ESY) program to teach students about decision making and other life skills.

“This is community policing at its best in my professional and personal opinion,” he said. “This is a community. This is no different than the neighborhood that I live in.”

Some SROs wear their police uniforms, but Messina wears street clothes because he said he thinks his uniform could act as a barrier between him and students. Most also carry weapons.

“I look at it as the 1950s. If you watch those old shows where you have the beat cop walking up and down and he knew all the merchants and he knew the mothers and the kids. This is no different,” Messina said. “And you know what? It’s more important because it involves the young people in our communities. And if they’re not worth it, than who is?”

Rosa Cirianni is a writer for New Jersey School Boards Association. She can be reached at (609) 278-5247 or rcirianni@njsba.org.

By Linda M. Schmidt

MY FAVORITE SCHOOL CALLED.

Could I come and talk to an especially wild class tomorrow? Sure, I told them, I’ll come. I’m not a teacher, so I arrived early on purpose. I found my classroom and positioned myself across the hall and waited for the bell. If I was going to have half a chance to succeed today, I needed to see the class before I entered that room. This was one of the most gang-infested middle schools in the city. I discovered early that middle schools are where the gang activity comes to a head.

Bell!! Students pouring out of the rooms like water over Niagara Falls. I watched as the students for my class gath-ered outside the room. This was good. Now I could find my classroom controller and get his or her name. I watched as the students jockeyed for position to get the attention of a tall, thin girl with a powerful presence. She strutted her stuff like a beautiful peacock. When the bell rang there was a lot of pushing and shoving to get into the room behind her…TT was her street name.

They were opening windows, throwing stuff out, climbing on desks, yelling and singing and… you name it, they were either thinking about it or doing it. TT was standing near the right side of the room with her clique. I knew I would not be heard over that din, so I played my card. I walked towards her and said, “Hey TT, how are you doing girl?” She turned around and with pride says, “You know my name!” “TT, everyone knows your name.” Now I had her attention and her sur-rounding clique. From listening to her conversation in the hall I knew her favorite topics. I picked one that was close to what I wanted to talk to the class about and began speaking in a regular classroom voice. She had a hard time hearing me over the din of the others. I watched as TT turned and ordered the class into their seats and told them to be quiet. TT told them that she wanted to hear what I came to say. My classroom approach might be unorthodox, but it worked. We had a great interactive conversation that day.

Before I returned to the FBI in 1997, I worked for a nonprofit for nearly a decade. I was the project director for a youth gang diversion project. I spent time in the streets, communities, schools, treatment centers, juvenile correctional facilities and anyplace else the gangs were. I met with school administrators, principals, teachers, school resource offi-cers, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, social workers, doctors, nurses, probation officers, judges, law enforcement officers, par-ents and students. Ultimately we worked together to help each other manage the gang problem of the early 1990s. That time period was one of an upswing in gang violence. And, today is another one.

Graffiti, colors and killings were the rule of the day. The level of violence of a community or school could be deter-mined by its gang graffiti. Being able to interpret that graffiti was and is a critical safety element.

I found myself in a place and situation I never expected to be in. And, I belonged. But, from time to time, I questioned my career choice. Especially on the day the coroner’s office called. We were asked if we could help them with a gang homicide project. They wanted to know if the increase in homicides was due to gang violence. We said yes, we’d assist. Then we were told that meant that we’d be called to the coroner’s office each time there was a homicide that they sus-pected was gang-related. We’d be there to “read” the body of the deceased. This was no easy task, but sadly I got used to going to the coroner’s office. And, before long, I was walking in the back door and between the carts of the deceased and wheeling bodies down hallways to an autopsy room to view the tattoos under ultraviolet light. Even in the 1990s some of the gangs were putting their tattoos under their skin. If you looked closely at the body you could see something, but you couldn’t read it without the light.

One day my friend, Sharon, at the coroner’s office, called and asked me to come and read a teenage male’s tattoos. I remember how tall he was. He probably played basketball. Another life cut short. When I couldn’t see his tattoos clearly, we wheeled him to an autopsy room. I put on the goggles and we turned off the lights. Using the ultraviolet light I could see his tattoos. He wrote in his gang’s alphabet giving his street name, rank and set of the national gang he belonged to. He was from out-of-state. He was here recruiting. He was violent and paid the ultimate price for his gang membership.

My idea of a rite of passage, and probably yours too, is going to college and becoming a successful adult. Gang members’ idea of a rite of passage is getting arrested and going inside the correctional facility like some of their family members before them. They get rank and status and a new tattoo for this, and they recruit other juveniles from across their state while they are inside. This is another way the gang spreads like a disease across the country.

Here are just some of the lessons I learned from youth gangs:

• Gangs are here to stay. Just because we come to a momentary lull in the level of gang violence does not mean we have solved the problem.
  
  
• Many gang members drop out of school before the ninth grade.
  
  
• We must be fair, firm and consistent at all times when dealing with them and the other students in order to gain their respect.
  
  
• Manage your fear and do not be intimidated by gang members.
  
  
• Always tell the truth. Be up-front. Make sure they understand that you are a mandatory reporter before they talk so they don’t feel betrayed later.
  
  
• Be observant. Listen for the unsaid statements.
  
  
• Remember that youth believe we know what’s going on and that we don’t care. Talk to them. Ask questions. They will answer.

I would like to tell you a little bit about gang behaviors. There are also some very good academic books on the sub-ject that are available.

Local neighborhood gangs will tend to try to copy the behavior of national gangs and will add behaviors they pick up from watching street gang movies. Often they end up affiliating with a national gang. You’ll know when that happens be-cause you will see their local graffiti mixed in with national graffiti and neither is disrespected. And, often the same person has written the graffiti.

Each established gang passes their history down to their gang members through their “lit” books. These “books” can be written on anything from notebook paper in a spiral notebook or three-ring binder to pillowcases, T-shirts, tattoos and toilet paper. They use whatever is available. So you aren’t just looking for one specific item.

Gang members are required to commit their history (“lit”) to memory. At any time a leader or a member with a higher rank can demand they “spit lit” (recite the gang’s history and rules); if they cannot, then they are in violation. Depending on the level of violence of the gang, they could be punished right then, or allowed so many violations (usually 5 or 6) before the leadership decides on an appropriate punishment. The national gangs of the latter part of the 20th Century have been passing their history down to their gang members since the 1950s and 1960s.

Gang members take their history very seriously. It is important to note that gangs are a subculture and they do not normally identify with the world outside the gang. They are intergenerational. Gang life is their norm. Any group that is not part of their own gang is the enemy. Their goal is to make money and to gain status and power. They do this by expand-ing their territory and increasing their membership. Gangs and drugs go hand in hand. Drugs are still the biggest money-maker; although, gangs are now transitioning into more sophisticated criminal activity. Youth gang members are still most likely to be involved in some level of drug use, sales or both.

One afternoon, around four o’clock, a young man showed up at my office door. He was angry, very angry. He told me that he had been sent to see me by his caseworker. I hadn’t had any phone calls, so I was caught off guard. I could see myself reflected in his eyes. I knew what he was thinking, here’s another white, middle-aged, social worker; one more woman to fail him. I invited him into my office and directed him to a nearby chair. He sat down, folded his arms across his chest and sullenly sunk into himself. Great, now he wasn’t going to talk to me. He had just gotten out of a three-month drug rehab program. He used the crack cocaine he was selling. I sat there quietly for a moment. I asked God for inspira-tion. And, it came to me.

I took a chance, “I’m a member of the oldest gang since the beginning of time,” I said as he began to look at me. “You ain’t with no gang lady!” He spat out.

I went on, “Yes, I am. I’m a Roman Catholic. The Pope is my OG. We have ranks and structure. Under the Pope there are cardinals, archbishops, bishops, monsignors, pastors, priests, deacons and nuns. We have weekly meetings and rituals. We have to tell the priest any violations we have committed. If we haven’t committed any violations, we can receive the sacrament of communion. If we have committed a serious violation, we can go to hell for all eternity. What about you?” I had his full attention now. I had just defined his lit book in my world terms.

“That’s my lit book!” he practically shouted. Relief flooded over him, and, for a while, we made some progress.

Working with gang-involved youth requires commitment, patience, fear management, fair, firm and consistent treat-ment of everyone, a willingness to ask questions, to listen, to learn, to work with other teachers and school resource offi-cers to develop methods of gang management that work in your building, to stay on top of the problem, to understand that it won’t go away, that it has to be managed every moment of every single day. If you share information and skills with your coworkers, you will be successful at managing the gang members that walk through your door.

Over the years many gang members have asked me this question, “When is someone going to make adults do what adults are supposed to do?” The answer to this question lives within each of us.

Linda M. Schmidt is a community outreach specialist certified police instructor for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Linda M. Schmidt is coauthoring a book on gangs with Professor James T. O’Reilly of the University of Cincinnati. Publication is expected in 2007. This copyrighted article is the property of Linda M. Schmidt. No part of this article may be reproduced without the written permission of the author.

By Rebecca Leonard

YOUR DISTRICT STRIVES TO CREATE a safe and caring environment for students each day. But no matter how suc-cessful your efforts, ultimately your success can only be measured by the health and wellbeing of the community-at-large.

South Brunswick seeks to care for all of its residents, doing what is needed to ensure that everyone is provided for. Our challenge is to keep a finger on the pulse of an ever-changing and rapidly growing community and to effectively communicate through the proper channels.

A Long-standing Commitment More than a decade ago, community leaders in South Brunswick recognized a need to im-prove relationships and communication efforts among community leadership during times of crisis. With that came the formation of the Community Response Team, CRT.

This organization is a unique partnership of committed community members, including representatives from local government and police, public health, the school district, members of the local clergy, social services, mental health agen-cies and community service organizations.

“In order to develop a healthy community, it is essential that key community members participate in the core functions of public health: assessment, policy development and assurance. CRT facilitates this process, allowing the local government to truly address problems identified in the assessment process.

“This is especially critical in a growing, ethnically-diverse community like South Brunswick Township, where cultural barriers to healthy behaviors may not be obvious,” said Steven Papenberg, South Brunswick Township Health Officer and CRT co-chair.

In the early 1990s, the mission of the CRT was to support the efforts of emergency responders such as the police, fire and emergency medical teams in times of crisis. The team’s role was to assist with communication and provide sup-port and comfort. The intent of the CRT was to assure the community that, during times of crisis, the leaders of the com-munity knew each other well and worked cooperatively with one another.

Building Relationships Today representatives meet monthly, allowing various township agencies to become more familiar with one another and build relationships. Often, the most difficult part of asking for help is asking a complete stranger to provide comfort and assistance. The relationships and communication channels that are built through membership on the CRT among key community leaders are the means by which needs are identified, ideas shared and problems are solved.

South Brunswick’s population has more than doubled in the past decade and the demographics have changed con-siderably. Members of the CRT are more often than not providing resources to residents in need.

As the community changed, the CRT altered its mission. Now called the Community Resource Team, the group con-tinues its partnerships to ensure the availability of services and programs throughout South Brunswick Township. Its focus has become more of a preventative one, rather than just response to a crisis or need.

Today, the CRT is responsible for identifying community needs, establishing interagency agreements and training its members and others within the community; assuring clear, accurate and effective communication; helping to assess the ef-fectiveness of a response following an event; developing and managing a Community Volunteer Service program and coor-dinating the development and maintenance of a Community Resource Database.

At meetings members discuss current and emerging trends within the community. Some recent topics include the in-crease in clients seeking assistance from township and county social service organizations, affordable housing for our senior citizens and how to better provide for their needs, criminal activity and the cultural changes occurring within South Brunswick. The group discusses various crises as they occur within the community and then plan responses, as needed.

Through this work, communication among township officials has improved. For example, the police department and district officials speak almost daily on a variety of topics related to the wellbeing of our students. By working together, they can better provide a safe and caring environment for the more than 8,900 students that attend our schools. If an accident or incident occurs involving a South Brunswick student, the police know who to call and how to get in touch with the per-sonnel in the school district.

That type of open communication benefits all parties, officials said.

“In addition to providing an exceptional education, parents and community members expect their schools and their children to be safe. Safe and caring environments create an atmosphere of wellbeing, and have a positive impact on stu-dent performance. The Community Resource Team is just one aspect of the community’s effort to assess prevention needs and intervention measures on behalf of students and their families,” said George Scott, director of student services for South Brunswick School District. Mr. Scott is also a member of the CRT.

As a member of the clergy who works regularly with the youth of the South Brunswick community, Rabbi Eligberg of the Congregation B’Nai Tikvah said that his membership on the CRT has been of assistance several times.

“As a member of the clergy, you need to learn as much about the community in which you live and what resources are available so that when it comes to helping members of your congregation, you are able to turn to someone,” said Rabbi Eligberg. “CRT jump-started that process for me in a way that I have not experienced in other communities. It brought to the table so many different parts of the community—township, school district and people who have knowledge of other services. Over the years, that’s been a big, big plus for me.”

The CRT has been and continues to be a big plus for the students and citizens of South Brunswick.

Rebecca Leonard is the Public Information Officer for the South Brunswick Public Schools.

By Michele Sobota

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF AT A SCHOOL SPORTing event one of your students, colleagues, or a spectator suddenly collapsed and died? Unfortunately, this situation is not as improbable as it sounds. According to the American Heart As-sociation, at least 900 Americans a day suffer from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

Unlike a heart attack, victims of SCA experience clinical death. They stop breathing; have no heartbeat and no pulse. But if an easy-to-use, lunchbox-size piece of medical equipment called an automated external defibrillator (AED) is available, they can be brought back to life.

Does your school have a standard emergency procedure to deal with this kind of emergency? CPR and calling 911 may not be enough to save a victim of sudden cardiac arrest. That’s because an electrical disturbance called “fibrillation” has stopped their heart. To get the heart pumping again it must be “defibrillated” by an electrical shock which can only be delivered by an AED.

A Lifesaving Device Ideally AED treatment starts within three to five minutes; because, if untreated, damage to the brain and vital organs set in as quickly as four minutes. With every minute that passes without defibrillation, the victim’s chances of survival decrease by 7 to 10 percent. Bottom line, lack of proper emergency care means most victims of SCA die in ten minutes. Emergency crews equipped with defibrillators are often not able to respond quickly enough.

It Took a Tragedy That’s what happened in the case of 15-year-old Kimberly Anne Gillary. The Detroit-area honor student was playing a game of high school water polo in the spring of 2000. Apparently not feeling well, she asked to be substi-tuted out of the game and got out of the water. Once on deck, she collapsed.

A nurse, who happened to be watching the game, administered CPR. Her husband, a cardiologist, arrived shortly thereafter. But nothing could be done without an AED to bring Kimberly back. By the time EMS arrived with a defibrillator, her brain had been without oxygen for too long. Two days later her parents had to make a decision no parent ever wants to face: to take their child off life support.

What’s frightening about sudden cardiac arrests is that they often happen to adults and children who appear to be in perfect health. Kimberly was a seasoned, competitive swimmer. However, she suffered from a hidden, hard-to-detect heart irregularity called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (thickening of the heart wall). This condition never showed up in her medical checkups or tests, including an EKG.

Kimberly’s family believes that if an AED had been on hand at the school, she might still be alive today. Days after her tragic death, her father, Randall Gillary, formed the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation www.kimberlysgift.org. Its mission: to donate an AED to every high school in Michigan to save future victims of sudden cardiac arrest. “We can’t bring Kimberly back, but maybe we can save someone else’s son or daughter,” says Mr. Gillary, an attorney. “Our goal is to prevent other parents from experiencing what my family went through when we lost our beloved Kimberly.”

So far the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation has raised more than $700,000 and donated over 300 AED’s to Michi-gan high schools. It’s also paid for associated training costs.

Easy to Use AED’s are so easy to use students have helped save lives. Saving Lives in Schools* reports that on March 12, 2003, 17-year-old Matt Strauss, a student at Pittsburgh Penn Hills High, helped bring a spectator back to life during the last few seconds of a basketball final. After two physicians in the stands started CPR, Strauss ordered the gathering crowd to step back. Following voice instructions from the device, he pressed the shock button once, and in 3 seconds Martin Gannon’s pulse was back. By the time EMS arrived, the 48-year-old was sitting up and smiling.

Then there is the recent case of Detroit Red Wings hockey player Jiri Fischer. He made headlines recently after his 6’5” frame suddenly slumped over the bench during a game against Nashville in November 2005. It if weren’t for an AED at the Detroit stadium, there’s a good chance that this 25-year-old athlete would have died.

Worth the Cost You would think that for the good that they do, AED’s would be as common as fire extinguishers. But they aren’t. Despite their small size, each automatic defibrillator costs approximately $2,200, plus the cost of training.

Believe it or not some schools have rejected the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation’s offer of a free AED with training. As Mr. Gillary told the Detroit Free Press, “they tell me their teachers have enough to do already, or they say their fire de-partments can get there quickly. I tell them, ‘you’re dead wrong.’”

So far there have been no reports of a life saved by one of the AED’s donated by the Gillary Foundation. “But it’s just a matter of time,” says Mr. Gillary. “If we can save one high school student’s life, it will be worth it.”

For more information about how to get an AED for your school, contact Parent Heart Watch, www.parentheartwatch.org at 800-345-6630. Other useful Web sites include: www.americanheart.org, www.mayoclinic.com, and www.momsteam.com.

Michele Sobota represents the Kimberly Anne Gillary Foundation (www.kimberlysgift.org), which advocates placement of automated external defibrillators in schools and training in their use.

* This article is taken from Saving Lives in Schools, a publication with information about student SCA prevention. For copies contact Mary Newman at mnew-man513@aol.com.

Common Causes of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Long QT Syndrome: An abnormality in the heart’s electrical system. It’s a genetic disease that affects 1 in 7,000 young people. It’s often triggered by physical exertion or emotional stress.

Commotio cordis: An electrical disturbance causes by a blow to the chest (such as with a ball). It occurs most frequently during baseball games, but has also happened during other types of sporting events.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: Congenital heart muscle disease that affects about 1 in 500 people. It causes the walls of the left ven-tricle to become thicker than normal. This condition can block blood flow from the heart and result in lost consciousness and an irregular heartbeat.

*Taken from “Saving Lives in Schools” edited by Mary Newman.