Gang Attire Wearing Thin at Area Schools

Baseball caps are forbidden at some schools. At others, caps are OK but bandannas are out. Then there’s the junior high school where boys can’t wear earrings.

Confusing? Perhaps, but necessary, say educators in the San Gabriel Valley, who increasingly are joining their urban counterparts in drawing up dress codes to keep gangs at bay.

The trend reflects a concern that gangs and gang-related activity are on the rise in many San Gabriel Valley school districts.

“This year, gang activity is more than we have seen in the last few years,” said Stephen Kornfeld, dean of students at San Gabriel High School.

In districts from Pomona to Baldwin Park, the message has gone out to students: The wearing of gang-related clothing won’t be tolerated.

But what exactly qualifies as gang-related? The list varies from school to school and from gang to gang. And for some youngsters, the clothes may merely reflect MTV rap fashion. As lines between fashion and bona fide gang clothing blur, some parents appear downright frustrated.

“One mother told me, ‘My goodness, I paid $150 for that outfit and my son’s not a gang member,’ ” said Pat DeLong, assistant superintendent of educational services at the Baldwin Park Unified School District, which adopted a dress code nine months ago.

Generally, San Gabriel Valley school administrators say parents support their efforts to keep schoolyards free of gangs. Educators usually outline the new policies during parent-teacher meetings or in letters that students take home.

Occasionally, parents are shocked to learn that Johnny’s red baseball cap, red shoelaces and red T-shirt might signify something ominous.

Other times, parents go through “strong denial” of their children’s activities, Kornfeld said.

Teachers say they look for certain trends. For instance, a student who wears nothing but blue might be trying to show an affiliation with a particular black gang.

Both black and Latino gangs favor Los Angeles Raiders jackets and caps.

In years past, Asian youth gangs sported distinctively styled tattoos.

“We try to keep current about what police and other agencies tell us, and we watch for students who only wear certain colors or certain combinations of clothing,” said Judi Wiggins-North, principal of South Hills High School in West Covina.

But school officials say they also rely on common sense. An A student on the varsity track team who wears all black once every couple of weeks probably wouldn’t get pulled aside, educators say. On the other hand, known or suspected gang members who wear all black on a regular basis might be told to liven up their color schemes. Often, the schools work hand in hand with local police departments.

Some districts, such as Pomona Unified, have well-defined dress codes that spell out a long list of forbidden clothing.

Since November, 1987, Pomona has prohibited scarfs; blue or red farmer neckerchiefs; single gloves; sagging, baggy pants, and colored shoelaces, according to spokeswoman Nancy York.

Other communities opt for a more narrow focus. Last fall, Monrovia Unified banned all hats. The district “doesn’t have a severe gang problem . . . but felt we needed to take steps before those problems occurred,” said Louise Taylor, associate superintendent.

But not everyone agreed.

“The whole thing is just wrong,” said Jesse Romero, 17, the student body president of Monrovia High School, who launched an unsuccessful attempt to fight the ban.

“If something’s a clear and present danger, sure they have a right to take away anything, but I don’t see a clear and present danger,” Romero said. “There’s probably more danger for a student walking to school to get hit by a car than someone looking at someone’s baseball cap and shooting into the school.”

Sometimes, parents join their children in protest. “It’s just ridiculous how everything represents something,” said Helen Nishijima, who has a son at South Hills. “Is the school going to give me money to buy new clothes?”

School officials who attempt to censor what students wear also face accusations of discrimination. Edgar Sanchez, 17, a junior at South Hills, said teachers zeroed in solely on black students, telling them that certain colors and styles were off limits.

“I know of a lot of Caucasians who wear Raiders hats, and they don’t get anything said to them,” Sanchez said. “It’s not fair. If you do it for one, you should do it for all.”

Wiggins-North denied that the school targeted minority students and said that all students, regardless of race, are warned about wearing symbolic gang clothing, especially if the same outfits show up on a regular basis.

“We ask parents, ‘Do you notice he’s only wearing blue,’ ” Wiggins-North said. “We ask them to be aware if they are only buying blue clothes.”

Teachers say the difficulty of their work is compounded by television, which often shows teen idols dressed in attire that could be construed as gang-related.

“When they see kids on MTV in gang apparel, they think it looks cool,” said Baldwin Park’s DeLong, who called her job “very difficult.”

In DeLong’s district, which mainly has Latino gangs, teachers watch for students wearing baggy khaki pants several sizes too big or Pendleton shirts with only the top button fastened. A color scheme of gray, beige and brown could also signify gang membership, DeLong said.

In some districts, the dress codes have even trickled into the junior high school level. At Washington Middle School in northwest Pasadena, Principal Willis Charles has banned gloves, as well as hats and visors, except on rainy days.

In addition, “boys can’t wear any earrings,” Charles said. “In many instances, it can have gang connotations.”

Not every school district in the San Gabriel Valley has adopted a dress code. Some say they don’t need to because they have no gang activity on campus.

“We’ve not had to deal with that,” said Ben Ramirez, the principal at South Pasadena High School.

But most educators say gang activity plagues all but the toniest schools, even in the suburban San Gabriel Valley.

Said DeLong, of Baldwin Park: “Everybody has gangs of one kind of another; you can’t go anywhere without seeing them.”