There were about 30 girls arrested last week for a brawl at Milliones, now called U-Prep. But instead of the community leaders confronting the students who were fighting and finding out what the fight was all about it sounded to me like everyone was passing the blame onto Superintendent Linda Lane and the school board (The System), instead of first finding what the fight was all about and then dealing with placing blame.
Our kids, mostly young men, are killing each in the streets at record pace all over this country and it appears our girls are beginning to get caught up in this.
This is not new. Girls for some reason have gotten to the point where they fight in droves or large groups. Because gangs of girls have been noted to jump a single girl they don’t like or because of a boy, these girls get their friends to keep the other girls off them. This is not just a Pittsburgh thing.
I’ve known girls who had brain damage, eyes messed up hair pulled out, after being attacked by multiple girls.
Whose fault is it?
The school is there to teach, to help these kids make it in life in a career. It’s not their responsibility to teach morality, do unto others as you would want them to do unto you. Isn’t this the parents’ job? And the church?
If we continue to pass the blame onto everybody else except ourselves then how do and when will our children ever learn responsibility? When will they ever learn that you don’t solve your problems with your fist, knife or gun?
One female stated that it was partly Pittsburgh Promise fault because they created a program to get more males into the program because of the lack of males compared to females receiving money.
This is not the first time there’s been massive brawls at schools. Remember the brawl at Allderdice a few years back. So instead of threats and placing the blame, maybe activists, the church and the community need to take a good look at themselves and try to identify programs that they can create or already exist to better help these young people. There’s about 50 or more vacant church buildings not being used during the week that could be utilized for these young people.
One activist stated that the school should be concerned about what part of the city these kids come from. So instead of concentrating on educating these kids the school now has to spend precious time on security and not allowing kids from certain parts of the city to mingle with others from a different part of the city because the Hill District, Homewood, the North Side, the South Side, East Liberty, Hazelwood, West End and whatever other part of the city don’t get along. Could you imagine Pitt, Duquesne, Robert Morris, or other colleges or universities not accepting students because they are from another city or a certain part of the city?
I have news for these activists. There are different gangs and groups in the Hill District, the North Side, Homewood, etc., that’s why there are so many shootings. There’s not just one gang on the North Side, there are multiple, as well as the Hill. Sometimes these girls only live blocks apart.
Instead of meeting at the school, maybe they should have met at the jail where these 30 girls were taken, to find out first hand what was behind the fight. There was another fight during the Press Conference and another after that, which means there were more than the 30 girls arrested.
Yes this is a major concern, because a kid shouldn’t have to worry about his or her safety while in school, or coming to and from school. A student should be able to concentrate on education. And in order for this to happen the church and the community must be working with the school to identify these problems and together find solutions, instead of pointing fingers.
Yes there are some young hoodlums and thugs that may need to be in a school or building with more security. But we cannot allow a hand full of thugs, and hoodlums, even if they are female thugs, to block the education of the masses. And you cannot learn if you are worried about being jumped in school, before school or after school. If this is the case then it needs to be addressed by all of us, and the students identified and proper actions taken.
(Ulish Carter is the managing editor of the New Pittsburgh Courier.)
Like us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Pittsburgh-Courier/143866755628836?ref=hl
Follow @NewPghCourier on Twitter https://twitter.com/NewPghCourier
Download our mobile app at https://www.appshopper.com/news/new-pittsburgh-courier
About Post Author
