Police arrest 7 at Clearwater middle school

CLEARWATER -– Police arrested seven juveniles this morning at Kennedy Middle School in Clearwater, saying they were gang members involved in a robbery.

The seven students -– two from Kennedy Middle School and five from Largo Middle School -– were members of Quince, which Clearwater police spokeswoman Elizabeth Daly-Watts described as a Latin gang.

Police said the boys beat up another boy outside Kennedy on Wednesday afternoon and took his jacket. The fight started because the boys thought the victim was a member of Sur-13, a rival gang, officials said.
When the victim came to school, he told the school resource officer on duty that his attackers were hanging out by the ballfield.

About 9:35 this morning, police confronted the group.

The seven juveniles were arrested and charged with robbery. One was also charged with aggravated battery and trespass with a deadly weapon for carrying a knife, according to police.

- Jonathan Abel, Times staff writer

Comments

[Bob]

Hmmm, I an glad known gang members get to terrorize all the other students who are actually trying to get an education!

[lol]

nice to see my former middle school is going strong

[ron mexico]

it appears we're teaching them something

[Gilbert R. Ford]

This is incredible! In the interest of the young men and women trying to learn and take advantage of the educational opportunity and who's parents have taught them better, I wish the Law comes down heavy on these so-called gang members with absolutely no mercy. Being that it was more than 1 and it had to be a conspiracy, the judicial system should seriously consider the RICO Statue. I am African American, should race become an issue, and I think it might, the hell with it. Accountability starts at home and so does discipline!

[ricco]

MIDDLE SCHOOL GANGS IN PARADISE.
SAY IT ISN'T SO. THIS IS NOT WHAT THE BROCHURE SAID ABOUT FLORIDA
aka: Paradise

[melissa]

Fla has the worst school system in the United States! Either put your child in private school or move out of this state if you want your child to have a good education!

Look at the children that do these things and well the parents are usually not any better! The apple usually never falls far from the tree!

[Preston]

As usual the parents are probably busy blaming the school system instead of doing their job which is not to be their "best friend", sometimes I think I will blow a blood vessell when I hear them say my 8 year old ismy best friend, your not their best friend your their parent do your job and stop blaming the school system

[lute]

Deport all of the illegals. Send these punks back to Latin America.

[Dawn]

As a parent of 4 children here in Clearwater I noticed this activity this morning while dropping off my son at Kennedy. This is not the first time, last year on the last day of the school year my son's friend was stabbed. It's sick as a parent to pull up see cops everywhere, administration running around with their head's cut off, kids beaten the tar out of one another and at least 200 students outside watching all of this. My son has been scared many times while attending this school and of course faculty advises, "everything is just fine and pad the situation". The last thing the Schools Board wants is information leaked on how violent these schools have become. Most of these situations stem from Mexican groups/gangs. The poster above on the board is dead on, the school system hear is horrible and in order to have a good education for your child(ren) move out of state or put them in private school which I am working on.

[This is not news]

This is not news to me I had kids go to that school if you ask me that school need more police inforcement. that school gans are nothing new to That school Its been that way for a long time.just sit at the ball park across the street its like waching the tv show cops some days.

[Bill]

I sent two throught this system. It was horrible. The drug selling on campus, fighting, teachers as well as students using profanity. Blacks gang up on whites. Students being paid to bully others. Students are scared even to go to their lockers to change books. Whites have to walk out of the way of the Blacks coming down the ailes. You would not believe the massive amount of drugs that come on campus and is sold. Ask your child how easy it is to buy drugs. Any kind you want.

Gang activity is cyclical. Not too long ago, when I attended Kennedy and lived close by, all the gangs were made up of white kids with white parents. Any cop who has been there long enough can tell you that. Pointing fingers at illegals and Latinos is ignorant. It was white kids beating others into gangs, carrying guns, selling drugs over there not too long ago. The police did their job, turned a high ranking member, and the gang eventually disbursed. Most members moved as they grew older. (I still know several who are productive citizens without records....and know of one in jail for each one of them.)

That said, why are these schools not more involved? They weren't when I was there and they don't appear to be now. Did they make any attempt (both Largo and JFK) to let these parents know their kids were not in school? I am sure this is not the first time they have missed. If they received no help from the parents in the unlikely case they were notified, did they refer the kids for more in depth intervention?

Yes, kids actions are the ultimate responsibility of the parents. But without cooperation of the schools parents will often remain ignorant of their kids actions. As these actions clearly affect the other students and the school day, the school has to make an effort to curb these things from happening. Obviously this is a problem that is not only the responsibility of the school, but of the school system as a whole, and even further up the state. But if your not taking care of your own...those further up the line sure won't.

To the above poster.... The school and it's children have changed over the last 4 years with minorities taking up a good 60% of the school. Seeing that you live(d) close by the school (as well as I) you must know then that these gangs are not all white. Stand over at Sid Lickton Park for a while and watch the fights as they occur and ask the police officers WHO they are watching. Clearly, you should be able to see this yourself IF you live close by. Of course the white kids get into trouble but the GANGS at Kennedy are of Mexican/Latino nationality.

[Ellie]

It's irresponsible to make schools responsible for more than educating our kids. Parents need to be involved period. It can't be placed upon schools to be involved with the kids to the degree that they aren't teaching anymore. It's the parents responsibility to be involved at the school. Come to school, drop your kids off, talk to the teachers. You can't make a staff of 75 teachers, administrators and support staff responsible for 600 families, it's just not possible.

I agree somewhat with the above poster about parents becoming more involved. However, it would be a GREAT idea to put a little more security in the schools to control some of the violence and get rid of these kids that are not there to learn. Parent's can't help their kids when their walking the hallways on the way to class and find themselves in the middle of an altercation.

5:35, yes, now. My entire point was that this activity was taking place beforehand with white kids, so to lay blame on one ethnicity is ridiculous.

Kids can manipulate with the best. Parents cannot call schools each and every day to see if the kids is there. It's just not possible. Yes, it is their responsibility to see what their kids are up to, meet with teachers, etc. And there will be parents who won't care.

It is however the job of the schools, as they already have programs in place for this, to advise parents when the kids are failing and missing. The problem is the the schools pick and choose which kids they want to do this for.

It is also the job of the schools to see to it that their campus is safe. When the activities of their students are placing that safety at risk, that is their job to see a resolution to that problem. Ignoring the indicators of the problem is just waiting for it to explode. If you can prevent a large problem from happening - like this kid getting beat up - by addressing a smaller problem beforehand, isn't that the smart thing to do?

5:58 Rick, it is not stated anywhere that these kids are illegals in the sense that the word is used nowadays.

You also miss the point entirely.

Yes, THIS PARTICULAR issue that happened TODAY was as a result of kids in a Latin gang. The ONGOING and long time problem with gangs is by no means a Latin problem alone. If you're blaming the Latin kids for this, one could say they learned it from the white kids who used to run the neighborhood.

Racism has no part in trying to have these problems dealt with in schools. If you want to focus on one aspect and one problem, fine. I'll worry about the problem as a whole.

To the above poster. You can worry about it all you want as most of us do. But the problem at hand at KENNEDY MIDDLE SCHOOL is the Mexican/Latino gangs. Clearwater is being inidated with this. You can't even walk into a store on Drew St. without hearing Mexican music. Yes, I am getting off subject. Sorry.....

What does Mexican music have to do with gangs? Are ALL those people in gangs?

Yes, the problem NOW is Latino gangs. Yes, THIS problem arose from that. The ONGOING and long time problem has nothing to do with race! It was the white kids before this and it is the same thing! Yes, deal with the problem, but the overall problem has nothing to do with race.

Before it was Mexican music being played, it was white kids with heavy bass driving their blue cars all around Drew and Saturn. Same problem, different day. It happens to be Latin kids now, so it's a Latin problem? No, it's the same problem it was when they kids were white.

By the grace of God, I wasn't educated in this country!

[YES!]

At least we now know that there is an acknowledged gang problem in Pinellas County Schools. At good old Clearwater High School (JFK is a big feeder school...surprise!)administration denies that there are gangs on campus-when teachers know, students know, and parents know that they're everywhere...black gangs, Latino gangs, wanna-be whitegangs. Hopefully, getting this problem out in the open will help.

[Mom of 2 CWH students....]

Oh above poster. Don't get me started with you on Clearwater High too. This school is so bad and you are right , JFK is the feeder school. Did you read the article last mth in the Times that a student wrote?? She siad she is scared to death and there needs to be more security on campus. Well of course she got in huge trouble becasue of it. Ironicallly, a teacher at CHS submitted the article for her and then denied that. I am glad the media became involved.

[Jojo]

I can guarantee you that most of the mexicans in this area are illegals. If you spineless whimps would get some 'nads and deport every illegal, things would start to improve. School over crowding would not be an issue, the new latino gangs would be gone....geez people, wake up. We are being invaded.

AMEN JOJO.

[MomInPinellas]

So many of you have so many opinions and are very passionate about them. It is nice to see. Now, let's stop blaming everyone and look for a solution.

Pinellas county schools are only as good as what we put into them. I was educated here and have a son in the system and wholly believe in it. We had the choice of private school for our son and chose not to do that. Because I believe in our schools, but I also know that I have to stay involved to make them the best they can be.

We have many problems with the school system in general and there is no "golden egg" to solve the problems. The first issue is funding. Do you ever ask yourself why one school is better than antoher? It's not the teachers, it's the money that the school can generate, on their own! All I hear is complaints about our taxes, how do you think we are going to get more money into the system to pay for the security everyone is talking about? It isn't going to magically appear! I'm not saying we need more taxes, but we do need to take note of what our taxes are being spent on and start making our officials accountable.

The other contributing factor is that this is FL, and we have such a bad rap about our schools that the school system does not want to admit these things happen. We aren't the "inner city" so it can't happen here. And, I can't totally blame them. To admit anything close to the truth will just open the door for every kind of lawsuit imaginable.

If you want to really make a difference, stop talking and start doing. And for those that don't think I put my money where my mouth is, I work a full time job, over 30 minutes from my house and am still on the school booster boards and volunteer where I can, as does my husband (who also works full time!).

[Fred]

Maybe I'm missing something, but here's what happened: "Police said the boys beat up another boy outside Kennedy on Wednesday afternoon and took his jacket." Not good, but not new either. Bullies have been around forever and boys have been getting in fights forever. I know it also says they found a knife, but I always had a pocket knife with me when I was a kid; no one cared back then and I wasn't about to use it as a weapon. There's no reason to blow this out of proportion and make it about race/nationality. Frankly, I don't see the relevance of reporting that it was a "Latin" gang. If it's gang activity, that's newsworthy, but I don't see how ethnicity makes it any more so.

Agree, Fred.

Mom is right too.

People can dicker over this particular case, or they can talk about the broader topic (which has nothing to do with race). This IS happening in schools no matter what officials try to say.

We do need to hold parents accountable, but we also need to have resources available to those who need more help. We need to make it easier for parents to get intervention when a kid is truant, learning disabled, and other problems that could place a kid at risk.

Prevention programs have long been proved to work. Why do we not have more? It is unacceptable that we do not have enough to serve kids.

If we're gonna kick a kid out at age 13, then do it. Make it a policy. Go for it if that is how people feel. This back door stuff of ignore the kids, don't call parents when they are out until they fail (Clearwater High, I mean you!), tell them to not come back when they have no other placement - happens all the time. If this is how people feel, then make it happen! I may not agree, but if this is how school officials feel... If not, do your job! For ALL kids.

How about teaching kids in elementary school about gangs? REALLY teaching them, not kinda sorta. Of course, that would take people admitting there is a gang problem. But by middle school, they have already learned. If they live in an area that has them, they've already known the kids in them.

All of this is dependant on funding naturally. With cuts all over and DJJ is one that gets hit as well as schools is it any surprise that this happens?

At the very least this should be motivation for anyone who is not already to be involved with local politics. I don't mean involved as in volunteering at the polls, just aware of when and who and what. Often there are people unaware of even when smaller election occur. And usually this is when Board Members are up. It starts there.

[Brittany]

I just graduated from Largo High School in May. Im now 19yrs old, an accountant, and living on my own. To hear some people say that the ONLY way for their children to get a good education is by forking out thousands and thousands of dollars to put their child in a private school is rediculous. These are KIDS! The Gangs in this article are KIDS! The schools should NOT be the ones to have to make sure that each indiviual child is in school. I remember how many kids I went to school with. Have you seen the size of classes each teacher has? Im sure that having these rotten kids out of their class for a day is a GODSEND. Have any of you heard of ParentConnect?? I know my mother did. You can go on and see EVERY DAY whether your child attended class, whether they were late, if they are missing assignments. Its the parents that need to be more responsible. So YES it is VERY possible for a parent to go online, and check and see whether their child made it to school that day or not. If the parent or guardian isnt taking an active roll in their childs life, this is the kind of things that happen. The children see that their parents dont care, so they get to do what they want. Like the child who stabbed the girl in the eye and didnt care! OBVIOUSLY there is SOMETHING going on there! Dont blame the schools for something they cannot completely control. More secuirty, sure thats going to make the halls safer. But outside school, the SROs cannot walk each child home safely.

[dawson]

I am a mother of a 5th grader. We are certain that where we live will put us in Kennedy's area for school next year. I have lived here my entire life. I am a grad of Dunedin Middle and Dunedin High '94, and there is NO WAY IN HE..I would send my children to any one of the above mentioned schools!
My brother graduated Dunedin High in 97 and the schools were quickly declining before that. My mother has been a Pinellas County School teacher for 38 years and she will agree that our school system is in cardiac arrest! We will be sending our son to a Charter school next year and probably continuing that track through High School. I can name several Pinellas Teachers whos children do not attend Pinellas County Schools. Our dear Mr. Wilcox needs to get his head out of his butt, and stop paying his secratary a 3 digit wage and find a way to up the security at our schools. As well as we all need to be lobbying for tougher rules regarding illegal immigration. As much as you would like to say it has not affected our schools... it truly has and we are slowly beginning to see it more.

Brittany, you assume all parents have internet access. Yes, in this day and age many do, but not all. You also have to go to the school to finish the log in process. For a parent to find out of their child is in school at that time, they would have to do so durning most hours when people are at work. This is something most employers frown on.

Good luck with further education.

Dawson, you are right. The schools were seeing a problem with discipline in the mid to late 90s. The refusal to address that has left us with more problems. Even then, they were lax with many kids, attendance, and enforcement.

There is a lot of information out there regarding how to handle these kids. There are a lot of programs that work. Local ones as well as national ones that could be used as a model. It is unacceptable to demand less than that in the public school system.

It has to start somewhere. It won't start at the state level. It is the JOB of the local legislators and Board members to get the needed funding.

Yes, there are a lot of other issues out there demanding attention, including the tax issue that is on the other side of the money spectrum. That does not negate that it is the JOB of these people to fund out schools. If you don't like what they hand you at state level, shout it out loud. Let parents know the roadblocks, use them to lean as well. Going to a meeting should not be a required effort for a parent to be aware of the what is going on in the district. There is no acceptable reason why this is not happening in depth. Other than CYA on the part of those people of course. And that is also unacceptable.

[Diana]

I remember when my kids were in school and this crap was going on. the school system is not the law and they will not do too much to stop whats going on. For one thing schools act like they are there for the kids, but actually they are there for themselves ($$$$) paycheck nothing more. Plus the schools employees are afraid of the kids, ask them, they don't want thier a** kicked or thier house vandilized or their kids bothered. Teenages don't fear anyone thanks to the school system telling them that it is child abuse to being smacked for doing wrong. The school system took the parents authority and child rearing responsibilities and threw them out the window. So now we have a society of fearless, disrepectful, uncaring and unmonitored kids. I for one didn't let my kids sideline and I constantly stayed in communication with the school, teacher and whatever it took to make sure my kids walked a straight line. They are grown up and productive adults w/o criminal records. These kids need caring adults in & out of school and at home. Kids know what they are deprived of and need in order to be a compassionate person, they can't do it on their own.

[JOHN RONSON]

WHAT A BUNCH A GYPS AND NIGS

[JOHN RONSON]

WHAT A BUNCH A GYPS AND NIGS

[TIGGER NIPPLE SUCKER]

STUPID DUMB FUCKERS

[St. Petersblog]

Does this go live right away? If not, you guys SERIOUSLY suck at your jobs.