The latest statistics from the SLCPD tell us that gang membership is on the rise. Those statistics match the concerns that members of the community have expressed to me over the last few months.

For the last two decades the school district has used a prevention / intervention program called Colors of Success.

This program provides a fulltime case worker in the school that can work directly with a student and their family to steer away from gang involvement.

“With gang activity simmering to new levels across the Salt Lake Valley, there's a renewed sense of urgency for anti-gang initiatives like Colors of Success, said Bordeaux, who accepted a community leadership award from the FBI on Thursday on behalf of the program.”

(Salt Lake Tribune: Colors of Success anti-gang initiative honored by FBI Gang suppression)

In 2009, Colors of Success was in 13 schools within the district. Due to state budget cuts and other budget reductions, that number has dwindled over the years.

Oddly enough, the school district recently submitted a grant proposal to the State that would divert limited gang prevention/intervention funds into an existing curriculum program (Techniques for Tough Times) taught by a social studies teacher at East High School.

HERE IS A COPY OF THE GRANT PROPOSAL: District Grant Proposal

In a recent school board meeting: May 6, 2014 School Board Meeting

The Title I Director in response to my question stated:

“Techniques for Tough Times is about learning social skills and it is not meant as an intervention program”.

This latest blow to gang prevention/intervention from within, now limits Colors to 3-4 campuses when school starts this fall.

This is yet another example of an “out of touch”, Central Office. Gang membership and activity is on the rise and the school bureaucracy responds by funneling money away from Color of Success.

I am still in the process of gathering information on this issue: DISTRICT GRAMA RESPONSE

At the end of the day, the school district has now become complicit in the rise of gang activity within my community.