Pocono News Section

Gang Awareness Seminar Held in Scranton

Gang Awareness Seminar Held in Scranton - Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 5:53PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Thursday, Nov 5, 2009 @ 05:53pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY - The Bloods. The Crips. The Latin Kings. Gang trends and tactics were the focus of a day-long seminar Thursday in Lackawanna County. Nearly 200 teachers and police officers came out to learn how to identify gang members.

"It's scary. I'll be honest. I look at this from the standpoint of a dad, besides being an assistant principal," Robert Butka said. Butka is an assistant principal at the South Scranton Intermediate School.

The seminar was put on by Edward Bachert. He's a gang expert.

"You'll never look at a kid the same after you take a class like this. You'll be looking at what they're wearing, how they're acting, their mannerisms, you'll be listening to speech," Bachert said.

A lot of the focus of Thursday's seminar was how to identify gang members.

Jean Dunback from the Stroudsburg-Area School District says some students are even trying to get around a newly imposed dress code.

"If they try to wear a different color sneaker or maybe a bead-type bracelet and that's what we're starting to recognize," Dunback said.

The seminar comes just months after two Scranton High School students were arrested in connection with an alleged gang murder.

Police Chief David Elliott had ten officers attend Thursday's session to know what to look for.

"They're trying to stay one step ahead of us and we have a long fight ahead of us to be proactive and get as much knowledge as we can," Chief Elliott said.

Chief Elliott says more training is planned for his officers later this month.