• Dr. Russell was a college teacher, a regional field service agent, director of a statewide violence prevention program, a central office administrator, and a state assistant commissioner of education. He also served as the principal of small rural schools and large urban campuses in elementary, middle, and high schools, including twelve years at the largest high school in Central Texas.

• His career of more than forty years spanned the eras of school integration, school riots, student walkouts and sit-ins, and the entrance of drugs, gangs, cults, and deadly violence into the American educational arena. His presentations are drawn from real, hands-on experiences with gangs and other violent situations on school campuses.

H. Lynn Russell, Ph.D.

"My teaching career began in 1958 in an inner city school in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first week of school one of my students was caught on the turf of an enemy gang on the west side of town. I was horrified to hear they had beaten him terribly and pulled out his front teeth with pliers.

Today, after more than forty years of encounters with street gang members in schools and the communities where I worked as a principal, if a gang pulled the teeth of one of my students, I would not be shocked. I would be grateful they did not kill him.

Wherever I travel to conduct further research or to present gang prevention seminars, I find clear evidence of gang presence. I have talked with Blood and Crip gang members in the halls of high schools so small that they still field six-man football teams. I have witnessed Sur and Norteno gang activities in communities too small to even have high schools.

Not all citizens want to be informed that gangs have moved into their communities. Many responsible persons are in denial about gangs in their communities. One such was the young principal of a large urban high school who approached me after a morning conference presentation and proudly invited me to tour his "gang-free" campus that afternoon.

At the school, a 'g'ed down' office aide escorted me to his office and openly flashed Vice Lord gang signs as we walked through the halls. The principal was highly offended when I pointed out these gang behaviors. When I identified three other separate gang groups flaunting gang colors and holding down turf in the student center, he huffily cut the tour short. He was in such denial that I made my excuses and departed without further comment.

Denial is not a river in Egypt! The gangs are here among us. Unless we learn how to identify and deal effectively with them, they will remain -- and they will thrive."

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