In what should otherwise be an age of innocence and fun, some Stapleton children are being pressured to join rival neighborhood gangs or face the social consequences of playing alone, or worse, with only their toddler-aged siblings. Details of the lifestyles of members of two rival Stapleton gangs have been divulged in this shocking exclusive Stapletonion exposé, by actual gang members who wish to remain anonymous. The following stories came from members of the North Central Park gang, also known as “the NCP,” and the Southside Stryders, comprised of children residing in homes south of Central Park.
The NCP members identify themselves by their red Stryder bikes, whereas the Southsiders ride blue ones, although some have colors randomly selected by their parents. Each gang is vying for Central Park turf, the neutral area between the neighborhoods. After a brief period of peace between the two gangs, violence has risen after an NCP member’s baby sister got hit by a Nerf ball that was meant for her older brother.
“Timmy,” whose name has been kept anonymous, is just one example of an otherwise nice boy who has been drawn into the gang lifestyle. “The NCPs crashed my 4th birthday party. My mom thought they were invited but they weren’t. They drank all of our Capri Suns, didn’t share toys, and used their outside voices inside. They brought a lot of sugary substances that my mom doesn’t allow either, and pushed it on all of us.”
Timmy didn’t know where to turn until the Southsiders offered him protection. At first he enjoyed being part of a group of fun kids, but soon the play began to get a little less innocent. “They started daring me to do things I wasn’t sure were ok, and eventually I was stealing all the Royal Crest milk off the porches on my block, and had a collection of toys that weren’t mine, and weren’t age-appropriate.” While details of many of their rituals are kept secret, it is rumored that initiation into the Southsiders involves a brutal form of dodge ball, where the new member is not allowed to dodge. Timmy would neither confirm nor deny this rumor, but he quietly pointed to the Mickey Mouse Band-Aids on his knee and elbow.
The kind of collateral damage from injuries to siblings occurring at the park has not only escalated tensions between the two sides, but has also fueled negative publicity, in the form of increased chatter on the Stapleton Mom’s message board. In a heated online debate, Mommydearest1976 cited poor parenting and a lack of structure as the root cause of the gang lifestyle. “My kids aren’t in the gangs because they’re in school, and when they’re not in school they’re at soccer, gymnastics, swim lessons, basketball practice, music class, art lessons, math tutoring, and t-ball. They don’t have downtime to sit around in the alleys eating candy. Their lives are so programmed from the time they wake up to the time time they go to sleep that they wouldn’t even know what to do with a moment of unstructured free time.”
Other parents on the message board took offense to what they perceived as a critique of their parenting methods, but Timmy’s story cannot be denied. His parents aren’t sure if he’ll be able to get his life back on track after his gang-related series of time-outs. “Timmy had a scholarship lined up to attend the advanced kindergarten program at Bill Roberts, but now we’ll be lucky if Knowledge Beginnings will take our money to accept him next year.”
Another alarming trend is that new members are joining at earlier ages than in the past. “They know that the younger the member, the more they can control them, and because they seem so innocent, they can get away with a lot more,” said Swigert school counselor Carl Campbell. The parents of “Billy” concur. “For Billy, it started at daycare before he could even talk. A group of his classmates got him hooked on Gogurts and Goldfish, and soon the incident reports started coming home almost daily about his behavior.” In tears, Billy’s mom explains, “His first words were ‘more Gogurt!’”
Although the misbehavior problem is clear, nobody is quite sure of the solution. Billy and Timmy are just two local examples of what’s being called a national epidemic, the unfortunate by-products of idyllic, suburban master-planned communities fraught with ample green space and parks, top-tier schools, and caring, involved parents. ]]>