The perceptions of cross cultural student violence in an urban school setting

While America fights an international war on terrorism a greater war looms in our own backyard. Poverty, the lack of resources and a failing educational system continues to strangle our urban youth. Violence between youth in urban schools perplexes our society everyday. Within this context lie the ever growing confrontation between black and Latino youth. School age youth in Los Angeles County have become accustomed to violence. The sounds of sirens and police helicopters have become a mundane part of everyday life for these inner city youth. Broken curfews often end up in broken lives, shattered by violence.;Two out of every four black male youth in America will not finish high school, and these numbers decrease for Latino males to one out of three (The Rap Sheet, 2005). Out of those black youth who do finish high school, only 1 out of 3 will attend a four year university (The Rap Sheet, 2005). Only 1 out of 2 will finish. Latino males fair no better. Only 1 out of 2 Latino males will attend a four year university with only 40% of those finishing (The Rap Sheet, 2005).;Approximately thirty percent of all black and Latino males between the ages of 18-25, end up incarcerated (The Rap Sheet, 2005). Now these youth are turning on each other. The line in the sand has been drawn. Blacks and Latinos struggle with each other to gain economic and political power in the urban city setting. Gaining this power may end the continued submission to living a substandard existence. So the battle wages, a battle that has surfaced in our public schools. For this reason cultural events are turned into violent stands for cultural pride at our schools.;This study sought to investigate the causes of violence between our black and Latino youth in our inner city schools in hopes that better interventions could be formulated to prevent or eradicate it. The study investigated the perceptions of those who are closest to the epidemic. Using a qualitative approach, information was gathered from structured interviews with inner city high school students and staff that represented different ethnic and gender backgrounds. The objective of these interviews was to develop key concepts that could help explain why cross-cultural violence exists between black and Latino youth. This study identified the perceptions of the participants and how their perception may be influenced by an intrinsic or extrinsic source. In trying to identify the causes of ethnic youth violence this study revealed that there are many factors that should be considered. Although we know that this study could never answer every question to the causes of youth violence, we hope that it will serve to help formulate prevention methods that can assist in the reduction of this epidemic. It is simply time to stop the violence!...