I saw the weirdest thing yesterday

[JennifersLost]

I was at a youth employment office with my son who's looking for his first job.

There was a poster on the wall for a summer program at the University of Victoria aimed at high school students. I believe the idea was for high schoolers to spend a week at UVic to get a taste of college - to motivate them to shoot to actually go to college. Sounds like a great program.

But the poster.....well, it shows a group of 20 or so high school students sitting and standing on a flight of stairs. It's a multicultural group - lots of smiles. So far, so good.

But ONE-THIRD of the kids are flashing gang signs! I kid you not!

I laughed out loud when I saw it. Did the photographer not see what was going on? Did the person who picked the picture not know what gang signs are? Did they do it on purpose?

If I was a parent looking to send my kid to that program I'd take one look at that poster and say, "Heck no!" What were they thinking??!!??

Has the whole gang sign thing just gotten taken over by the mainstream to the point where it's meaningless now? Am I out of touch?

Or is someone going to be in big trouble?

[Amy in Orlando]

Gah - I don't know, Jennifer. That poster would have freaked me out and my kids would have been all over it. Maybe it means the gang signs are friendly now? Honestly, I have no clue. I don't feel like I'm out of touch, but I guess I am. Come join me on the porch - I have an extra rocking chair.

[JennifersLost]

Now that would be fun!

[nakitty]

:eek: :svengo:weird

[tibbyl]

I woud not recognize gang signs.

[skai]

Did the kids realize that they doing were a "gang sign" or were they just doing it because the kid next to them was doing it?

[Carrie1234]

I think I would have to see the "gang signs" before forming an opinion.

At my very-white school, over a dozen years ago, the guys had "signs" representing their dorms, and it had nothing to do with gang activity. We were all just a bunch of 18 year old dorks.

These days, unfortunately, I'm a bit more familiar with *real gang signs.

[Jennifer3141]

I would guess that it's mroe likely a bunch of sarcastic teenagers looking for attention than legitimate "gang signs."

Jen

[Soph the vet]

OK, clueless here. What do gang signs look like?

[Heather in the Kootenays]

I suspect it's kids and a photographer that are clueless about gang signs. I wouldn't know one if it hit me over the head and neither would my teens. Probably they saw them in a music video.

You might want to give UVic a heads-up. I'm almost certain that isn't the image they're trying to portray.

[Miss Peregrine]

They were probably goofing off, but yeah, not the image I would want.

Reminds me of Jr. High. We had an informal academic decathlon type thing in 9th grade. The Asst. principal split everyone up and then asked us to name our teams.

We ended up as the Crips and the Bloods:lol: The poor clueless lady. I still remember her asking how to spell Crips!:lol::lol:

[Jeannie in NJ]

what are some examples of gang signs?

[JennifersLost]

Here's a link to some random "signs (http://www.knowgangs.com/gang_resources/handsigns/menu_009.htm)".

Yeah, I agree the kids probably aren't IN gangs, but I doubt that UVic really wanted that image going out, too. I've tried to find the poster online, but I can't.