This is not a Goth splinter group. The fact that kids wear black and maybe listen to Marilyn Manson doesn't identity them as Goths. This is more of a fascist group, if we're going to characterize them at all. This does damage to our communication with them. This cycle of exchanging insults between this group and the jocks should have been interrupted early by the school.
Schools can have intervention when they see violence.
They can have consulation around gangs in the school. They can survey their students and try to find out what the problems are. They can have open days to discuss cultural and ethnic differences. They can use the tribe model where they divide kids, despite racial and ethnic groups, into tribes and try to make them feel an affiliation in that particular way. Fiona Morgan is an assistant editor for Salon Mothers Who Think.