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GREENSBORO — No one disputes the fact that gang activity is proliferating across North Carolina and permeating the state's communities, neighborhoods and schools.

"Gangs have been present in our community for as long as I can remember," said Sgt. Mike Richey, an anti-gang officer who is a 15-year veteran of the Greensboro Police Department.

"But there's been an increase in gang activity in every entity of our community. All of us recognize it."

Earlier this summer, however, when the Guilford County Sheriff's Office announced it would end the long-running DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, it left the Guilford County School System — the state's third largest — without a widespread, law officer-administered program with any anti-gang focus, Superintendent Terry Grier said.

What remains is largely a scattershot approach, mainly through High Point police offering its GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training) in some schools within that city, and school resource officers throughout the system trying to offer staff training and gang education.

But Grier, hired as superintendent seven years ago after administration stints in locations such as Sacramento, Calif., and Akron, Ohio, disagreed strongly with any notion that the Guilford County Schools under his leadership have been slow to address the rising number of gang-related issues in recent years.

"I don't buy that at all," Grier said. "We've been taking it very seriously as long as I've been in the district. I've worked in districts where we've had serious gang problems. Gangs may be a new phenomenon in Greensboro, North Carolina, but they're not new to me."

From 1999 to 2005, gang membership doubled in the state, according to the N.C. Criminal Justice Analysis Center.

Grier and school board Chairman Alan Duncan both pointed out that $3 million to address discipline and school climate issues in this year's school budget was cut by the county commissioners.

"Gang activity is typically brought to school; it doesn't formulate in school," Duncan said. "We try to use school as a positive activity. We're not funded sufficiently to educate our children, much less meet all their health needs and social needs," he said.

Duncan took issue with earlier reports in which local police anti-gang officers portrayed school board members as reluctant to confront a growing gang problem.

"The problem with that is, how do you define a gang?" Duncan said. "There are easier and harder definitions of that. Depending on how you define a gang, there has been some gang activity in schools since I've been on board (2000)."

Duncan cited several areas in which the Guilford County Schools are trying to inhibit the growth of gang membership.

"First, we're trying to engage our students in extracurricular activities — music drama, athletics, chess and these sorts of things. Those kids are going to be a whole lot less prone to go home and get involved in something negative."

Duncan said school resource officers also are encouraged to be pro-active in cutting off gang-related activities in schools. He cited the schools' mentoring program, Connect GCS, that matches students with certified staff in middle and high schools.

"It's not as broadly implemented as we'd like, for funding reasons," Duncan said.

Grier, the superintendent, pointed to the schools' middle college program, implemented in 2001, which seeks to cut the system's dropout rate by targeting at-risk students. That program has been successful, Grier said.

"Kids who were dropping out of high school now are not only graduating, they are going on to college," Grier said. "There's no question a lot of those kids would have been involved in gang activities."

This past week, Greensboro police presented proposals to combat gang membership by offering the GREAT program in Greensboro schools and to an intervention program offered through the city's parks and recreation department.

Meanwhile, a school task force proposed its own intervention plan, including a revamped official GCS policy on gang-related activity that contains clear definitions and student consequences, plus a consistent and comprehensive plan for anti-gang education.

Everything depends on funding, Grier said. "It's not one simple silver bullet; it's a variety of things," Grier said. "I do think it takes a commitment, it takes a focus. But it's going to take additional resources."

Contact Tom Steadman at 373-7351 or tsteadman@news-record.com