Once you get to high school, everything's-in middle school, there's close contact with your parents. High school? There's too much kids, it's every man for himself in high school. You either come, the teachers don't have time to run you down. The grade nines, even the grade nines, they sort of give them their space. And then they take just that little bit of freedom, the difference between middle school and high school, you give that little bit of freedom and then they're gone, and that's how bad things happen. That's how they get involved into gangs, and they start doing other things. Everything just has that sucking effect, like you get sucked into it.

I remember the first time I skipped school, I was so scared. But then, it's like a rush, it's like "Oh, I didn't get in trouble! I'm gonna do it again." And you do it again…I would sleep. I'm like "Okay, no one's here to get on my case." (Tammy)

Students commented that the slide into gangs was often tied to feeling that they couldn't get respect in school, and so look for respect and possibilities on the street instead. Tammy described her cousins' experience:

I watch my cousins. Three of my cousins were in gangs. So the gang life, the activities would have them out late at night, so they would have no time for school. It made no sense for them to get up and go to school, and even if they did come to school, they were like-can I say shitdisturbers? It was just, they did what they wanted to do and-they were more afraid of having that bad-boy rep being taken away from them if they were to sit down there and say okay, I'm ready to learn. Cause they're really smart. I have one that's-he's the brightest in math, but due to the fact that he wants to be in a gang and have that respect from the street, he doesn't sit down to get the respect from teachers or from his classmates. He doesn't believe that he has to, 'cause why when he has the respect of people on the streets?...It's either or- it's like, I have my bad boy rep, I don't listen to nobody, I do what I want to do. It's me and my boys, I'm for that. Or, I'm in class, doing my work, trying to better my future. Usually when they're in gangs, they usually don't believe that the future for them is bright. Like, they always believe that they will be held down, and it makes no sense, even if they were to attempt to learn and make an attempt to better themselves, they still feel that someone would come along and hold them down. Mostly they would say the police, but they're so used to- they do the bad activities, so the police will be on them. They feel like there's no hope. (Tammy)

Some students read the lack of response from teachers and others in authority as a message that the school has simply given up on them:

Teachers responded the same way. They knew you didn't want to be there, so they treated you like you were stupid or shouldn't be there. I've had teachers comment. The attendance lady would laugh at me when I would be like "I'm sick, I'm going home," she'd be like "Oh, yeah." And she wouldn't call my mom or say anything, she'd just let me go home. And it just became an ongoing thing. (Jennifer Hogan)