Teens Say Violence All Too Common in Union City

For many students at , fighting between students is as common as fifth period English.

According to a recent survey on youth violence, 65 percent of students said they have witnessed a fight. A majority of students also said that they know a person who has brought a weapon to school or know a person who owns a gun.

The Regional Alliance for Community Empowerment, a group organized by , conducted a survey that asked local high school students about violence in school and throughout Union City. 

RACE distributed 509 surveys at James Logan High School. The questionnaire was distributed to students in grades 9-12. The 27-question survey shed light on various student concerns.

“Violence shouldn’t be something that is normal,” said survey coordinator Jerico Abanico.

Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed said that they had been harassed because of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

Violence was so common for one student who said that he doesn’t think twice when hearing gunshots in Union City or when he sees physical altercations on school grounds.

“Frankly, most of the more egregious issues have to do with gangs, and that's a problem that's much bigger, much broader than Logan, a problem city-wide, throughout the Bay Area, throughout the state,” said spokesman Rick La Plante.

Most students who participated in the survey said that the city doesn’t provide enough community programs. Parks were the number one city resource for teens, favored by 356 students. The second resource was the with 254 of respondents saying they utilize it.

The survey doesn’t specify if students understand the District’s $10 million budget shortfall, which affects the number of activities that schools can provide and means more cuts in the future.

Abanico suggested there is a disconnect between available programs and what teenagers actually enjoy, like dancing and music production.

“Union City should provide a youth center with resources that cater to youth in this generation," he said. “We don’t need to see another center with pingpong tables or foosball.”

Among those surveyed, 448 also believe that there should be additional services conducted in different languages.

“Union City has a lot of people who don’t speak or hardly understand English,” said one student in the survey. “People should be given the opportunity to receive help or services in other languages. I know in my family, when someone is speaking Spanish versus English, they tend to express more.”

La Plante said that concerned parents should motivate their children to get involved in the various activities offered at Logan.

“Be it football, band, forensics, color guard or anything else, these groups not only promote accountability, responsibility and togetherness, they actually become their own small learning communities,” La Plante said.