An explosion of gangs in Harlem has prompted a prominent city educator to put a team of monitors on the streets so students can walk home safely. Harlem Children’s Zone President Geoffrey Canada has deployed “Safety Knights” on a 10-block stretch of upper Fifth Ave., (between 125th and 135th Sts, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. each week), so students in the organization’s after-school programs can walk home without worrying about crossing paths with gang members.
What kind of crazy world do we live in when you get 95 on your geometry Regents, and yet you belong to a gang?
“There are kids in our school who are in gangs,” he said, noting that some of the gangbangers are A students. “What kind of crazy world do we live in when you get 95 on your geometry Regents, and yet you belong to a gang?” he said.
In response to the gangs, Canada created the “corridor of safety” in October for the 200-300 students who walk home between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. each week.
“The day you don’t come back,” said Canada, “[the gangs] think they won.”
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