Fairfax County is expanding its after-school program at middle schools beginning Wednesday in an effort to curb gang involvement.
Eight schools will see their after-school programs increase from three to five days per week as part of an effort by the county’s Department of Community and Recreation Services.
The expansion will cost an estimated $3.5 million. By the start of the 2006-07 academic year, five-day-a-week after-school programs are expected to be up and running in all 26 county middle schools.
The move “is critical to the Board of Supervisors’ ongoing efforts to prevent our children from joining gangs,” said Board Chairman Gerald Connolly. “Providing young people, especially middle-school students, with constructive, safe activities reduces the opportunities for gang recruitment.”
Studies have shown that young children are most vulnerable from the time they leave school to when parents arrive home.
“When the school bell rings, the anxiety of parents often just begins,” said Carol Robinson, principal of Luther Jackson Middle School on Gallows Road in Falls Church. “They worry about whether their children are safe and whether they are susceptible to youth violence and gang activity, alcohol, tobacco and drug use and crime.”
County School Board Chairman Ilryong Moon said that though fighting gang involvement is important, after-school programs have additional benefits.
Expanded after-school programs starting Wednesday:
» Jackson
» Glasgow
» Herndon
» Key
» Lake Braddock
» Liberty
» Poe
» South County
By the end of the school year:
» Whitman
» Kilmer
» Thoreau
» Longfellow
