Valley Perspective : Alemany Officials Overreacted : School’s treatment of those with ‘crew’ connections unfair

Back when some of us were in high school, a certain useful rule of thumb usually prevailed. Whenever it came down to whether a term of slang had become an accepted part of the English language, or whenever there was a question of whether a word had really acquired a new meaning, many of us heard the following refrain:

Look it up in the dictionary.

Any parent or teacher could always fall back on that for an incontrovertible answer.

Now, Alemany High in Mission Hills, which has either suspended or asked 13 students to quit school due to their involvement in a “dance crew,� has inspired the same test. It seems that the school’s parent/student handbook considers anything called a “crew� a gang and, by association, representative of every negative connotation of that word.

Well, the Webster’s New World Dictionary that The Times sees fit to provide its writers defines “crew� first as “a group of people associating or classed together.� Not one of its definitions for “crew� is negative.

In fact, the first definition of “gang� is “a group of people associated together in some way.� The same is true for words such as “company� (a group gathered for social purposes) and “band� (a group of people joined together for a common purpose.)

Only “gang� includes many negative references, such as criminals, convicts, juvenile delinquents, and the like.

One can argue that those who put together one of the most widely accepted compendiums of American English are a little ponderous, and that “crew� ought to contain more references to gangs or even musical groups.

We think the dictionary teaches a different lesson: that it is dangerous, if not prejudicial to label a person or his actions by the negative impressions associated with one word, such as “crew,� especially when those meanings cannot be found in a standard dictionary.

None of the 13 Alemany students involved with this “dance crew� has been identified as a troublemaker. Not one has been identified as a street gang member, or even as an associate of one. Not one has brought any disfavor to the campus or its students by enticing a visit by unsavory street urchins. Indeed, two of these individuals are honor students, and one sports a 4.2 grade average on a 4.0 grading scale.

Yet, most will be severely scarred by having been asked to leave the school, or face expulsion. The school has overreacted. At the least, it could have first warned the students, and asked that they disband their little troupe. Yes, schools have rules that ought to be followed, but they are also supposed to teach lessons, particularly about fairness. In the case of the latter, the school has missed the boat.

None of the 13 Alemany students involved with this “dance crew� has been identified as a troublemaker.