Three school officials in Bacolod City yesterday said they are determined to stop teenage gangs in their institutions after the shooting spree involving four teenagers Sunday and police reports that fraternities are getting active again.

Irene Malaga, principal of Colegio San Agustin's basic education department, said they are organizing programs to keep their students busy and discourage them from joining fraternities.

Malaga said they've devised activities that will enable the youth to express themselves in more productive ways, which are aimed to engage them in extra-curricular activities.

Malaga also said they have two senior high school students who were involved in fraternities but stopped after consultations with them and their parents.

Bless Togle, school director of AMA Computer College at San Agustin Street , in Bacolod , was not available for an interview yesterday, their security guard said.

Nilda Monge, principal of the Negros Occidental High School , said they acknowledge the existence of gangs in their campus, but are concentrating more on maintaining “small collective measures” for the security of their students.

She said formation of gangs is normal among high school students and that there's no school with no gangs no matter how high its qualities or standards are.

Monge said they are implementing proactive measures like the strict implementation of their ID policy and the locking of unnecessary gates.

Monge also said modern communication makes it hard for them or the parents to monitor students. She was referring to the use of cellphones.

Monge said it is difficult to monitor the activities of their students after they leave the campus.

“My limits are my fences… and this can't be done by just one sector in society. You have other factors (like) the family, the church, and the media,” she said.

Lolita Baylosis, acting principal of Andres Bonifacio Elementary School , meanwhile, said that, aside from an incident where one of their students was mistaken by fraternity members to be their enemy, they have no problems with teenage gangs.

The Bacolod police has vowed to step up activities against teenage gangs, saying it will coordinate with school authorities to stop the recruitment of their students.

On Sunday, six persons, four of them minors, were arrested by the police for their alleged involvement in a shooting spree that injured a peanut vendor at the downtown area.*PP

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