Quick: What's the significance of two students sporting baseball caps – one of the Kansas City Royals and the other of the Boston Red Sox?

Answer: A simple rivalry between favorite baseball teams.

Or so you might think. But if neither student is a big sports fan, the Red Sox cap, adorned with a "B," could mean membership in the "Bloods," a street gang. The blue "KC" cap, if accessorized by other blue items and a blue-and-white bandanna, could signify that the student belongs to the "Crips" – the Bloods' fierce rival.

The dress code is just one aspect of gang culture that a group of Lynn, Mass., public schoolteachers studied up on recently during a course called "Gangs 101: Keeping Our Schools Safe."

The pilot program, a collaboration between law enforcement, a state social services agency, and the Lynn Public Schools – gave teachers a close look at the city's numerous street gangs and their potential for violence in schools. "Teachers are usually our first line of defense," says Bob Hogan, an officer in the Lynn Police Department's gang unit. "If we can help them be more aware of what gang culture is like, or why a student might join one, that will greatly help us."

His sentiments echo a recent study by the United States Secret Service, which found that most school shootings are preventable. The agency, along with the Education Department, is holding training sessions this summer on how schools can pay better attention to students' social problems and any behavior – not just gang activity – that may foreshadow violent acts.

The Lynn teachers say the Gangs 101 course had positive results right away.

Nancy Conway, director of the Welcoming Elementary School, says she noticed a second-grader scribbling something. Because she had taken the two-month course, she recognized it as a gang symbol.

"I didn't realize students that young would be interested in gangs," she says, adding that the problem is more noticeable among fifth- and sixth-graders at the alternative school.

Ms. Conway decided to invite one of the gang officers from the course to speak to the boy.

"I think [the boy] was more afraid that people were going to make him get into a gang, since his older brother is in one," she says. "But I know it was relieving for him to know the police would back him up – and I haven't seen him draw any more gang symbols."

She adds that another teacher, who also had a heightened awareness of what students were drawing, confiscated an elaborate map that pinpointed where a gang brawl was to take place over the weekend. The teacher gave the map to the gang unit, which arrived at the scene and prevented the fight from taking place.

During the two-hour classes, teachers also gleaned a firsthand look at weapons seized from Lynn youths on the street.

Machetes, stun guns, brass knuckles, knives, and glass cutters were among items decorating a long table.

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