CONNEAUT LAKE — More than 100 people crowded into Conneaut Lake’s Fifth Street Presbyterian Church Wednesday night to listen, learn and participate in a townhall-style meeting about rumors circulating about gang-type violence happening in the borough.

“Children are being approached and told that they can either join by getting ‘beat-in’ or they will be harassed on a daily basis,” Rita Damratoski, a co-organizer for the meeting said. “This is all new to us and that’s why we wanted the community to band together on this!”

Damratoski and her husband, Mark, are both residents of Conneaut Lake. Both said they decided to assemble the meeting after one of their sons narrowly escaped getting beat-up by a group of unruly teenagers.

“We’re not sure why they are doing it, but we’re concerned that these kids are running around beating up other kids in the community,” Mark Damratoski said. “What worries me is that, unlike when we were growing up, these kids have absolutely no respect for adults — not even their own parents can control them.”

When the Damratoskis approached the group of kids, Mark said the young people began picking up rocks and some were spitting on the couple.

“We’re frustrated,” Mark said. “After reporting the incident to Pennsylvania State Police we were told that they couldn’t do anything because it was our word against theirs.”

That’s when they decided to call a meeting and invite the community.

“Everyone knows these kids who are running around calling themselves ‘Crips’ aren’t really part of their gang,” he said. “But the kids of the community are still worried about getting beat up anyway.”

After speaking with friends, neighbors and other parents whose kids have allegedly been objects of abuse, the Damratoskis said they knew they had touched on a sore spot in the community.

“After the PSP discouraged us from filing a report, I decided that it was pointless to contact Conneaut Lake Regional Police Department,” he said. “They’ve been doing a wonderful job dispersing the groups when they see them, but it doesn’t last for long. They’ve got cell phones and so they just regroup.”

According to Chief Todd Pfeifer of Conneaut Lake Regional Police Department, they’ve known about the groups of kids for quite some time and have been “working surreptitiously to deal with them,” he told the group.

“With the little money we have to spend, we’re doing a lot,” he said. “I cannot tell you everything that we’re doing or else I’d have to quit and then let them run this town!”

Pfeifer said he is working with a forensic officer from PSP who is showing him more high-tech ways of gathering information on the growing list of kids who have already been implicated in hoodlum-type behavior in the borough.

“We’ve already got a list of 30 kids and that continues to grow,” he said. “But after the fight broke out in front of the Pizza Hut (in the borough) Sunday night, we’ve had to really take a more aggressive stance.”

During the meeting, several people spoke out against the recent decision to shut down the community’s Sunday night teen dances.