Attempts to create a safe environment at many inner city high schools tend to separate students, who are largely black, working class, and poor, into criminal and noncriminal categories, creating a labeling system that denies complex individuality. Demonstrates how teens reaffirmed and subverted harmless/dangerous labels by disguising themselves and creating personas using clothing, graffiti, and poetry. Analyzes how poetry becomes a means to explore individual interests and fears. (SM)