Let the lady speak . .

As a former girl, it comes as no surprise to me that girls can be vicious, vindictive, spiteful and sneaky. But in my girlhood, we hurled brick-a-brats, not baseball bats.

Sure, there were female playground bullies who threatened to beat you up. But physical violence was not the weapon of choice for teenage girls. It was so much easier and nastier to shun your enemy, ruin her reputation and turn other girls against her than to punch her lights out.

Not anymore. At a recent Montgomery County high school football game, one teen girl stabbed another after an altercation that included punches and a baseball bat. Fifteen-year-old Kanisha Neal died in the fight.

The fight was no isolated incident. Crimes of violence committed by girls are on the increase. According to a national study published in 2000, 10 percent of gang members in the country are girls. What's more, girl gangs are proliferating in our area.

"They're very violent. I mean, very violent. They're always out, looking for fights," says Bridget Miller of the D.C. Youth Gang Task Force.

Adapted from Leslie Milk's column in The Washington Examiner, October 5, 2005.