You gotta keep 'em separated

Like the latest fashion
Like a spreading disease
The kids are strappin' on their way to the classroom
Getting weapons with the greatest of ease

The gangs stake their own campus locales
And if they catch you slippin', then it's all over, pal
If one guy's colors' and the other's don't mix
They're gonna bash it up, bash it up, bash it up, bash it up

Hey!
Man, you talkin' back to me?
(Take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey!
Man, you disrespecting me?
(Take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey, don't pay no mind
If you're under eighteen, you won't be doing any time
Hey
Come out and play

By the time you hear the siren
It's already too late
One goes to the morgue and the other to jail
One guy's wasted and the other's a waste
It goes down the same as the thousand before
No one's getting smarter, no one's learning the score
Your never-ending spree of death and violence and hate
Is gonna tie your own rope, tie your own rope, tie your own

Hey!
Man, you disrespecting me?
(Take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey!
Man, you talkin' back to me?
(Take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey, don't pay no mind
If you're under eighteen, you won't be doing any time
Hey
Come out and play

It goes down the same as the thousand before
No one's getting smarter, no one's learning the score
Your never-ending spree of death and violence and hate
Is gonna tie your own rope, tie your own rope, tie your own

Hey!
Man, you talkin' back to me?
(Take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey!
Man, you disrespecting me?
(Take him out)
You gotta keep 'em separated
Hey, don't pay no mind
If you're under eighteen, you won't be doing any time
Hey
Come out and play