This paper aims to address cultural education as a method for creating a cooperative learning environment for Latino youth participants of a school-based gang and violence intervention program (GVIP). The data for this paper was collected during a 5-year longitudinal ethnographic research study conducted between 2009-2015 in California. In the spring of 2009 a school-based gang and violence intervention program was adopted by the school district of a town located in the central coast. The charge of the program was to assist with lowering the gang involvement of Latino male youth. This paper will examine how culture was (/is) used in this GVI program to help establish cooperative learning environments to help deter youth from the school-to-prison pipeline.