LYNN – For 43 years Marguerite Puleo has lived in her Chatham Street cottage, a “doll house” as she describes it. But the last three years have become so frightening, so violent and dangerous because of gang activity; she says her neighbors are too frightened to turn the lights off when they go to sleep.Puleo’s property abuts the Ingalls Elementary School, which features a large paved surface in front, and a garden in the rear. The garden was originally set up three years ago by the Project Bread charity as a resource for students, but it is local gang members who have taken over the lightly secured area.The gang members are now wreaking such havoc in the neighborhood that Puleo is faced with constant harassment, along with the cost of replacing 11 broken windows in her house.She says they have vandalized her vehicle so many times that her insurance has been cancelled twice, after she filed for a total of $1,023 in repairs. Now she is asking the city to pay that cost, and demanding the garden, which neighbors never approved, be closed.”The place is so large, it isn’t a garden, it is a farm,” she told the School Committee Thursday night. “It has everything, the Crips, the Bloods, Asian Street gangs, they all like to meet at the Ingalls. There are no gates, there are two lights and they are in the garden day and night.”Over the years Puleo has tried everything to alleviate the gang problem, but says her complaints fall on deaf ears and retaliatory vandalism has scared off everyone else in the neighborhood from getting involved.Police respond to her calls, but she says as soon as the cruisers leave the gang members come right back, often times more irritated and more violent, taking out their aggression on the homes and vehicles in the neighborhood.One night a custodian at the school told the gang members to leave, only to see them return and smash out the windows of his van. That was the last time the custodian was willing to help.In a statement made to the School Committee, Puleo outlined a series of meetings and phone calls with members of Project Bread and the police department, which she says usually infuriate her to the point of slamming down the phone.Police told Puleo the garden is on school property, the school department says the issues are a police matter and the responsibility of Project Bread, effectively leaving the neighborhood helpless in their fight against these gangs.In a 2006 letter from Custodian and Maintenance Supervisor Lawrence M. Murray, Puleo was informed that the only solution is to request more frequent police patrol, and contact Project Bread to alleviate the vandalism and gang issues.”I appreciate your concerns for our property and I am sorry that you are subjected to harassment and vandalism due to your actions, and I would not want to discourage your attempts to resolve the problems at Ingalls,” the letter states. “But there is nothing further I can do to assist you, but to bring your plight to the attention of the police department.”School Committee members expressed concern for the neighborhood, and vowed Thursday that Puleo has finally come to the right place to have this problem resolved. The committee unanimously voted to hold a Building and Grounds Subcommittee meeting with residents of the neighborhood and Project Bread associates to discuss the possibility of disbanding the effort and returning soil to that portion of the school yard.”What started out as a good thing for the students has clearly gotten out of hand,” said Subcommittee chair John Ford. “I think we owe the neighbors some protection. I would like to discuss the possibility of disbanding the garden.”Puleo, although frustrated with the lack of a solution Thursday, vowed to continue representing her neighbors, and to continue to pursue the city for the full cost of the vandalism to her home and vehicle.”Those kids should have the school back the way that it belongs,” she said. “It is a living hell when the warm weather comes. But