Girl Scouts hear tough message about effects of gangs, drugs

Kris Hill

Thursday, April 12, 2001 | 9:09 a.m.

A former gang member's message was clear to a group of Girl Scouts at a gang and drug awareness seminar Wednesday.

Gangs and drugs are killing the community, he told them, and in order to stop it, they have to learn to say no to gangs and drugs.

David Hollis, in the "Gang and Drug Awareness Jam," told his young audience that he had survived his gang-banging days in Los Angeles and they, too, could survive living in a tough community.

Hollis, a graduate of UNLV and former football player for the Rebels and Seattle Seahawks, now works for the state. He spends his days helping at-risk youth break out of the patterns of violence of gangs and drugs.

Hollis said he gives talks to young people because he wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for similar programs he attended in his youth.

It was a fun event for the youth, who were welcomed by two teens encouraging them to dance and clap to hip-hop music playing in the theater.

But Hollis made sure he got his message across.

As he told the children sitting in the theater at the West Las Vegas Library about a young man he had worked with a few years ago, some in the audience were chatting quietly with one another.

He got their attention when he told the group the young man, 19-year-old Gregory Johnson, was shot and killed across the street from the library, which is on Lake Mead Boulevard near Martin Luther King Boulevard.

A collective gasp came from the shocked children.

He went on to tell the attentive youngsters that Johnson was a talented rapper who died two weeks before the release of his debut album.

Hollis' friend and former gang rival, Shawn Campbell, joined him onstage. He had been a good student, he said, had played football at UNLV and earned a degree in criminal justice.

"Gang banging doesn't mean you're done," Campbell said.

Campbell said he, too, had been saved by gang awareness programs. He said he wanted to give back by educating young people.

"We don't do this to get compliments from the community," he said. "We do this because we care."

Hollis encouraged the children to take the message back to their neighborhood, to their friends and family, to the gang members and the drug dealers.

"Don't be afraid to tell them," he said.