As gangs target younger members, students told to set example

By Jackie Valley

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 | 6:13 p.m.

The lure of money, the desired respect of others, a sense of family or a perceived safety net could prompt teens to join gangs.

Students at Rancho High School nodded in agreement Tuesday as Clark County’s gang specialist, Jerry Simon, rattled off the list of reasons.

Then he poked holes in each excuse.

“Yesterday, I interviewed a teen gangster in prison,” Simon told the students. “He told me he didn’t want his little brother to end up the same way. That’s why we’re here today — to make sure you help your little brothers and little sisters stay away from gangs.”

The 165 ninth-graders gathered in several classrooms for training designed by the Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force intended to curb gang involvement, particularly among younger teens.

The course is the outgrowth of the task force’s realization that gangs are increasingly recruiting younger members, many of whom rely on examples set by older siblings, Simon said. The task force is an umbrella organization that brings together community and law enforcement agencies to prevent gang activity.

“We’ve just seen a rash of it, like it’s contagious,” Simon said of the spike in younger gang recruits since the end of 2009.

For example, Metro Police arrested a 12-year-old boy with gang ties earlier this month who shot another child’s father when he intervened during a fight.

“A lot of guns are coming into Nevada,” Simon said. “Older gangsters are using the youngsters to move the guns around and sell them.”

Their goal is to avoid jail time by enlisting the help of juveniles, who generally do not face serious sentences for first-time convictions.

It’s these realities Simon and other presenters sought to instill in the minds of the ninth-graders, with hopes they will pass the message to their younger loved ones.

“You can help make that change,” he said. “You can be the educators.”

National research indicates that children and pre-teens heed the advice of their older siblings more often than listening to parents, teachers or police, officials said.

The task force pooled the help of champion martial artists and boxers, police gang unit detectives, ex-gang members and inspirational speakers, among others, to deliver the same message through different approaches to connect with a greater number of teens.

“It’s someone with different backgrounds that’s going to touch these kids,” said Calvin Walker, a detective in the Clark County School District Police Department’s gangs unit.

For some students, that person may have been Simon, who told them he joined a gang as a teen before escaping the vicious cycle and attending college.

As the county’s gang specialist, Simon receives a stack of papers with detailed information about each juvenile arrested for gang- or gun-related charges.

Simon said he attended 14 funerals in 2009 for teens who died as the result of gang involvement despite their parents’ best efforts to get them help.

That’s why he’s not shy about sharing the stark realities of the gang environment in Southern Nevada.

“We have more guns in the hands of juveniles than ever before in the state of Nevada,” he said.

And guns exist within every Clark County school, he added, citing as proof those stacks of juvenile crime reports he receives.

Walker said he’s seen Clark County schools become more violent since he started 30 years ago.

In response, CCSD Police recently hired another detective and officer for the gangs unit, bringing the total to three — a number Walker said is still inadequate for handling the gang-related issues within the school system.

“We have quite a bit of territory to cover,” said Walker, whose typical day includes responding to calls, investigating rumors and addressing graffiti problems.

When he walks through schools, Walker said he’s looking to rid gang-related issues and increase safety.

“You’ve got to start looking out for yourselves and making better decisions,” he told the students.

Tuesday’s program followed a similar training session to educate parents about how to spot and prevent gang activity, said Cristina Oronoz, an English Language Learning specialist at Rancho High School who organized the task force’s visit. Mentor teachers will attend a related training session Thursday.