By Angela Mack,
Staff Writer
Star News Online
Wilmington, NC
Darius Green used to dream about joining a gang.
Mesmerized by music videos glamorizing robberies, drugs and violence, the then 8-year-old became fascinated with one day claiming membership himself.
The sight of drug dealers with wads of cash and flashy rides around his east Wilmington neighborhood only fueled the infatuation.
That was six years ago. Now 14, Darius has decided the gang lifestyle isn't for him.
"I don't see the point in them," Darius said. "If you not trying to get in trouble, why be in a gang?"
Overcoming the temptation, however, can be tough for many inner-city kids and those living in rural areas where trouble is often the most attractive after-school activity available. But whether they associate with gang members, know who they are or have yet to come in contact with one, most students agree that gangs are a path to destruction.
"I know a lot of people in gangs," Darius said, adding that Crips and Bloods are the most popular groups around Wilmington.
For Darius, becoming a gang member is not an option. He has five younger brothers and a younger sister who look up to him.
But more than a year ago, his mom enrolled him into the New Hanover County Juvenile Day Treatment Center after he began getting in trouble at school for skipping eighth-grade science and social studies classes at Noble Middle School.
Now the prospect of graduation, girls and sports motivate the 5-foot-8-inch teen to make it to high school this fall and stay enrolled. Daydreams of becoming a gang member have been replaced with goals of catching passes and making touchdowns in the NFL.
Fifteen-year-old Derek Reese, a freshman at North Brunswick High School in Leland, also has aspirations to become a star athlete.
The Brunswick County native wants to play in the NBA, and he practices by playing center and forward on the school's junior varsity basketball squad.
"I think I have a bright future ahead of me," Derek said. "Why mess that up?"
Still, he doesn't hesitate to say he knows gang members walk the halls of his school.
"You see the flags and the signs being thrown up," he said.
Bloods and Folks are the two gangs represented at North Brunswick by boys and girls, some of whom recently moved to the school from Wilmington's Northside, Eastside and the Bottom neighborhoods, Derek said. In science class, he said, discussions among students often turns to the weekend's gang member initiations.
"It sort of gets kids off topic," he said. "They're just talking out loud about it. Teachers listen to it. They try to figure out what's going on to tell other teachers."
Student leaders at Trask High School in Rocky Point don't believe the school has any true gang members.
"People say that there's gangs here, but I really don't see it," said senior Foster Lee, 17, president of the school's student advisory council.
Miranda Cloninger, 18, also a Trask senior, said she'd be "very stunned" to be approached by a gang member at school and probably wouldn't know how to respond.
"I don't know if it's for real," she said, adding that those claiming gang affiliation at the school are probably imitators. "I don't think they're real."
Jamell Culler, a 16-year-old sophomore at North Brunswick High School, believes his involvement in the school's Student Government Association and status as sophomore class president shield him from gang threats. But the knowledge that gangs are close does make him think.
"I'm just like, 'Why?'●" he says he often asks himself. "What's the benefit of being involved in gang activity?"
Jamell and Derek say they see no advantage to joining a gang.
"He would never be in a gang. He's mentally tough," Culler said of Derek as the two sat together at a table.
Derek pointed at Jamell with a boyish grin, saying confidently, "He could be the first black president."
Angela Mack: 343-2009
angie.mack@starnewsonline.com
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