Former Gang Members Give Students A Hard Lesson About Life

LA QUINTA – He is known as Pastor Jesse. But, this clean-cut, sharp-dressed man once was a notorious gang member known as “Zombie.” In fact, he helped create one of the oldest gangs in Desert Hot Springs that is still active today.

“I have a lot of regrets,” he says. “I wishI never did it. I wish it never happened.”

Turning his back on gangs and drugs, Pastor Jesse now focuses his energy on saving others who want out and preventing those from getting in.

“Isee a lot of kids. The reason they get into gangs is because they think it’s fun. But as the years pass by, it gets serious.”

Pastor Jesse is just one of a half dozen former gang members who are touring schools in the Coachella Valley. On Wednesday, they visited La Quinta Middle School. Their speaking engagements are part of an inaugural, collaborative effort with the Riverside County Gang Task Force.

Alot of tough stories to hear, but it is making an impact on some students.

“Idon’t want to ruin my life,” says Austin Spencer, a seventh-grade student. “I want to grow up and have a family and have a good life.”

All of these former gang members are speaking voluntarily.Most of them have spent time in jail, but not all of them are men.

Jeanette Jaime was in a gang out of Long Beach, California. She says she was shot and paralyzed when she was 17 years old, and she still remained a gangbanger for six more years.

“When you’re born in it, it just feels like it’s a part of you…a part of your family,” she says. “You don’t know anything different.”

These students have 45 minutes to an hour to hear these gripping stories. But hopefully, what they learn is to make the right choices because as Jeanette Jaime says: Their choices of today will affect their tomorrow.