Co-workers rally for cancer-stricken advocate for troubled youths

Her friends at the juvenile division of the Clark County public defender's office have long been impressed with Nikki Krieger.

And why not? They say she was born to do what some consider the toughest job in the juvenile justice system. Krieger, 30, is a social worker. She spends all day with delinquent young people.

A few of the kids are there for breaking windows and tagging property, but they're extras from "Happy Days" compared with the many darkly troubled young people in the system these days. There are plenty from homes that have been broken for generations; many have been raised in poverty by grandparents, cousins, neighbors or the street itself.

Whether caught with guns, stuck in gangs, drug-addicted or mentally ill, troubled juveniles have found their way to Krieger's door. Her friends say she's fought for every one of them.

"She goes out of her way to find kids placement and find them services," Deputy Public Defender Kerri Maxey says. "She makes sure our kids in Clark County are taken care of when their families have let them down. She makes sure we don't let them down."

You might call Nikki Krieger a true believer. Of course, a more cynical person, and some Marines, wouldn't last a week in her job.

"You have to be able to care about the people that don't have people caring about them," Maxey says. "We're dealing with the type of kids that society doesn't want to deal with anymore. They would just rather lock them up. But they have to know there is hope. We can change these kids. As long as you give them hope, then they have hope for themselves."

It's not easy, of course. The deck is stacked a mile high against those children. But that's what makes Krieger and others like her so amazing. There's something about her spirit and her optimism that bolsters those around her.

Her friends at the office have been missing Nikki Krieger lately. Unfortunately, she can't go to work.

Her cancer has returned.

Less than a decade ago, Krieger defeated cancer of the spine. It was enough trouble for a lifetime, but life doesn't work that way.

When the cancer returned, this time in her brain, her friends had the wind knocked out of them. The young woman had to take a leave of absence to devote her energy to fighting cancer at the Scripps medical center in San Diego.

"She has been the strongest person I've ever known in handling this disease," Maxey says. "I think she's had more strength than the people around her. She has the best sense of humor, and she's taking it with such levity, and I think that that's what is getting her through this."

Deputy Public Defender Karen Brasier calls Krieger, "as positive and cheerful a person as can be found anywhere." But Krieger's departure from the daily battle inside the Clark County juvenile court system left her friends in the public defender's office at a loss for ways to help her. They had donated sick time, but Krieger's long-term condition exhausted not only her leave time but her insurance as well.

That's when Brasier and Maxey and colleagues James Robison and Joe Suarez came up with a plan to "save or shave" their hair to raise money to offset Krieger's expenses. Donations will go into the "save" or "shave" category. They'll collect donations from co-workers and the public until Nov. 20, when they'll assemble for a ceremony in the atrium of the Juvenile Services Administration Building.

"If 'shave' wins, we have a hairdresser ready to shave our heads," Brasier tells me. "Either way, Nikki gets the money to help defer her expenses."

She has been fighting for young people for years.

Now her friends are in her corner for the fight of her life.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.