Event puts gang violence on display

Canyon Springs High School junior Devonte Christopher's seemingly lifeless body lay on a stretcher, a white sheet draped over him as his blood-covered arms spread out from beneath the sheets and onto the pavement.

Across the street, his mother, Tammy Jernigan, could be seen crying. Her son, an honor student who was entertaining offers from Ivy League schools to play football, had just died in a gang-related drive-by shooting.

Christopher was not dead, he was acting.

But for Jernigan, the simulation was too much. Her tears were real.

"It was so surreal," Jernigan said. "I really felt like I was experiencing the loss of my son. As a mother, I never want to endure anything like that."

Christopher was taking part Monday in a large-scale simulation called SAVE, Students Against Violence Everyday, that was put on by local law enforcement and emergency officials. The event took place across the street from Canyon Springs, where the school's juniors and seniors were shown the consequences of violence.

North Las Vegas and Las Vegas police took part, and officials with the coroner's office and North Las Vegas and Las Vegas fire departments also collaborated.

The scenario displayed Monday began with five Canyon Springs students sitting in a bullet-riddled minivan. The exercise continued when a disoriented girl called 911 -- broadcast over a loudspeaker -- to tell the operator that a student inside the van was shot in the head and that police needed to hurry to the scene.

Police and rescue personnel quickly arrived on the scene. During the exercise, police escorted three "uninjured" students out of the car. The driver was hit by a bullet in the chest in the scenario. He was taken to the hospital while Christopher was put in a body bag and driven away from the crime scene in a hearse. A Las Vegas police helicopter surveyed the scene by air.

Students had different reactions to the exercise.

Jill Berman, a junior, said the simulation was "shockingly real."

"Gang violence happens every day. Drive-bys happen every day," Berman said. "Students are dying for stupid reasons."

Berman and other students said gangs are present at Canyon Springs. The school's principal, Ronan Matthew, acknowledged as much. He said that all Las Vegas high schools have gangs.

"It would be naive to say they don't," Matthew said.

Matthew and police officials said Canyon Springs was a good location for the simulation because of recent criminal activity at the school. During the past two months, three loaded guns have been confiscated there.

But Matthew said his school, just west of Interstate 15 on East Alexander Road and North Fifth Street, is not more prone to violence than other schools.

Elliot Turner, a junior at Canyon Springs, said the simulation was intended to "scare people straight." But he said the exercise did not have that effect on him.

"It didn't look real to me," Turner said. "I've seen worse."