please help me save a child...

What is the name of your state? Florida

i'm living in florida and my niece is in new jersey. she lives with her mother who has custody of her. during her recent visit, she told my mother and me some things that has been going on where she lives and she begged us not to send her back there. she stated that both her mother and father, my brother, is and has been aware of the situation, but hasn't attempted to do anything about it.

the situation is that my niece, who is now 15, has been being followed by a gang in the area where she lives, for over 2 years now for her "recruitment". they follow her in a black car and has "thrown their colors" at her as a sign of them wanting her to join. she states that she has basically try to stay away from them and with groups of people to keep herself safe. she says that her parents only told her to not worry about them and not to be afraid.

well, she to start high school very soon and while she was here, she had shown us that she is completely terrified of the situation. she says that they are going to get her, that she won't survive if she goes back and doesn't join them. she says that she can't get away from them now because some of the members of this gang are in the high school that she is to attend. she has to walk home alone because of her friends and siblings being at different schools. and her mother isn't home when she gets in and is supposed to be starting a position which will leave her children at home all afternoon and night. her parents work in NY so they don't have easy access to her if she needs them. she's basically alone, which doesn't hellp the situation at all.

she begged her parents to let her stay here, and we, my mother and i, have done the same. her father told us that it would be ok with him, but her mother has to give her approval. well, she begged and begged and her mother first told her that she could, but at the last minute, 1 day before she was supposed to leave here, told her she couldn't. we talked to her father and he extended her stay a week so that he could talk to my nieces' mother. and again, she refused. she basically laughed at her daughter and told her not to be scared. i kept trying to tell my brother, because her mother would never return or make herself available for a call, that he needs to do something about this. but they didn't and we had to let this child leave the place she felt safe.

i have never in my life seen my niece upset like this, and i nor her grandmother, have never seen her cry. she's not that kind of child. and granted, i may not have lived around her, but my mother has before moving here, so my mother knows she is not making this up, and it has been verified that her parents do know about this gang. this child is literally going out of her mind with worry.

upon going back, she has been staying with her father, until school starts. when she got back, her mother told her that she could've stayed with us, but won't let us come for her. she is still telling her parents that she wants to come back here, that she is afraid, and that the only way for her to make it there is if she joins that gang, which she does not want to do. but under fear, and in a child's mind, what else are they to think especially when her parents won't listen to her or us.

she recently told my mother that she had some money and that she was going to run away. she said she can get the bus back here, but she is not going home. they are waiting for her. she's still crying and is extremely upset and i have to help her.

i didn't want to just keep her here, or didn't no if i could legally since i and her parents are aware for the unsafe situation she's in, but they aren't taking any actions to do anything other than to say, "aww, she'll be alright", ot "we're going to just wait and see what happens". what to see what?? i can't believe they are actually willing to take with child's safety for granted. and if she goes back there and refuses to join them, (becasue they are waiting for an answer from her), what will they do it they hurt her? won't that be too late when you can fix a situation now??

i need to know what to do. i don't want to see my niece hurt by these people. i don't want her sitting worrying herself about this the way she is because her parents are too ignorant to listen to their child. i need to know what i can do and how i cna get her back here without taking her or going against the law?? there has to be something that i can do. i have 2 kids of my own and have raised them on my own to be respectable young adults. there is nothing or noone that could make me "just wait and see" when it comes to my children. as a parent you're supposed to take all precautions and any steps necessary to maintain the safety of a child. i have to do this, and i don't have much time left.

please help me!! i am desperate and i don't want to lose my niece to either being beat or killed or not joining, or beat or killed if she does. is there something, anything that i can do??