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Adam
“To be honest, it wasn’t pretty much the school – it was me.”
Adam (not his real name), says he was put out of Gratz High School a year ago January for bad behavior, just after he turned 17. In July and again in January, he spoke to Notebook intern Samantha Adler.
When I was at Simon Gratz I wasn’t learning nothing. I stayed in trouble. I was getting suspended every time.... Gratz really wasn’t doing nothing for me. It was just holding me back. But when I left Gratz, I did a couple different schools here and there.
I didn’t get my first pink slip until I was about in the 11th grade. One day I came to school, I was in the hallway, arguing with one of the staff members. And he suspended me. Then I was getting suspended, like that.
The District referred him to Community Education Partners, one of its discipline schools. He didn’t go.
My mom wouldn’t sign the paper for going to CEP. She was like, “For what? It’s your [school’s] fault that you are staying in trouble”, but then she realized that it was my fault.... But she still never signed the CEP papers.
To be honest, it wasn’t pretty much the school – it was me.... Most people say it was the schools, they stay in trouble and they blame the schools, but it isn’t. It is you in trouble for real – not the schools.
So basically it was my going to school, doing what I wanted, got suspended, came home with another pink slip. That’s what the situation is.
At the same time, he said that he realized that something about the schools wasn’t quite right.
They seem to get all this money in gear, but don’t no schools really have books. They use the same books every year. I could be a senior with a ninth grade math book. I mean, come on now. How am I supposed to know the senior math then if I got a ninth grade math book or a ninth grade reading book, whatever subject it is? .... It did not really make me mad. I forced myself to believe that the city is doing other things with their money.
He was sent to truancy court, and at first thought the judge was harsh on him. But the court referred him to Youth Empowerment Services Truancy Recovery Intervention Project (YES TRIP). There, he is working on his GED. He also participated in Digital Media Training, another program for unemployed low-income 17- to 21-year-olds run through YES.
Well, I got involved in this program through the truancy court. I went to truancy court, and the case manager was referred here. I wasn’t too sure. Then they came out to the house.
[Later] I realized [the judge] did give me a chance, I just wasn't trying to do nothing about it.... For me the bad led to something good. It was bad I was in the whole truancy process, but now it's good, I'm here, I'm focused, I'm getting ready to get my GED.