American High: BABS

This one? Yeah. She decided not to do it. Yeah. And I think that he had targeted those people. Okay. And now that's another college, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We know that. We're not the second. Okay. He was on there, but these are the ones who thought that the circle was so that they would be good. So, I think she could do it for that instance. Is she going to be working this afternoon? So, are we ready to go? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Bring them out. So, there's five of them, huh? Yes. This is American High. Excuse me. Yeah. American High Insert for KUAC for Bethel. This is Bethel Alternative Boarding School Tuesday, May 8th. We're going to be interviewing a group of five girls attending the Bethel Alternative Boarding School. Okay. Let's give her a try. See what happens. Yup.

If you can state your name in your age, let's call out your name. My name is Paula Albert. I have to spell everything. P-A-O-L-A-A-L-B-E-R-T. I am 18 years old. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? How long have you been for your family? I am originally from Tenonic, and I've been attending Babs since it opened for three years. What brought you to Babs? I dropped out of school, and I was depressed. I didn't know where to go, what to do, so I came here. Do you think it's been one and two of them? Yeah. Yeah. One. Because I've gained a lot of self-esteem since I've been here, the schools helped me a lot.

The teachers helped me a lot to students. And everybody's there for each other, and that really helps. I get a lot of help from everybody in the school. There's no popularity contest or anything like that. And the teachers aren't picky with, like, who's the best student, and stuff like that. Do you feel that? Do you feel that it's probably the popularity and all of that stuff? Yeah. I think I've been through a whole lot of that. I was basically putting a corner because I was quiet. I was not going.

So yeah, I really think it's a problem in the schools. I think it's just a joke that people are picky with their friends. And it always has a lot to do with how they look, how they act, what they do in school, what they do at home. And it's just the game, I think. Nobody, what do you think it should be about? Yourself, mostly. It shouldn't be about what you do, about where you live, about who you live with, and what should be about yourself. They should look more inside the person than outside the person, I think. Well, is there any questions? If you could say anything to, I guess, other students, or other, is there any advice or anything that you want to cover?

How about somebody specifically who has never heard of that though? But alone Alaska, you know, is there anything that you could tell them in this special or specific about this place? Oh. I don't know. Faithful is where I love for three years, obviously. And I mean, it's not the most wonderful place, because there's always nothing to do. But in Alaska, obviously, you don't live in an igloo. But it's a beautiful place. It's a good place to live. And a lot of teens don't, you know,

they have trouble finding what to do, so they go out and drink and smoke and stuff. But that's not always the case. There's like, you could find things to do, besides going out and drinking and wasting your life, not going to school. I mean, so. You could work for what, you could go to school. You could. What else could you do? Hang out. But then again, I'd say, without drugs and alcohol involved. And there's weekend activities, there's dances, and there's so pretenses and stuff. But yeah, there's more to do than going out and wasting your life. Thank you. I'm going to need to get some.

OK. If you could give us your name, spell it and help you work. Carol Samuelson, C-A-R-O-L, S-A-M-U-E-L-S-O-N, I'm 17. Where are we at? We're at Babs, the, um, but the alternative boarding school. In Bethel, Alaska. And what is the Bethel alternative boarding school? It's all. It's an alternative school for. Could you just start over and say, right now? Yep. The Bethel alternative boarding school is an alternative school where there's, um, no alcohol or drugs are. Allowed here and. It's voluntary and. Um. I don't. We all make the choice to be here.

We don't have to be here like all the other schools. How many students attend here? 30 or 40? Or 20? It's a really low number. Can you describe your daily? Your daily routine? Um. We start school at 930. And there's classes in the morning and then most of us go to work right after lunch or have a class after lunch and then go to work. It does everybody have that same schedule? Not everybody that. Um. I think it's divided into 9th and 10th and 11th and 12th grades. That the 11th and 12th have jobs in the afternoon and the 9th and 10th have jobs in the morning. I work in the Bob's kitchen temporarily while I wait for another job.

I. Well, our cook has limited time every day because if he goes over 14.99 hours a week, he'll lose his retirement money. And. And I. Um. Whatever he doesn't do when he's when he has to leave, I finish it for him. That's. No, I just, um, clean and like. I don't know. Clean up his mess. Clean up after him. And do the, um, watch the towels and the pot holders and all that. Those kind of things. What about other questions?

Okay. Okay. Can you tell me what makes bags different than like the regular high school here? Well, I said earlier that it was a voluntary school. They drug test us for drug or alcohol use. And, um. I don't know what else is different. There's less students. More student and teacher interactions. And. We have jobs. Where do you think he'd be? If you weren't attending bags, where do you think you'd be now? Probably at home sleeping. I wouldn't be at school. Either that or probably trying to do home school.

Careful is there anything else that you want to have her? No. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I have their Fisher, H-E-H-E-R, F-I-S-H-E-R, and I'm 17. Since January last year. Could you start over? I've been attending. I've been attending bags since January of last year. Where were you before that? I was attending the main high school and I tried home schooling and I tried another school in Galena, which I didn't work out for me. The program wasn't, it didn't suit me very well.

And I didn't have many options there and I was away from everything I knew. Yeah, this school has been pretty good for me. You have a lot of options here and there's a lot of good people here that are really wanting you to succeed in helping you. Is that important to you? Yeah. I think that people helping is really key to kids succeeding. Can you describe your feelings? I come to school about nine on the bus. I go to get my first class and then I have an independent study until lunchtime and then I go to work at two o'clock in afternoon. Are you graduating here? I'll be graduating in a couple of months. I have two more classes. What are your hopes and what are your plans? After I finish my classes, I'll probably be going to a college in Oregon this January.

I stopped by though. And I don't know what I'm going to do after that. Just get a degree and I'm not sure what I'm going to do later on in life. Do you have any fears of the future? I'm scared to be moving away from Alaska and just starting over kind of in a way and being around totally different people. It's really nervous. I don't know. This is a really good school. It's a lot of fun.

It's challenging but not over challenging and the teachers push you but they can over push you but they don't do it to wear. It's too much kind of. That didn't make sense but that's all I would say. Okay. All right. We're ready to go. My name is Algawasli, O-L-G-A-W-A-S-S-I-L-L-I-E. I'm 18 years old. I'm from Nanapuchak, originally but then I moved to Napaskyac with my husband. So that's actually another year or year, do you attend or where do you attend? I go to school at Babs. This is my third year. Yeah.

I got married in September and then we started coming back and forth from the village. We come meet. We're here right now until the breakup. I think there's actually another big celebration of coming. I'm going to have a baby in two months. Now, does your husband attend? No, he works. He works at the YKTC. He graduated already. No, from the village. How has that been for you to be married and also to be expecting and be in high school? What's up, Emily? It's really challenging. I got my GED. I just passed it, but then I'm still going for my diploma.

Now, what decision led you to college? I got into drugs and alcohol and that made me very lazy to go to school in my village. Then I kind of dropped out and somebody, my principal, told me about the school. He told me to sit there telling school I wasn't really interested because I was a user. Then I got, I applied, then I got straight. It wasn't easy. We lived in the dorms and we had curfews and we had drug tests.

We had Wednesday groups that helped a lot. What led you to be, to choose to be drug free? Why do you choose that as a lifestyle? Because Babs taught me how it will ruin my life. Nobody ever told me how it affects you in the long term. And they told me what it does in the short term. What do you do after you get your diploma? Maybe my husband or planning to go to college with a baby before he or she goes to school. I know.

No, I wouldn't have been able to get off drugs. Nobody helped me and I didn't care. Babs opened my eyes. Usually in schools, they call you, how come you are not coming to school? Say, I'm sick and they'll believe that. When they call you, they'll ask, will you go to the hospital?

Or how are you sick? They just don't leave you alone. They'll really help you. Not like Babs is nosy or nothing, but it's a nice school. It can help a lot of students. I don't understand that question. For not having rules, I'm scared it's what if I drink or what if I smoke?

I was a cigarette smoker when I came and I'm afraid I'll start all over again. I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm worried that I might start drinking and I might start getting into drugs.

Because I'm at risk. I'm scared. I know it's more tobacco, but I'm still very much addicted to tobacco. I'm not smoking.

I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

I'm scared. I'm scared. I'm scared.

I'm scared. I'm scared.