Escape From Failure

Ready. Ready. Five, five, five. Joe O'Parez has not experienced much success in his life. In a recent six-week period, this 16-year-old boy, still in the ninth grade, failed four out of five of his classes. I hear you. I hear you. Everybody helps. But Joel's teachers, counselors, and fellow students don't want Joel to fall through the cracks. They're banding together to save Joel and others like him from a life of failure. Can everybody have their hands on him? Yep. Good to meet you. Good to meet you. Good to meet you. Spotters. Five. Ready. Ready.

Folly. Folly. Oh, my God. Both gathered for this outing in the woods just outside Houston, represented in a new wave in the battle against high school dropouts. Counselors at this retreat called Escape to Reality, are working on building confidence and trust. Ready. Some remaining ingredients for success. Bolly. Oh, my God. It looks very high up. And you think it's going to hurt when you land on their arms. That's what you get you scared. One was that kind of like when you're the first one that has to give a speech in class. Yeah. You don't know what to expect. Yeah, all right. You're doing it. Yeah.

Students who have shown little initiatives or leadership are encouraged to believe in themselves. Good job. Good job. Good job. Black. Who's next? In the past, these students have had little to cheer about. Most of the best back at least once, if not twice. In the next hour, you will see innovative techniques. They go beyond the classroom walls to try and turn around the lives of youngsters who are on the brink of failure. These are students at risk. Risk from problems ranging from a troubled family life to a lack of motivation to succeed. You can do it up. You can do it up. You ain't going to come down here. You ain't going to come down here. You will see prisoners and even judges urge them to stay in school. A lot is at stake. Educators say, if we don't help them make it, the nation will pay the price later from the form of unemployment, increase poverty, and a higher crime rate.

U.S. students must be the first in the world in math and science achievement. From the White House to the State House, a new effort is being mounted to fight the problems created by Dropbox. President Bush told Congress he is committed to improving the nation's high school graduation rate, which has stood at about 70 percent over the past decade. The United States must increase the high school graduation rate to no less than 90 percent. Texas is even more ambitious. The state legislature has passed a bill requiring a 95 percent graduation rate by 1998. That's a dropout rate of just 5 percent. A goal no other state has ever achieved. State education officials say they are cracking down on dropouts because jobs for the uneducated are becoming scarce. Our dropouts back in the 50s and before they would automatically go to our industry, they would go to our agrarian pursuits on the form and ranch.

Why? They didn't need the high-tech skills that are demanded today. When you look at the fact of our being an information agent, the fact that about 50 percent of the workforce today is in information setting. They need some high-tech skills. One school that is tackling the dropout problem head on is Northbrook High School in Houston. Northbrook is part of the suburban spring band school district. Ten years ago, Northbrook had no dropout problems to speak of. Most of the students who attended here were white middle class. But the neighborhood has changed. Single family homes have been replaced by apartments. Many of the families can't speak English. Crime and poverty have increased.

And so has the dropout rate. Northbrook is now facing the same problems as other high schools in Texas. With 30 percent of the freshmen who enter will leave without a diploma. For Hispanic students, the outlook is even bleaker. Almost 50 percent of Hispanics will drop out of Texas school. There's two ways to look at a difficult job. One, we can ring our hands and say, ain't it awful. Look at the problems we have, or two, we can set about changing our bureaucracy to deal with the problems. And that's what we've decided to do in this situation. The task is not easy. Some students come to school pregnant. Some have been rejected by their own families. Others are battling alcohol and drug problems. Admitted, it's difficult. Admitted society sends us different children today in large part over what they sent us 20 years ago. But that's all the more reason why schools need to adjust and adapt and adopt new new practices to provide for the clients.

We can't apply 1960s model to a 1990 problem. Just getting students to behave themselves as tough at any school. When students lack motivation, their behavior can easily get out of control. To capture how students act when outsiders are not there, producer Paul Gager asks for student volunteers to take home videotapes of their classes. David Santos offered to be the chief student photographer. Many of the pictures you have seen and will see were shot by David and his classmates. This is what I can't see. Take the bird out of the camera. Get out of the bird seat. Yeah. Palmer. He's glad to go. He ain't got no girl. What's interview, Miss? I'm going to take a bus. During a class break, the students turn the camera on their teacher.

These are the most beautiful work. The old man earned. They feel respectful, destructive, destructive. They can tell you what. But we're still the best. But, Miss, you still know what's right. Oh, absolutely. 17-year-old Lewis Galvan is struggling to stay in school. He failed four out of five courses during his second six-week period. I was married to everybody. I was married to this girl. Yeah. I was married with my dad. He was married. I was like, you want to come? But his school is not giving up a Lewis. He is one of 90 high-risk students handpicked to be part of the new anti-dropout program that started in the fall of 1990. What we really want to do is to sincerely make a difference in their lives. And we are not writing them off.

These students have that capability. But they must see it for themselves. And we are here to help perhaps expedite that process. We're trying to put the students in a smaller atmosphere. I mean, that's why we didn't think of any real kids in name for our program, but just a school within the school. Four teachers who have alternative schooling. The 1990s approach to fighting dropouts at North Brook High is directed from a cramped office where parents are invited to drop in any time they have any questions. That's waiting you too. The anti-dropout team includes five specially selected teachers, a counselor, a grade-level principal, a secretary, and a coordinator. All practice what is called team teaching and cooperative learning. They meet every day to share information about students on the brink of failure. John's mother decided to stop by. And she carries a lot of baggage with her ex-conboyfriend, drug addict,

et cetera. They're sleeping on the couch. He stays awake and fall asleep because last time they stayed for three weeks, they took his nintendo in his car. They drove up in his car and just beat it, so he's certain big time. John makes it to every other class. He's tardy and then absent. Tardy and then absent. And that's how he spends his day. A recent survey of Texas schools puts poor attendance as the major reason for dropping out of school. Another big problem is lack of discipline. We can't be constantly sent in a class and without some type of consequence. Lewis Galvan has been misbehaving again. Instead of instant detention, something new is being tried. It's a written contract. It will state that what your behavior is and what we're aiming for is good. That's cool. Lewis makes his way through the hallway with his contract in hand. He gets encouragement as he hands his signed agreement to his math teacher.

What did you decide we're going to do? That I was going to do. Look good. What did you do? Are you going to try and live up today? Yeah, I'm going to try and do this. I don't want to feel this place. No more. I don't want you two years. Now I know you can do it. Can you show this to me every day? Lewis took his contract with three other teachers who had good things to say. He improved too much talking, improvement over last year. But Lewis did not survive world geography. His last class of the day. He said things he shouldn't have said and disrupted. And so we removed him from the class. Okay, because I said I'll promise I was going to be able on my class. I didn't. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That was so much. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you very much.

Are you going to see Lewis now? Would you give him back and tell him that? I'm a doctor. This is what the result of our deal about. He calls he broke his contract. Lewis was sent to CDC, the campus discipline center. Some of the teachers in the school within the school say they've become so involved in so many different aspects of their students' lives. They feel sometimes they are substitute parents. And they say some students are even calling it now a home away from home. I feel like I am a mother to these children. I think I'm a mother. I think I'm a psychologist. I think I'm a teacher. I think sometimes I'm a doctor. Here. To help cure some of their students' attendance problems, teachers give up playing money or rate her dollars to every student who shows up on time. They are also rewarded for good behavior and for doing their school work. You came on time today? Oh, you didn't.

You've been. How about I give you one because you're honest. Okay. English teacher Cathy Obrick even uses her own real money to buy small presence for her students who score 100 on her tests. We want these kids to succeed and little things like this fail. Joel Perez will learn a lesson about trust at the retreat. Received his first 105 years. It helps because you get to tell them. You think about it more and then you know that you're going to probably win a prize or something. And what we're going to do is we're going to take a deep breath in. When they went to that motivational retreat in the woods, the teachers tried to increase trust by taking the same risks as their students. Ready to climb? Come on. He's just battered. At one of the exercises, students asked the program's coordinator to scale a 50-foot wall. Right foot miss. Right foot miss. Right foot miss. Good. Good. Keep it up. Keep it up.

You're right. There you go. Right there. Good. Good. Okay, miss. What do you got today? I could have done it without you. One of the closeness developed at this retreat remained with the teachers and students as they return to their school within a school. At a staff meeting, there was concern. Teachers learned that one of the students who seemed to be improving in class was having difficulty at home. His code name could be the solitary man. He goes straight into a nutshell, goes straight home, goes to his room, and closes the door. Mother has a limited conversation with him. And they have... She has more than anyone else. Father has none. She takes his food to him, knocks on the door, hands it to him, he closes the door. And she doesn't see him again till the next morning. I guess everybody has just let him alone, and we're trying to... We're breaking into that shell, and we're breaking into that wall. Hey!

Jordan! But breaking down those barriers that have interfered with learning is not easy. One approach is for the team of teachers to reach a parent of a troubled student through a conference call. It is conduct in your classes before. Well, it's not that it's disruptive, but it's not productive for him at all as far as algebra goes. Is he not even a camping? No. And that won't go on forever, if he... Working parents are encouraged to take time off from their jobs and speak to the teachers as their daily team. Todd Reagan and insurance agent is here to talk about his 15-year-old son, Josh. He came from a small private school, and Tyler, and to go into a big school with a lot of kids from all cancer backgrounds and everything. It was pretty rough on Josh. His mom and I separated and Josh wouldn't his brother stayed with me. And during that time, Josh woke up very despondent. Most particularly with Josh on Fridays are kind of bad days for him, because I guess it's a matter of a question of who will he be staying with for the weekend. He should be making straight days, but at times when things are bothering him, he will make asks what takes he rose.

So we're missing assigned it to... Josh's math teacher tells his father that Josh's trouble completing his work. As far as your concerns about homework, he needs to stop telling you that he doesn't have homework. He has an assignment every day, so you need... That's very obvious. He's keeping track of it every night now. When I come home like every Friday, I have to have a note from all my teachers saying, I've been doing my homework through the weeks. Are you doing here? Half and half. He's keeping homework and being late for class used to be a major problem for Sendria Sims. Sendria lives in a sprawling apartment complex just across the street from Northbrook High School. She says that as soon as she walked inside her home last year, her mother would have her do the dishes and other household chores. When I would sit there and watch the TV or something, my brother wouldn't do anything either, and so I would be like... It was like I was the parent and she was my daughter.

But Sendria says the special program at school has helped her and her mother change their priorities. Now homework comes first. What kind of homework do you have today, Sendria? I have algebra, business, and that's it. There was a time when my attitude was a little bit on the rough side, but things have really changed. Things are looking up, they're looking a lot better for us now, and I have changed too. And I've been with her pushing her 100% really since she's been with this program. It's kind of helped the whole family. Often the parents of students are at work, and there's no one at home when students return from school. Some students spend time in the streets. Some of those in the anti-dropout program say they've learned to do something useful even if no one is home. Sixteen-year-old Juan Perez, who was failing a year ago, and claims to have been in many fistfights, now heads to the home of a friend who has an encyclopedia.

Turning about some birds and what parts of the area do they have it? They're making more fun to want to do your work. So that's what's making me do my homework this year. A pet rally is also an attempt to make school more fun. It's designed to help foster school spirit and a feeling of belonging. Students who are active in school and their parents often attend these rallies. Counselors say this helps their desire to stay in school, but that's not the case for the shadow population of students. Those are the students who stay on the sidelines and are on the edge of dropping out. They drop by the wayside and they don't become a part of any group. School officials hope their close-knit anti-dropout program will fill the void. This gives them a body of students to belong to.

It gives them adults that they can turn to that can talk to them about their problems. When many times at that age, students won't go to their parents to talk. For a young person, you go back for it. Dealing with trouble students creates a lot of stress. Sometimes the stress takes its toll on the teachers. I get home at eight at night and I can run and work out sometimes. Just to burn off the stress. Okay, the beauty. The toll. The attention. When the most is what's going to happen, what's water going to go? What's the new teacher orientation this year? Take it upon yourself, don't blame the parents and blame. That's a lot, especially for me. I'm not that much older than these kids.

And some have problems that I don't know how to deal with. They've got kids and they've got their marriage. I just look at them. What do you want me to do? Sometimes it gets to be too much. I carry a lot of that baggage home with me. I don't like that. I wish I could leave it in the driveway. The teachers sometimes use their free period to participate in some exercises, designed to relieve their attention. Did he go behind your back and turn it over? After re-energizing themselves, the teachers and counselors return to untangling the problems of their students. On this day, they focus on Larry Forteck, who is 17 and still in the ninth grade. Larry works at an arcade after school every day. He says he and his family need the money. But Larry often shows up to school tired. Now, see. The hot food. Not a man show for now.

Not a trouble. You just got to take a insert. The staff of the school within a school decides to put a spotlight on Larry's after school activities. I talked to Larry's father and mother both early part of the week. You know, he's been working until like two, three o'clock in the morning. And his dad said that he would talk to the man that he's working for us, so he could get home at least by eight o'clock, and he's been coming home this week earlier. 1030. The other night of year, nine. 1030, nine. Wait a minute. Will you come home at those times? Do you do any homework? Maybe more time after. The arcade owner says he'll try to be more accommodating to Larry's school needs. I'm making a homework, 10 o'clock, and it's the lady so sad. When I was growing up, we went to bed at 10 o'clock, and we did pretty good. So you realize if you leave your 10, he doesn't have much time for his homework. Right. Sometimes I can't get up in the morning. It's about it. While they don't want students to sacrifice homework for jobs, the staff of the Anti-Dropout program welcomes partnerships with businesses

that give students an incentive to stay in school and to keep up their grades. This warehouse is only a few blocks from Northbrook High School. John McCormick, a former New York City cop and owner of visible changes, has hired two Northbrook students who are on the verge of dropping out. They work in this warehouse two hours a day after school and all day Saturday. But there's a catch. What's our deal? What's our deal? What's our deal? Oh, it's a flat. You know what we've got? It's as long as you pass your work. Hopefully, yeah, we're going back on there. If we didn't have this program, we'd be flunking out again. Not going to school period. Like last year, that's what I did. When these kids, when they're shown just a little support, a little acknowledgement, they explode with what they can do. I've never had two people that don't have to be supervised like these kids. Check. Figure out how to check.

Manual of Choa is not only getting better grades now, but he is a leader of the student council of the school within a school. Tell them something, man. What do you think? Under a Choa's leadership, the student council decides to take a more active role in keeping fellow students from dropping out. They held a so-called trial to try and convince Carter Williams to mend his ways. Carter has failed four out of five courses and gets in many fights. We did a 40% improvement. We would be passing other classes. Do you think any did that, Carter? Just to do the best you can. There are a lot of problems that we face with these students that are not academic. There are some of the reasons that they haven't not had success. We've been trying to address some of those issues, such as problems at home. We're dealing with problems communicating, we're doing a union on conflict resolution. And just trying to basically learn how to deal with people in different situations.

Any kind of situations that they may face that may affect them both socially and academically. Lane on the floor? When all attempts to change behavior have failed, the problem has turned over to Steve Hamley. The great level principle in charge of the drop-out prevention program. Do you call your mother a sickle woman or no woman who's sick in the hand? Do you say that to your mother? She said to her over me all day, she said nobody else. Oh, she sent more than just you did the office, Larry. Hamley often patrols the halls with a walkie-talkie in hand, running from one trouble spot to another. The students have dubbed Hamley the sheriff of North Brook High. Hamley grew up in Cleveland in Chicago, and says in many ways he was no different than the students he's trying to help now. He had went through a lot of similar experiences, you know, cutting class and subordination.

I experienced success academically, as well as other things that I care to keep private. How's it going? What made you turn your life away? I can all go back to freshman year at Mr. Ritchie, an English teacher that just saw one answer in the beginning of the semester. One, probably the only correct answer I gave all year and just wouldn't let me forget about that. And I'm just trying to do the same. But this sheriff who is bilingual does not limit his disciplinary patrols to the school walls. He often ventures beyond the school campus to the homes of the troubled students. As he drives through the changing neighborhoods of his students, Hamley sounds like a man with a mission. Kind of like evangelization if they don't come to the church hall, bring the church to them. Sometimes Hamley is lucky enough to find a parent at home. Often, no one answers the door, but Hamley won't give up. You've got to do whatever it takes.

I'm not the one that invented that one, but I really love by it. You've got to keep on pushing until you find one that works. Often, it's dark before Hamley finds a parent at home. Sometimes Hamley takes along David Santos, the student photographer. On this night, they visit the mother of Jason Wilson, her son, who's on the school basketball team, is in trouble for misbehaving in class. Then with a teenager's intelligence, I know he feels and can be, I don't understand. When he talks to him, maybe he's not going to progress this tonight. I appreciate him. Because he is very capable. He's one of the most capable students in the program. Talk to him. Help him to make some of the right decisions. I'm trying my best. I'm trying my best. And he got mine in his own. He's not a hero. Keep walking. 30 more minutes if the city was alive. Hamley says he hurts inside whenever he can't reach a student or a parent. Frustrated, real frustrated.

Because if this doesn't work for him, I don't know what is. That hurts. For several days now, Hamley has tried to contact the mother of Robert Asavis, who is on the edge of dropping out of school. Well, answer. Asavis has been failing all five of his classes. He often sits silently in class, refusing to do any work. Even at the recent retreat, Asavis sat on the sidelines, all the motivational exercises and talk about cooperation and trust, seem to be falling on deaf ears. Did you get anything out of this? No. Robert was sent home for skipping school, going to class late and refusing to do any work. Still, when he returned five days later, he was greeted like a lost son. Oh, no, no, no. He's going to be dying over that. No, I've been calling and calling.

You know I was going to be calling. He's looking forward to having you back in class. But Robert's return to school was not for long. He was expelled a few weeks later for insubordination and for cursing his math teacher. I want to apply for girl. I think they're trying to help. I guess I didn't let them. Robert Asavis is facing an uncertain future. He is only 16, yet he is the father of two children. He has a two-year-old son who is being cared for by his girlfriend's mother in Arizona. But Robert is also the father of a seven-month-old baby girl, the daughter of his current living girlfriend. The child is now at a daycare center and her mother is in school. With some of his friends who have also left school, Robert goes to the bus stop to wait for his girlfriend and their baby. The baby's mother, Monica Guerrero, is only 16 herself. She says she was hurt when Robert was kicked out of school.

And he ain't going to learn anything here at the house. Back home, Monica lets Robert hold Angelica. They're baby daughter. Monica says the little girl is the main reason she decided to stay in school. I won't be asking for money from nobody. I'll have a good job, give her what I can give her. I think you'll be able to get a better job if you stay in there. I won't be getting paid at minimum wage if I stay in school. Monica says she tried to change Robert's ways. I write him letters because I don't see him now. I leave him letters telling him to stay in school. And his mom tells him, but I guess he doesn't like school. Robert's mother, Dolores, has saved us, dropped out of school herself when she was 15. She divorced Robert's father when Robert was only seven months old. Now she works from early morning to late at night and is rarely at home.

I had to work two jobs most of my life since I quit school. And I had told him and like they always say, the kids only always say, well, you didn't do it, you do this, you didn't do that. So I really can't say much. And that's a come. Most people say that it's the mother and all that, okay. Well, when I had to raise two kids and come home, go to another job and try to keep my eye on them, you know, it's kind of hard. He thinks a good job is just going to come, you know, without going to school, learning. What about that, Robert? Is that true? You think you're just going to get a good job? So what about the responsibility that you have now? You have two kids, right? So how are you going to help raise those two children? Work. But how? If you don't go to school and learn something, you're going to work just like me, two jobs, and you know, we're going to be with the family.

Dolores Asavis says her son should not have cursed his math teacher or refuse to follow instructions, but she says that's not enough reason to expel him. You know what my youngest son said? Oh, now I know how to get out of school when I don't want to go to school. They just come up with better things for the kids to get out of school. He cursed the teacher. I mean, you hear this language everywhere. I mean, why be surprised? You suspend the kid for this. I mean, that should have taken a better action for it. School records show that the cursing incident was the final straw in a series of disruptive activities. I feel bad for him, but we had several sessions together where we sat down and he was planning on leaving school. And there was nothing that we could say, even me working with his peers, planning a budget and showing him how he couldn't make it. Nothing was going to change his mind. He had it all planned. And I think his behavior basically was a result of, it's going to get me there faster. Although Hispanic boys are more likely to drop out than any other group,

they are not the only ones at risk. Those most vulnerable to failure at school, our children whose families have failed him at home. But he was in the seventh grade. John Webster was an honor student getting AIDS. But John says his grades took a nose dive when there was trouble at home. When I was in the middle of junior high, my mother kicked me out and I moved him on my sister. What about your father? Well, I never met her. He left when I was three months old. No, I see him in picture before. Picture, but that's it. I know my grandparents. I just don't know him. You think this is affected you the way you've behaved? Yeah. Oh, that my life. Well, I'm not my dad because I had that on my life. And I used to be in honors classes and I still had a pen. But my mom kicking me out and me to leave him on my sister, that affected me. Deacon John, are great at having those faces. Like, it really doesn't bother me to do no better. That stuff ain't bothering me.

Hey, boy, hey, hey, over my dad boy, we're good. Hey, no, daddy, what you call a pro. When they see they are losing the battle for attention and for learning, the teacher's often improvise and tries something new. As a way to re-motivate her students, the English teacher proposed publishing the school within a school's first newspaper. First of all, we want to start off just asking you a little bit about yourself. This turned into instant reporters searching for scoops. One of the most aggressive teams of reporters was Eric and Nava and Candace Troy. Ready? Go. Go. Go. What? No, I won't. That you did it. The two first learned to trust each other during the escape to reality retreat a month earlier. They became especially close when both dangled from the same suspended boards and depended on each other for assistance. Down the down, Erica. A lot of danger, please. I'm going to stand up.

Hold on. Let's go. Yeah, we're going. OK. OK. Now, the same two girls were teaming up to interview the grade level principal in charge of their anti-dropout program. How do you think the program is doing at this time, this was program? I think it's sort of pretty good. They can always be better. I feel real frustrated with some of the students I feel that we're losing. Following the interview, the students rushed to the computer room to compose their story. The newspaper was a big hit. It even motivated a student who had language problems. Satongvan is the only audience who in the school dinner school program. They have Vietnamese and have a lot of size. It has been living in the US for 11 years already. He has in the program because he failed to pass last year. Also, because he didn't think school was interesting. This year, with this new program, learning is more interesting as school.

Tuesday and in some particular, this is the most work they've done since the beginning of the school year. So you will try almost everything to get them. Absolutely. And this just came out of an accidental brainstorming our fourth period meeting. It's right there. The success of the newspaper inspired other teachers in the program. Donald Miller turned portions of his geography class into a TV quiz show. If this fun way of learning does not cure all the problems, sometimes it seems nothing can keep students from indulging in aggressive behavior against each other. When Larry Foytik and Robert Dilion came to blows in a confrontation similar to this one, their struggle left behind a crack wall. Robert Dilion's father, who works in a nearby fabrication plant, was called in to take his son home. Okay. Well, I'm interested in my son.

I'm interested in what he does. See, bro. I can be out there in a job for one hour. They call me. But Robert Dilion remained a disciplinary problem. And a few weeks after this interview, he was sent to an off-campus detention center. An armed police officer is assigned to patrol Northburg to deal with more serious problems. Dogs are sometimes brought in to search for drugs. And the secretary of the school within a school says one student admitted to her that he is tempted by the law of drugs and money. He said that he really didn't need to be in school that his plans were to sell drugs where he could make a lot of money. Students don't have to go very far away from school to get in trouble. Juvenile officers tell us in this small park, right across the street from Northburg, they've seen evidence of gang activity, and they say they have seen students trying to sell drugs to other students.

16-year-old Ernest Gomez says he's the leader of a gang called Los Suisados. What kind of weapons do you have? Nuzin. Nuzin. And a 38. What? Nuzin. And Uzi submachine ban? Yeah. And a 38 child of a pistol? Yeah. And a 45. And a 45. Despite his gang activity, Ernest says he was beginning to make progress at the school within a school. But all of that was shattered late one night. Ernest says as he and his 15-year-old buddies were drinking beer, he was hit by a shotgun blast. The bully hit me right in the back, in the back. But, you know, it kind of hit me right here in the unknown and busted a vein. So my arm got on now. And it took a vein out of my leg and just put it back. Do you want him to finish school? No. Say. Why do you want him to finish school? What kind of kid is he?

What kind of kid is he? He's happy to be somebody. Northbrook officials say they don't know where Ernest is now. Those who don't finish school are much more likely to end up behind bars, like this 13-year-old boy whose identity is being protected. When did you first start using drugs? When I was 10, I started smoking marijuana and doing a little bit of cold and sniffing. And I got it into it. When were you first suspended from school? When I was in 5th grade, I had, through my pencil, I had one of my teachers. And I was, you can say hi. In 1988, there was, we had some research done, and one of the main problems of the income to detention was school problems. As a psychologist at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center, Jorge Ordonas meets with hundreds of troubled young students.

He says since many children grew up in broken homes with little or no family supervision, more schools must fill in the vacuum, be more tolerant of problem students. So we are never to give up in children. There must be a way to do it. And some teachers are able to do it because they had the personality or they had the tolerance to tolerate some time, a child behavior, and still stay with it. The 13-year-old inmates at his school had no special programs, like North Brooks, to prevent dropouts. Did the teachers pay any attention to you? No, at all. Not really. What did they do to you? They were like, like, annoy me sometimes or just no passing. So were you just like a normal kid? I can't do nothing about it. I, at one time, sat in the same place that you're sitting. Harris County Criminal Judge Ali Al has sentenced

many young people to jail. He was invited to address a gathering of all the at risk students at North Brook. He cares about you. Who cares about you? The most important person that should be you. Should be you. And what you do will be who you are. There's an old thing in Spanish that goes to the image again on us. If they go again at us, you tell me who you're running around with drug dealers, then you're a drug dealer. If you run around with kids that go to school, then you're a person that is seeking an education. After his speech, the judge was pulled aside by two boys who had some questions in Spanish. I wanted to know about the responsibilities of a fatherhood as a young person.

And one of the saddest parts about young families is that they fall into the trap of children raising children. And that creates a situation that almost perpetuates itself. Yeah. Close. Lucinda Torres is 15 and pregnant. She was suspended from the school within a school because she and her boyfriend, Marco Martinez, got in a fight in school. Now both are at home together, but they're eager to return to school. We shouldn't have been fighting like that, especially in school. So there's a punishment, is it working? Keeping you here at home? Yeah, because then I really want to go to school in the past because I don't want to stay in ninth grade again. Even though you're home now, do you feel that the teachers there and the students there still care about you? Yes, I do because, you know, Miss Petru called me up last night,

and she wanted to know how I was doing, you know, if we fix the situation. A few days later, Lucinda and Marco returned to school together. Lucinda said having a baby made the layer education, but she plans to graduate. Now that I'm pregnant, I feel that I really do need the education because, you know, I don't want my kid growing up saying, you know, you didn't finish school, why should I? Lucinda's grades improved, but both she and Marco continue to have problems with attendance. By mid-year, 20 of the 90 students who enrolled in the school within a school had either moved away, dropped out, or been expelled. School administrators say without the special program, more than half of the students would have dropped out by now. To reinforce the desire of those remaining in the program to stay in school, a busload of students was taken on a field trip to the Texas Department of Corrections. They went to the state prison central unit,

just outside Houston. Shortly after the students stepped off the bus, they were given a taste of the harsh realities behind bars. Once inside the prison gates, the students came under the control of inmates. Students were heard inside a prison gym, where they sat in a circle facing the inmates, and made serving time for crimes ranging from murder to theft. Most of the inmates had dropped out themselves. They are part of a program called Operation Outreach, designed to scare students into staying in school. The first inmate to address them was a dropout from Northbrook High School. Certain full of 25 lunches ran by the problem. I've been in this place going on eight years, and I got locked up when I was 18 years old, I don't know how to have a stand here.

Right after three times, no more against their blood, no more damage, all that, I thought I would remade out of it. Part of the session sounded like a revival meeting, but sinners asked to identify themselves. I don't want to see them go through what I had to go through, to get my head screwed on, right? I had to come to the Penitentiary at the Education. Do you know what goes on in here? What goes on in here? A lot of bad stuff goes on in prison. Like, what? What goes on there? You got some of the worst people in the world here in prison. Come to the section already. Homosexuality. Homosexuality. Name some most stuff going here. Fights. Fights? Yeah, what's going there? Where else? Come on, come on with it. Come on! After the type talk, it was time to let the students experience some of the hard labor of prison life. Come on with it. One, two steps. If you step on down in here, come on!

Come on! If you step on down in here. Right here, fat ass! Come on, then! Among those single doubts for special retention was Marco Martinez. Get down here, you're up there! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on, guys! Let's go! Come on, man! Come on, man! Come on, man! Come on, man! Come on, man! Come on, man! Get down! Come on, man! His girlfriend, Lucinda, was excused from the hard labor because she was six months pregnant. We got no room! It made Scott tougher on Marco when words spread that he was temporarily suspended from school for beating his girlfriend. You think you got all that out of your system? Come on up here, man! It doesn't make you a hell of a man when you whip it up there! Don't beat on me! Don't beat on me, man! There ain't no competition with her over there, look at her. And you be on it there. We all go with the students. How's it, babe? Come on, come on! What's going to happen when you put that hurt on me? Lucinda did not seem to mind the raking that her boyfriend received from the inmates.

What do you think this will do to them? Probably changed the way he is. Then we can think a little more. What part of him needs to be changed? It's hard to... Tell us about that. What's wrong with his advocate? Well, he doesn't think straight. He just wants to be the way his friends are. Next time you decide to cut school, remember what we do out here all day long. If I guarantee you, we've got something for your ass down here. Keep that line tight. The field work gave some students blisters. But it also etched a reality for if they could end up, if they dropped out. Has this increased in motivation to stay in? Yeah. You know what? I don't have to work in the field in school. I can't do it. Just make them great. If I learned anything, I learned not to ever get a place like this. Because I know I'm not some bad boy, so I get eaten up in a place like this. I mean, just what they gave me taste of. I don't want them more of that.

I think it's so cool. It might be a lot of myself. One of the few times a student smiled was when the prison gates opened, and it was time to say goodbye. How are you doing now, Robin? Yeah, there's death right there. Despite the scare they got behind bars, at least 15 of the students enrolled in the anti-dropout program, remain on the edge of failure. But rather than dismiss them outright, the staff decides to give the 15 a final chance to help themselves. They're put in what is called the alpha program. We're not willing to sit back and let those students. Those 15 students just be written off. Not even within our own program. If this, we certainly hope it works, but if this doesn't hope, then we'll come up with something else. That's a positive. A positive what? In an effort to improve their discipline, each student is assigned a space near a wall marked by masking tape. It's very much like a prison cell. Except there are no bars.

Students are supposed to do their work silently. The teacher calls one or two students at a time for private tutoring. Now we're getting used. This idea to do some problems now, right? This new beginning was not warmly received by many of the students at Targeted. By kindergarten, first grade, like a baby. What's the name? Yeah, I see. How could you do this show? What are you doing now? What I'm doing now? Yeah, I'm coloring like a baby. I'm telling y'all. I tell them. I never feel all the classes in getting you, because of the hell. One of the students who is getting a final chance to make it as 15-year-old Cecilia Martinez. Cecilia has two older brothers who dropped out of high school. When we first met him, he told us he would like to be a police officer, and he was determined to be the first in his family to graduate from high school. Why do you think it's important for you to finish? So he can be somebody who can grow up, you know? Just have good education.

Have you seen people who dropped out of school? Yeah. What's happened to them? I have nothing good going for them. They're trying to make it, but it's hard for me. How are you doing, Cecilia? Cecilia was failing most of his subjects. He was constantly called to the office for disciplinary problems. Still, his principal saw hope for him. All the kids, you know, it's hard to play favorites or anything, but I really love that kid. And he seems to be making some real positive steps. The principal even made a special trip to Cecilia's home. Make sure he brings it home every day, because if people are in trouble with this too, if I get that sign by you and have me all talk about it. Like he said inside, he is doing better. He is doing better, but he still has to leave it before he starts passing the classes. Negative one. Cecilia said he was making progress. And here they give you more attention to you. They give you more attention. They pay attention to you more. I want to succeed.

I want to show them I can do it. But a few weeks after this interview, Cecilia dropped out of the program. I don't know if the children of the disturbed or their parents are disturbed or the country is disturbed, but I mean, we have a very tough situation. And that's not just us. It's national, I think. The problem with the kids is they don't see past the next two minutes. They don't see past that. So it's very difficult. Sometimes I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall. And I'm not going to stop doing it. As Texas and the nation attempt to meet their goals of reducing dropouts, Principal Steve Hamlin says there must be more special efforts to help students escape from failure. Ever since Nixon, there's been no faith in the government. Church attendance is down, families through divorce rate, family violence, and substance abuse with parents and everything. It's the only institution left standing that socializes or promotes care for the future of our young.

It's the schools. And to be paid to do that is exciting. So if it can't happen in school, I don't know where it's going to happen because the only other institution is the prisons. Getting your brothers and sisters, they finish it. And then that's the reason you need to do it. And then the guys that come after you can say, Richard did it, I can do it. That's what it's all about. You got to lead them to freedom, right? I'm going to come back to say, Richard. Basically, I'm excited and I think that we're going to save a lot of kids that I think we're going to see a lot more. Self-esteem. I'm seeing some of that come from them. So it's not just academic achievement, but some personal characteristics that are being developed by them too. And that's exciting to see from kids who've basically been negative through my life and have dealt with only negative situations and to see them start complementing each other.

It's slow, but it's coming. The other teachers, I don't know. They saw how it was last year and they saw my attitude and they chose just to give up on me. This year, I think these teachers that are in the program are used to that attitude and they're trying harder to break kids out of it. You know, trying to befriend us and trying to just push us on harder. I think that we all have a calling within ourselves to try to make a difference. There is a firm, adamant belief that we can. So I've got to show them and myself that I do want to go to school and I don't want to drop out because I just don't want to be a nobody, you know? I want to finish school and get my education, make something out of myself. I used to do it because I was afraid that my stepdad would hurt me. That's why I didn't really read the grades, but now I just do it because I want to get on that grade and get into 11, 10, 12. The one thing that I would remember the most is passing. That year, you know, I kind of didn't care, you know, because I thought

that I wasn't going to pass, you know? Because, you know, I feel like I was by myself, you know? But now this year, I feel like I am going to pass because the teachers are waiting to, you know? And, you know, they're really caring. They talk to you and everything. Now I don't feel that alone, you know? And I think what we're trying to do is personalize education. You're not a person sitting in the back. We're not going to let you go. We're going to bring you up front and tap that potential that that student has. You going to do that? Not for me, but for you, right? Yeah. I know you've got your little sister here. When I stopped by the house, there's a bunch of little ones at home looking to big brother, right? Yeah. All right. I mean, you're panicking across a bunch of countries and pastel out of danger to see you drop out of high school did they? Yeah. The choice is up to each individual's student to make. It's their decision whether they're going to make it or not. Be fine.

I think it was software. You'll make it. I don't know. You don't know. I don't know. Some of those behind this special effort to keep students from dropping out of school say they haven't won the war yet. They say they can only take one small step at a time, but they say they'll keep taking those steps until, quote, be impossible becomes a possible. I'm Steve Petru reporting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.