EYES ON THE PRIZE
Students who took nontraditional routes celebrate their hardearned degrees from alternative L.A. Unified high schools
Destin Thompson attended five high schools in two states as his mother traveled in search of work. He started high school in Compton, then moved to Nevada. When his mother lost her job, they wound up back in Los Angeles.
Keeping up with each new school’s demands was hard for Thompson. But finding his way to L.A.’s Patton High School helped. The alternative school allowed him to make up credits and take the classes he needed to finish high school with his peers.
Last week, Thompson was one of hundreds of Los Angeles Unified School District students to graduate from two dozen alternative high schools.
The ceremony at East Los Angeles College included most of the district’s educational options program schools, which serve students who haven’t graduated on time or who need to recover credits or learn on flexible schedules.
Most graduates take nontraditional paths to the finish line.
Jaileene Flores, who rocked a mustache-adorned bow tie and a Ravenclaw-inspired cap, went to three high schools in Texas and L.A. before graduating from Youth Opportunities Unlimited Alternative High School in South L.A.
It’s hard to track credits, make sure they transfer and keep up with lasses when you’re moving a lot, students said. The alternative and continuation schools are more likely to accept credits from other states, and allow students to take more classes in one semester.
Walter Webb and Chandra McPherson sat in the crowd Wednesday watching their son Christopher Webb graduate from Henry David Thoreau Continuation High School in Woodland Hills. They know what a struggle he had.
Christopher, 17, attended three high schools in three different states: Illinois, North Carolina and California. He was home-schooled for two years while his parents were in custody negotiations. Halfway through this school year, while he lived with his father in North Carolina, Christopher realized he would not be able to graduate on time, McPherson said.
So he moved to L.A., where his mom lives, and enrolled in Thoreau, where he finished 12 classes in eight weeks so he could graduate Wednesday.
“He just whipped through them,” working from 8 a.m. until midnight many days, McPherson said. “He was not playing.”
McPherson knows her son did not spend as much time with the materials as students at traditional schools do, and that he might have a lower-quality high school education because of it. But she said her son already has a plan for the future. He’s going on to a two-year college with plans to transfer to a four-year college.
“At some point you’ve just got to say, ‘I’ve just got to get it done,’ ” McPherson said.