Pubdate: Fri, 19 May 2006 Source: Times Union (Albany, NY) Copyright: 2006 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation Contact: http://www.timesunion.com/forms/emaileditor.asp Website: http://www.timesunion.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452 Author: Kenneth Aaron, Staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) DON'T COUNT THESE STUDENTS OUT YET Teachers Hold Out Hope For Unruly Albany Teens In Alternative Program ALBANY -- There are no happy endings, yet, for the Albany High School students studying at an alternative program at the University at Albany. But they also know well that many outsiders have already concluded they're failures. That they're tagged as "unruly students." And that Assemblyman Peter Rivera, a Bronx Democrat, wrote a letter to the editor of this paper to decry UAlbany's effort as offering little more than "false promises." That note is hanging in their makeshift classroom, a space in the basement of UAlbany's science library tucked next to the stacks, cordoned off with filing cabinets and easels. It's been a rough year for the school district, which has suffered through a string of fights, arrests and other violence; the UAlbany program was approved in the aftermath of some of those incidents, as a last-ditch effort to offer a different kind of learning experience for about a dozen hand-picked students. So Tuesday, when a UAlbany police officer subdued one of those teens with a stun gun during gym class, it was just another excuse to write them off. Over the past month, the Times Union has spent several hours in that class, and talked with many students, teachers and administrators involved with it. Sometimes, the students manage to live down to those low expectations. But they struggle mightily to overcome them, as well. On one bulletin board -- near a copy of the Rivera letter -- the students have put their own hopes on paper. "My mission will be accomplished by the end of this program and that is to show that I'm really smarter than everyone thinks I am," one teen wrote. "I believe that everyone is smart, even though it might take some kids a little longer to learn something," wrote Kayla West. West, 16, wants to be an obstetrician. She was grateful for the program, she said, to get "a second chance." Some of the students didn't want to be identified by name because they didn't want friends or family to know they were in an alternative program. Some had moved past that. "People (are) going to say what they say," said Javon Campbell, a 10th-grader trying to get a shot in the music business. "We got kicked out. But not for being bad." Frank Wiley, chief of UAlbany's police department, addressed the students one morning last month and exhorted them to raise their own expectations of themselves. Some paid attention. One was writing on his hand. "You've got to want to," said Wiley, who wore a four-button gray suit with a neatly folded pocket square. "Wanting to is very important." Several are there for having lousy attendance, coming late or not at all. Others had behavioral problems. Their grades need work; the ostensible goal of the program is to prepare them for Regents exams. Stupid or unteachable, they're not. "They definitely weren't what I was expecting," said John Deer, a teacher in the program. "Much, much brighter. A lot of fun." And a handful. They can turn on a dime in class. One minute, one is daring a teacher to toss him out. The next, the same student could be charming, funny, listening attentively as a representative from a local credit union discusses money management. James Anderson, UAlbany's vice president of student success, pays daily visits to the classroom. UAlbany has taken a special interest in the school district, and extended its resources so it can invest in the community. Anderson has taken a special interest, too -- "they're my children," he said Monday morning -- partly because he knows what it's like. Anderson, born to a college student, was left in the hospital by his mother. He never knew his father. The woman who took him home died when he was 6 -- leaving him in the care of an alcoholic daughter. But his real rearers, he said, were the nuns at his Catholic school, "the prostitutes in the neighborhood who adopted me as the son they never had," and some gang members. "I see myself in them," he said. "Just as people didn't forsake me, I didn't forsake them." Tina Soares, assistant coordinator of undergraduate field education and the wife of Albany County District Attorney David Soares, was at the heart of Tuesday's confrontation. On Wednesday, she was back in class and circumspect. It wasn't personal, she knew. She was just a convenient target. "I still believe in them. They're smart, talented kids. And many of them will make it. I hope all of them make it." Deer, the teacher, often wonders what good is coming out of the class. "I go home at night saying, 'Are we really making any progress?' " Deer asked. And he comes to class the next day. And the students show up. And he knows. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman