| Why J.T.'s in trouble...
Every weekday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Joseph (J.T.) Torrence has to stay in his grandmother's house. He can't go to the park, he can't lounge around at the Boy's Club, and he can't even hang with his friends. The 15 year-old youth was arrested for playing hooky from school one too many times, and he must begin to pay the price, say the East Palo Alto police. "When you're suspended, you have to be with a parent or in your home," said Officer Mark Dinkins. "It's the last resort if a child gets suspended from the 49ers Academy." The final straw in a whole host of transgressions happened just a few weeks ago when J.T. cussed out his eighth-grade teacher, Damon Horn, and also the 49ers Academy Principal, Carolyn Scott. "I'm not going to let no kid call me or my faculty a m...r or a b....," said Scott. The 49ers Academy is an all-male school for sixth- to eighth-graders who were thrown out of their former schools for being unteachable, disruptive and unmotivated. The academy is an experiment in education which uses trained psychologists, social workers, counselors and teachers to build self esteem in children from disadvantaged homes. The Academy is the last stop for the 12- to 15-year old boys. When a student is suspended from the Academy, he can no longer attend a school within the state of California. "Some kids are going to be open to the program, and some kids can't be open to the program," said Scott, who has had to place seven children on Mandatory Home Study Program that requires a parent or guardian to visit the Academy every morning to get daily lessons. Though J.T. is, by his teachers' estimation, brighter than most kids in the school, his constant violent outbursts were too much for even the Academy to deal with. "He needs to reside here," Scott said. "Lord knows, for that boy to make it here for the last eight months, it took a miracle." J.T. is no longer allowed to go outside during school hours. He must remain in doors and wait for his step-grandfather to bring him his lessons everyday. If he goes outside during school hours, he could be subject to immediate arrest, East Palo Alto police say. "At first they told him he can go to school from 8:30 to 11:30 in the morning," said Edward Grooms, J.T.'s 52-year-old step-grandfather. "But that child acted like a fool so bad that they now want J.T. to stay home for good." And every Saturday, the East Palo Alto police bring J.T. and others who received a ticket for truancy to the community center to listen to lectures in seminars and to watch videotapes. "We have probation officers and people from the community to come in and teach," said Officer Dinkins. "One of our officers teaches a self- esteem class." Staring at the floor, J.T. listened to his 53-year-old grandmother, Jolly Coleman, chastise him for being chronically bad in school. It was his birthday, but his grandmother said, "He ain't gonna get nothing. No money or nothing." She said she took his cassette player and television set out of his room and decided not to give him a pager, as he had hoped, for his birthday. "He ain't got nothing coming," said Coleman. "He's going take a bath, eat and sit down in that room and do that lesson." But J.T. only has one month to go before he graduates from the Academy. So far J.T. has been receiving all Fs in his classes, except in Physical Education. His graduation seems, at this point, questionable. He said he wants to attend Menlo Atherton high school, where many college basketball coaches scout talented ball players. "I want to play in the NBA Basketball championship," said J.T. smiling with a gleam in his brown eyes. "But if that doesn't work I want to have my education to fall back on and become a Computer Analyst." Damon Horn, J.T.'s teacher, said J.T. is his brightest student and perhaps the brightest in the academy. But he has behavioral problems. |
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