A Vow To Change Lives

NEA Today, Mar 2006 by Miller, Desiree

Tragedy compelled California teacher Paul White to do even more for his students.

WHEN A STUDENT DIES in a teacher's arms, that educator is changed irreversibly. One day in 2002, after White dismissed students from the alternative high school he teaches at in Canoga Park, California, one of his 17-year-old students was shot in the chest in a drive-by attack. White held and consoled him as he died.

He determined that the one-room West Valley Leadership Academy would become more than a daily holding facility for alternative students. Instead of merely babysitting students sent there because of severe behavioral problems, he would turn them into active participants in their own education-men and women who hungered for achievement.

With school board support, White instituted new discipline measures, such as random drug testing, and banned gang-related clothing and paraphernalia. Monthly meetings with parents became the norm, as did more lessons in the curriculum relevant to students' lives. A typical day now includes lessons on life skills, such as business etiquette and treating people with respect. And every student has White's cell phone number for 24-hour assistance.

His approach is working. More than 80 percent of White's students graduate now. That exceeds the Los Angeles traditional public school average. Part teacher, part counselor and parent, White also sounds a little bit like a revolutionary when he talks about the changes needed to help his students. If the current system of reaching such students isn't working, White says, "it needs to be knocked down and rebuilt."

-DESIREE MILLER