She's middle aged and has a warm smile and the experience to project confidence in front of a class. Other students sat across the mod, scribbling out equations with paper and pencil while Don McKeon, a veteran detention center teacher, kept tabs. None of them showed any reaction. Guards on the second floor monitored the room from an office overlooking the mod, behind a plate-glass window. While all the students agreed to the conditions of attending school before they arrived, McKeon and Tucker said, there's a wide range of attitudes and abilities.
Some students pay attention, while others slouch in the back, looking sleepy.
Some said they appreciate the chance to get a high school diploma as well as the vocational training and courses in anger management and substance abuse that are an integral part of this school. Cannizzaro said he committed the robberies to pay for a drug habit that he hopes to break through rehabilitation. But I think in the long run it can be successful for certain people, people that really want to change. Aaron Andrus, front, James Stark, Clyde Varvalho and Jeremy McAnulty have time set aside for study. Corbitt said he essentially gave up on school by seventh grade but now expects to earn a diploma.