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Education is last hope behind bars

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By RAY REYES

rreyes@tampatrib.com

Published: October 25, 2009

TAMPA - In a locked classroom at Orient Road Jail, school-age inmates discussed what qualities define a hero.

"It's a person who fights crime," one teen said. "Like the police."

Another raised his hand and answered, "A person who'll save someone."

The Hillsborough County school district's Youth Services program is the young offenders' last chance to save themselves from a life of crime, say teachers and administrators.

"I always considered this the last hope for their salvation, their hopes and education," the program's assistant principal, Dean Byers, said.

Under state law, school-age children must receive an education. The school district's program serves students denied bail, awaiting trial or sentenced to jail.

Diemante Roberts, 15, one of four former Walker Middle School students accused of sexually assaulting a classmate with a hockey stick and broomstick, is in the program.

So is Kendrick Morris, 18, accused of raping and beating a girl outside Bloomingdale Regional Library in April 2008. Bail was denied for Roberts and Morris.

The uniform for this classroom is a bright orange jumpsuit and sandals. Students sit in small groups. There is no perfect attendance because students may be in court or in a meeting with an attorney.

From July to September, 50 youngsters were taking classes in jail. The youngest was in fourth grade, Youth Services Principal Maria Teluda said.

The program has nine other sites, including Falkenburg Road Jail and juvenile detention centers.

"We're basically running a one-room schoolhouse," teacher Sylvia Albritton said. "You're not just teaching one class. You're trying to teach multiple grade levels. It's a challenge."

Bail brings other options
Juvenile inmates who make bail have other options: home schooling, enrolling in a private school, transferring to another school or attending an alternative school.

Lee Myers, 14, another defendant in the Walker Middle School case, had other choices to continue his education. Myers was accepted at Jesuit High School in August but withdrew after some parents expressed concern to the private school's administrators about his enrollment.

Because of confidentiality laws, school officials won't discuss how Myers and the other teen defendants in the case, Randall Moye and Raymond Price-Murray, are continuing their educations.

Myers and Price-Murray wear court-ordered GPS tracking devices. All four defendants have a disposition hearing Tuesday morning.

Students not charged with crimes but who have committed major violations such as bullying, sexual battery or possession of weapons or drugs face up to 10 days of out-of-school suspension. A hearing is held to decide how coursework will be completed.

Students with a pattern of disruptive behavior are sent to one of three alternative schools for at least a year. Alternative schools are more structured, and students wear colored uniforms that distinguish grade level, said Walt Shaffner, the school district's director of nontraditional programs.

The curriculum in alternative schools and in the juvenile inmate program is similar to mainstream schools.

About 50 teachers in Youth Services travel to classrooms in the detention centers and in the Orient Road and Falkenburg Road jails, Teluda said. Teachers conduct one-on-one sessions in the cells with inmates in isolation, such as Morris.

Stronger resistance in jail

At Orient Road Jail, classes are divided in two three-hour blocks five days a week. Some students are apathetic or rebellious in a normal school setting, but the resistance is stronger in jail, Albritton said.

They refuse to learn because they feel they are biding time until they are sentenced, she said.

"They ask, 'Why am I here? Why should I do work?' They don't see the value of an education," Albritton said. "You put them in an incarcerated setting and they see it as more punishment."

Teacher Michael Oliver said the majority of his students are repeat offenders. "Most of the kids we've had, they've been in trouble for years," he said.

Their struggles often come up during lessons. "We did a piece on memories," Albritton said. "Some kids don't have many memories. Some of them are very tragic, very sad memories."

Others embrace class because it allows them to leave their cells, Oliver said. The payoff comes when formerly reticent students begin participating in discussions, he said.

A handful of inmates earn B grades in semester and final exams, Oliver said. There is one student who has scored straight A's, he said.

Standardized tests, such as the FCAT, are also administered in jail.

Students can earn their GEDs, or equivalency diplomas, through the program. This year, 54 juvenile inmates took the GED test, inmate program director Jan Bates said. Thirty-six passed, 14 test results are pending, and four will have to retake the test.

"What we do in here, we have an opportunity to change where their lives are going," Bates said. "It's a real challenge to make them think in a different light and have hope."

"One day a student told me, 'I've learned more here than I learned in real school,'" Albritton said. "I told him this is real school."

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