Troubled teens earn diplomas
Lorindia Country- man held her new- born son and dreamed the dream common to all mothers. This boy Justin will be handsome, smart, a success. She didn’t know then that some raw cards had been dealt his way.
The baby grew into a troubled child, a child sent away for psychiatric care when he was just 11. She drove to the airport with him one winter day, flew with him to the state mental facility near Tacoma, flew home and then walked to her car parked outside. She looked down and spotted her little man’s footprints, still frozen in the snow. She didn’t wish to drive over those footprints, annihilating them the way children with mental illness are sometimes emotionally annihilated in our culture.
Her boy eventually returned home and eventually found his way to MAP High School, an education program possible because of a collaboration between Spokane Mental Health and Spokane School District 81. Justin graduated Thursday, along with fellow senior Melanie Jean Albo. It was the most profound graduation I have ever attended. When I walked in, Mona Griffin, my longtime friend who works for the school district, said, “Sit down and prepare to cry.”
Throughout the ceremony, I thought of all the parents in our community who approach graduation time with a bit of sadness, because their children have fallen short of the Pee-Chee-folder fantasy of high school where studly football players, perky cheerleaders and studious 4-pointers co-exist in happy harmony.
The 30 students who attend MAP High School have varying types of mental illness. But MAP teachers and counselors (all mental health professionals) see beyond the labels placed upon their students. In March, teacher Priscilla Craggs invited me to do a writing workshop with the students. I was wowed by their writing talent and their outspokenness. Their artwork and poetry fills their yearbook this year.
At Thursday’s graduation, Justin and Melanie walked up a short aisle in a garage area decorated with balloons and banners. Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Brian Benzel spoke for literally one minute. Lou Sowers and Bob Brandon, Spokane Mental Health administrators, kept their remarks short, too. The brevity was so refreshing.
Justin stood up to say a few words. His graduation cap began to slip off. He said, “Hold on, I’m having technical difficulties.” He adjusted the cap and said, “I have been here for five years. Friends have come and gone. Now I’m the one to go.”
Then the mothers spoke. Melanie’s mother, Agnes Ferguson, told those gathered that her daughter “died” for several minutes when she was just 9 days old. She was revived but has struggled intellectually and emotionally ever since.
“Melanie has made great progress at MAP,” Ferguson said. “Her grades went from D’s and F’s to A’s and B’s. Melanie has really grown. I would like to thank all the teachers and staff.”
Justin’s mom stood up next. She told the footprints story. Then she said, “We came to MAP with a great deal of trepidation. But Justin found his way. He found his way to a diploma. He’s taken little steps. I’m OK with the little steps. No matter how big his feet get to be, I’ll always remember his little footprints. Thank you for giving him one more chance and not giving up on him, because I certainly could not.”
MAP High School has graduated 44 students in 10 years – young women and men at risk for really being left behind. They weren’t because of this unique collaboration and because of staff members who teach to, and care for, the students beneath their diagnoses. Students whose parents still hold dreams for their children.