congratulations graduates of 2006
warren county has an alternative high school named the lighthouse academy. this school is for kids that for whatever reason have been expelled from one of the 3 warren county high schools.
it began with humble beginnings in 2002. that first class only had 6 kids graduate. the growth of the school continues each year. below is the graduating classes for each year.
2002 – 6
2003 – 32
2004 – 64
2005 – 70
2006 – 98
each one of these kids would not have a high school diploma if not for the lighthouse academy. they would be high school dropouts.
a factoid......of the 172 previous graduates 33 are now attending college, 10 are in the military and over 100 sumpin’ of them are gainfully employed now. the fact that stands out the most is that 19% are in college.
i am very thankful that there are people out there making a difference in our community like the educators that take on these challenging students and help them to a better life.
in december of 2002 my best friend of 22 died from a heart attack at 39 years of age. he had a son that was one year younger than dahbicito. i received an invitation to his graduation from the lighthouse academy.
i knew that after his dad died that he had taken it pretty hard as they were as close as me and ‘cito. i also knew he had been in trouble at school some because ‘cito always kept me up to date on him. i didn’t know he had been booted from his own school.
i went to the graduation and knew around 5 or 6 more kids that were graduating. these kids should be proud of their accomplishments. i asked my friend’s son what he was going to do now and he told me that he was going to technical college to become an x-ray tech like his dad was. i truly hope he does.
let me preface this next part by saying i am humble as hell in most aspects as i grew up pretty damn poor and feel i have been blessed by having such a good job. i truly check myself for looking down at folks as i feel that God loves them as much as he loves me....that is a fact.
but..........
i’m sorry, that gym was the biggest collection of rednecks that i’ve been around in quite some time. it felt like i had been swept up in a tornado and dropped into a skynyrd concert from hell.
some observations.
spandex......on folks that shouldn’t be wearin it.
a toddler....two-ish.....wearing camo pants and a camo tee......his momma let him run buck wild on the floor.
more than one tee-shirt with rebel flags on it.
at least 20 babies that cried the whole two hours.
true to form.....a family member or friend saw fit to pull a fire alarm.....my first thought was “yup, your ass will be graduating from lighthouse next year.” real class move.
of course the administrator asked everyone to hold their applause until a full row had received their diplomas. out of 10 in each row 7 groups of parents would respect this advice.
what about the other 3? son, they wuz red as hell with their bellowed out wooooo-hoooooieeee’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i kept expectin’ one to holler out FREE BIRD!!!!
i kept thinking, can you spell recidivism? with families and friends who obviously have no self restraint, will i be seein’ you in an orange jumpsuit picking up trash on the side of the road?
i’m sorry, i hate to judge but red is red.
i truly hope this is the first step for the kids to become productive members of society. and from the past successes these kids are certainly better off with that diploma.
can you imagine filling out a job application and having to put down that you did not graduate high school?
go ahead, flay me for looking down my rather large proboscus at certain elements of last night’s crowd.
in warren county it’s easy to insulate yourself from red. b.g. does have some sophistication to it. it’s a college town. there are lots of good jobs here so there is money. but like i told my buddy that was there. “throw a rock in any direction and you’ll be able to find red, it’s out there whether you run in it or not”
your friend,
the elitist,
dahbeed.
it began with humble beginnings in 2002. that first class only had 6 kids graduate. the growth of the school continues each year. below is the graduating classes for each year.
2002 – 6
2003 – 32
2004 – 64
2005 – 70
2006 – 98
each one of these kids would not have a high school diploma if not for the lighthouse academy. they would be high school dropouts.
a factoid......of the 172 previous graduates 33 are now attending college, 10 are in the military and over 100 sumpin’ of them are gainfully employed now. the fact that stands out the most is that 19% are in college.
i am very thankful that there are people out there making a difference in our community like the educators that take on these challenging students and help them to a better life.
in december of 2002 my best friend of 22 died from a heart attack at 39 years of age. he had a son that was one year younger than dahbicito. i received an invitation to his graduation from the lighthouse academy.
i knew that after his dad died that he had taken it pretty hard as they were as close as me and ‘cito. i also knew he had been in trouble at school some because ‘cito always kept me up to date on him. i didn’t know he had been booted from his own school.
i went to the graduation and knew around 5 or 6 more kids that were graduating. these kids should be proud of their accomplishments. i asked my friend’s son what he was going to do now and he told me that he was going to technical college to become an x-ray tech like his dad was. i truly hope he does.
let me preface this next part by saying i am humble as hell in most aspects as i grew up pretty damn poor and feel i have been blessed by having such a good job. i truly check myself for looking down at folks as i feel that God loves them as much as he loves me....that is a fact.
but..........
i’m sorry, that gym was the biggest collection of rednecks that i’ve been around in quite some time. it felt like i had been swept up in a tornado and dropped into a skynyrd concert from hell.
some observations.
spandex......on folks that shouldn’t be wearin it.
a toddler....two-ish.....wearing camo pants and a camo tee......his momma let him run buck wild on the floor.
more than one tee-shirt with rebel flags on it.
at least 20 babies that cried the whole two hours.
true to form.....a family member or friend saw fit to pull a fire alarm.....my first thought was “yup, your ass will be graduating from lighthouse next year.” real class move.
of course the administrator asked everyone to hold their applause until a full row had received their diplomas. out of 10 in each row 7 groups of parents would respect this advice.
what about the other 3? son, they wuz red as hell with their bellowed out wooooo-hoooooieeee’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i kept expectin’ one to holler out FREE BIRD!!!!
i kept thinking, can you spell recidivism? with families and friends who obviously have no self restraint, will i be seein’ you in an orange jumpsuit picking up trash on the side of the road?
i’m sorry, i hate to judge but red is red.
i truly hope this is the first step for the kids to become productive members of society. and from the past successes these kids are certainly better off with that diploma.
can you imagine filling out a job application and having to put down that you did not graduate high school?
go ahead, flay me for looking down my rather large proboscus at certain elements of last night’s crowd.
in warren county it’s easy to insulate yourself from red. b.g. does have some sophistication to it. it’s a college town. there are lots of good jobs here so there is money. but like i told my buddy that was there. “throw a rock in any direction and you’ll be able to find red, it’s out there whether you run in it or not”
your friend,
the elitist,
dahbeed.
posted by dahbeed at 10:51 AM
2 Comments:
That is a great post beed. I worked with that population as a side job at the Murray Learning Academy.
These kids have got to have a shot in life and this type of program is all some of them have. Teachers don't want them and at the same time they don't want them in Lighthouse types of programs. They don't "Test Well" so a lot of teachers count them out.
There is a good article on the murray website called "silent epidemic" you might want to check it out.
murray.k12.ky.us and click on "our schools" and then "learning academy" Unfortunately the teachers won this year and they canceled the program. It's a shame.
This is the second comment, the first one didn't go through but if it did sorry for the repeat.
lance,
lighthouse administrators said that sumpin' like over 200 visitors from over 30 sumpin' states had visited them in the last two years to see their model and why it was so successful.
having a niece that graduated from there and numerous kids that beed has coached in the past, it is indeed a great thing they are doing.
that's sad that they've cancelled ya'lls program.
like i said in the blog, i can't imagine filling out a job application and not being able to at least put down that you have a h.s. diploma.
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