A student's challenges parallel his school's

04-05-2010

By Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times

Jorge Garcia represents the past, the present and, potentially, the future of long-struggling Jefferson High School. As a freshman in 2006 at the South Los Angeles school, he failed all his classes and was kicked out after starting two fights, one of them especially violent. Since then, he's survived five bullet wounds, dealt with his father's fatal illness and become a parent himself. This year Jorge, 17, returned to Jefferson -- to set an example for his son. Like the school itself, Jorge wants to turn things around. And like Jorge, Jefferson suddenly has a chance at redemption. Last month, the Los Angeles Board of Education could have turned over the job of improving Jefferson to an outside operator. Instead, it chose a plan created by Jefferson's teachers. (more...)

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