Class offers second chance to juvenile offenders
The collection of drab cottages hunkers down behind a chain link fence, past speed bumps on a rutted road. It’s marked only by huge numbers painted on the walls.
There is no marquee board denoting the presence of a school, no banners boasting of scholastic achievement or student activities. There is only a red sign at the entrance, informing drivers that the property belongs to the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department.
But inside cottage number 5, deep in the heart of a 40-acre campus where young offenders are housed and treated, teenagers with troubled pasts, arrest records and often-acrimonious school experiences voluntarily sit in snug classrooms for four hours a day.
This is where they come after serving sentences or being placed on probation, where they wrestle with math and English and science, where they train their eyes on a prize that represents a last resort and a shot at redemption.Here, at the Education Transition Center, they study for the GED, a certificate that may make the difference between going back into lock-up or going forward to a better life.
It’s where a 17-year-old girl who described her high school years as a downward spiral of bad choices, bad crowd and bad grades reversed that fall by releasing her anger, burrowing into her studies and conquering the GED exam. It’s where a 16-year-old boy with Justin Bieber-style feathered hair and a rap sheet of arson, weapons and truancy charges learned to envision a career in the military, rather than living under a bridge.
“You’ve got to break yourself down to nothing, then build yourself back up,” said the teen, who cannot be identified because of his status as a juvenile offender. “Now, I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulder. I feel like I can walk freely.”