Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 12, 1993                   TAG: 9306140335
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STUDENT NEEDS ARE MANY, COMPLEX

Their own building, to avoid tension with a host school.

Alternative Ed is housed in a back wing of Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School.

Alternative Ed's staff says Addison's staff and parents are unduly nervous about Alternative Ed - a nervousness heightened after an Alternative Ed student was shot and wounded in the school parking lot in September.

Their own food service. Right now, students go to "lunch" at Addison at 10:10 a.m. so they will not interfere with Addison's lunch periods.

An art teacher.

A music teacher - and, perhaps, a choir and a band.

A vocational program.

More professionals to assess and treat students with complex problems.

A nursery to care for the children of students.

A gym, so staff wouldn't have to drive students across town to the YWCA to get exercise and play basketball.

Former Aide Sharon Hicks says Alternative Ed students need to see more volunteers and visitors on the school premises.

"They need to see that other people besides us do care about them. Some of the children seem to feel that the outside world has sort of cut them off."