THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603310046
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Marcus Weaver and Willie Cochran were expelled from Maury High School about two years ago. Weaver says he was caught with a beeper; Cochran was fighting.
Weaver found a job at a fast-food place, Cochran at a supermarket. But this year, their outlook has brightened.
Weaver is working at the supply room at Old Dominion University's physical plant, tracking inventory and learning computer skills. Cochran is down the hall, helping the guys in the motor fleet take care of oil changes and flat tires.
That's what they do in the mornings. In the afternoons, they take classes in math and English and other subjects at Tidewater Community College's Norfolk center.
Now their career plans are back on track. Weaver has his eye on college and law school; Cochran hopes to be an auto mechanic.
``They look at me like I've got something good going,'' said Weaver, 19. ``I can accomplish anything if I want it.''
Weaver and Cochran are part of a project, called the Bridge Academy, run by the Norfolk public schools to offer a second chance to special-education students who are suspended or expelled from high school. In the mornings, they have unpaid jobs at ODU or Norfolk State University; in the afternoons, classes at TCC-Norfolk.
A complementary program was recently started for middle school students, substituting community service for work in the mornings. Nearly 40 students are in the Bridge programs, according to Vivian Hester, the coordinator. She expects the academy to produce its first high school graduates this summer.
The bridge is intended to get them safely over the treacherous limbo in which they land after they're expelled or suspended. When they get across, they'll have a high school diploma and solid job training.
``These students are working very hard to change their lives,'' Hester said. ``They're saying, `Don't write me off; don't count me out.' If we can get just a couple of kids to change their lives and pass it on to someone else they know, that's going to create quite a ripple out there.''
Many of the students have been labeled learning disabled or emotionally disturbed in school. Hester said the Bridge program targets special-ed teenagers because they often have fewer options and more hurdles than other students.
``You hear a lot about it, but you don't find many places doing much about it,'' said Richard K. Plante, ODU's physical plant director, who helps oversee the ODU contingent. ``We want to work with these folks to help them. If they're just discarded, we're not doing our jobs.''
At Old Dominion and Norfolk State, students can get their choice of jobs - including painting, groundswork and plumbing.
It's no cakewalk. ``The rules are more strict'' than in public school, said Cochran, 18. ``They enforce them better.'' For instance, for every hour they miss on the job because of lateness, the students have to put in an hour in community service.
``Just being here, it makes me come on time,'' Weaver said. ``It shows you that this is a job that people need to take seriously.''
And Cochran said it's helped him with some weaknesses: ``It's made me learn to deal with conflict - not to go jumping off violent. Try to settle it calmly at first and when that doesn't work, just walk off.''
Curtis Maddox, vice president for operations at Norfolk State, said none of the students there wanted to be identified to avoid discussing their pasts.
For one of the students at ODU - Plante prefers not to say which one - that past included petty vandalism at Old Dominion. But Plante said that didn't deter him from taking the student, and now, Hester said, ``this kid is one of the best kids at ODU, and we're very proud of him.''
Since the program began last spring, she said, less than 5 percent of the students have dropped out or been asked to leave.
Cochran, the would-be mechanic, is terse and soft-spoken. Weaver, the aspiring lawyer, is the talker.
``I see the system today as kind of screwed up,'' he said, explaining his career choice. ``I feel the justice system is failing. If they had the right people, justice wouldn't fail.''
He already has the stuff good lawyers are made of, he thinks. ``I'm a detective,'' Weaver said. ``I ask so many questions that I get the truth out of them.''
He'll get even more when he attends college and law school. ``Some people say you can't know but so much,'' he said. ``But I try to know everything.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
The Bridge Academy is helping Marcus Weaver, 19, turn his life
around. Once expelled from high school, he has set his sights on a
career in law.
Photo
JIM WALKER/The Virginian-Pilot
In the motor fleet at Old Dominion University, Willie Cochran has
discovered a goal - he wants to be an auto mechanic. The program has
helped him in other ways, too, he said. ``It's made me learn to deal
with conflict - not to go jumping off violent.
by CNB