Auto High School Gives Students Hope and a Trade
School teaches students more than just what's under the hood.
Jan. 16, 2010 — -- For 19-year-old Timothy Brown, hard times started almost at birth. His mother abandoned him when he was only six months old. As a teenager, he joined a gang and eventually was sent to prison for robbery.
In his Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood, life itself can be uncertain.
"In the 'hood, one of your closest friends -- somebody you grew up with -- you chill with them today, and then next week will come, you heard something happened to them," Brown said. "They got shot or they got locked up. Most of the time it's for something stupid."
Trying to change that -- and help teens like Brown overcome the obstacles that come with life in poor, tough neighborhoods -- is Brooklyn's Automotive High School. It's a place where teachers greet students at the door every morning.
"We know the day goes as the morning goes," said Assistant Principal of Safety Kimberly Laboy. "You look for the students -- this one isn't having a good morning, that one's not having a good morning -- and we will pull them relatively early and have them talk to someone. Check in with them."
Once they make it through the schoolhouse doors, students walk side-by-side with police officers who patrol the hallways. Fights break out almost every day. Students say there is gang activity. But still -- once the bell rings and the school's nearly 1,000 students are corralled into classrooms -- it is a refuge.
"When I walk into the classroom and build a rapport with the students, and they put their trust in me, I want to make sure I'm doing what I can to make sure that trust continues and that it is a safe place," said English teacher Erika Bogdany. "Some of our students don't have other safe places."
While every student who graduates from Automotive High School gets a diploma, they also have the option of learning something more practical than English, math and social studies: how to fix cars. It is a trade that is still in demand, despite the recession.
"I've learned how to rotate tires, how to fix a radiator, change the oil, stuff like that," said Christopher Wilson, who said he chose Automotive High School specifically to learn about cars.
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