ALBA School

AT ALBA HIGH SCHOOL

For Your Information

This is not an official or authorized report about this unusual high school.

I was a substitute English teacher at ALBA High for several weeks in the spring of 2001. These are my observations.

ALBA HIGH SCHOOL in San Diego, California was an extraordinary high school for students accused of some fairly “minor” crime in the streets or convicted of such violations as “possession of weapons” in school, etc.

ALBA students came from all over the city. Some seemed to me to be “hardened criminals” others just “hard luck” kids.

Some had bad attitudes and could be disruptive but the school had a very low tolerance for bad behavior and the four or five teachers expected and usually got good cooperation from the students–or the students were removed. As a substitute teacher, I had certainly experienced far worse behavior from students in regular classes.

There were about fifty students enrolled at ALBA when I was there. The classes were small, usually from five to twenty students per teacher. The students moved from one class to another every period in small groups (for example from math to English), as they would have done at a regular school.

Only academic subjects were taught; there were no sports or other elective subjects. Students were not allowed to leave the unmarked storefront school building after they had checked in by 7:30 in the morning, nor were they allowed to carry the usual student’s backpack into the building. They could only bring: a pencil and a notebook, and these mandatory supplies were inspected at the door.

The windowless fluorescent-lit rooms of the converted commercial building produced a rather depressing environment, but this halfway school was not supposed to be an especially pleasant experience for the students: not exactly punishment but not pleasurable either.

The courts had directed these students to attend ALBA HIGH for a few weeks or a month or two instead of their regular schools while their legal future was being decided–so there was a constant coming and going of young people. Most of the students would return to their former schools. Some would be convicted of criminal behavior and go from ALBA to Juvenile Detention Hall (“Juvie”) or experience some other punishment.

All the students were black or brown–that is of African or Mexican racial extraction. At one time or another some white youth would be in attendance but these obvious misfits had no friends or status–and enjoyed only such respect as their criminal record would grant them as fighters and hoodlums.

There were girls and boys at ALBA, but I would say about five times the number of boys as girls.

For faculty there were three white women, a Mexican man and woman and the director, a very strong looking black man. A Native American from New Mexico cleaned the building before the school opened in the morning. I am white—also from New Mexico.

I mention these facts about race because race was important at ALBA

(Continued tomorrow)

Tomasito, 2008

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