PHOTOS: Talking it out in South L.A.
Karla Valencia, 17, is embraced by a friend outside Santee High School in South Los Angeles, where she hopes to return after studying at a small charter school on Manchester Avenue run by the nonprofit Soledad Enrichment Action. Group therapy sessions run by Stan Bosch, a Catholic priest, have helped her. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
In an alley outside her South L.A. home, Karla Valencia, right, practices a merengue dance with friends and relatives in anticipation of her sister’s quinceanera. Karla has struggled to overcome numerous obstacles, including poverty and drug addiction. Talking about her past in the therapy sessions has been difficult at times. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Karla Valencia, center, improved her grades after enrolling at the charter school, a place of last resort for many troubled teens in South L.A. Many students are gang members, and most were expelled from previous schools. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Karla Valencia, clad in a tuxedo, escorts her half-sister Milaisy Perez, 17, into a Huntington Park church for her sister’s quinceanera Mass. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Karla Valencia, center left, watches the Mass during her sister’s quinceanera. Recently, Karla has kicked her addiction and boosted her grades. Much of her journey, she said, has come because of the group therapy sessions. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Karla Valencia, 17, center left, joins hands with others at her sister’s quinceanera. Karlas story is typical for Stan Boschs group therapy program. Her mother raised four children without child support, working as a floral arranger for quinceanera celebrations. Rent money ran short, and the family was forced to move time and again. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
Karla Valencia shares a laugh with Father Stan Bosch during lunch break at the charter school. When she began attending his group therapy sessions, she wasn’t used to sharing her feelings about her past. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
No one, said Stan Bosch, has ever asked most of the students in his therapy sessions the simplest question: How are you? (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)
