High School’s ‘Outsiders’ Are Dropping Back In

Eight months after watching what was supposed to have been their high school graduation, four teenagers found themselves last week in the one place they had given up on: school.

Independence High School Principal Cynthia Gladstone said she reached out to the boys after reading a Feb. 3 story in The Times on their group of 11 friends who called themselves the “Outsiders.” They started together as freshmen at Birmingham High in 2001, but only three graduated with the class of 2005.

“Get those kids on the phone,” Gladstone said she told a friend of theirs after reading the article, one of a four-part series on high school dropouts.

A usually stoic woman, Gladstone grew teary-eyed when she read about the boys who dropped out.

“You guys are coming to school here,” Gladstone recalled telling them as they gathered in her office the day the article was published. “I just didn’t give them a choice.”

In 2004, Andy Hurtarte was the only Outsider to enroll in Independence High, a continuation school, after dropping out of traditional school. At Gladstone’s request, he summoned his friends to the 115-student campus, which is housed in three beige bungalows across the street from Birmingham in Van Nuys.

Gladstone, Independence High’s principal for 22 years, said this would be the boys’ second chance to graduate together.

David Parraz, 19, a former honors student and baseball player, and Mark Cevallos, 19, a rap lyricist, started classes last Monday. A few days later, two more Outsiders, Elias Fuentes, 18, a rock drummer, and Isaac Castillo, 18, who cried while watching the Birmingham graduation ceremony in June, also enrolled. Isaac will start this week.

Independence has a waiting list of about 30 students. Gladstone waived the list for the Outsiders, who promised to show up every day. Already, one of the boys missed a day. But Gladstone isn’t giving up yet.

“They just made really bad decisions about their education, and we all make bad decisions,” Gladstone said. “They were going to pay for their bad decisions for the rest of their lives.”

For most of the Outsiders, Birmingham was more like a skating rink than a school. When they ditched class, no one called home. Few talked to their counselors or teachers regularly. By junior year, the boys were fighting other kids in campus bathrooms or at lunch. They realized how easy it was to give up.

At Independence, students attend classes four hours a day, working at their own pace. With about 20 kids in each class, teachers offer one-on-one guidance. There are no class bells. Students are expected to watch the clock and move to their next period without reminders. They sign in to school and sign out.

At Birmingham, the classmates knew the Outsiders as a group of friends who rode skateboards, wrote rap lyrics and threw parties together. At Independence, Gladstone refuses to call them by their group nickname. She said she won’t give them any more special treatment than she already has.

On Friday, Elias’ father dropped him off in front of the campus at 7:15 a.m. and told him: “I’m just glad you’re doing this.”

His parents have been urging him to return to school for more than a year. Elias dropped out in 2004 to work at Sears, where he unloaded refrigerators and televisions for $7.70 an hour. He had earned only enough credits to be a sophomore.

“It’s like I’m starting all over again,” Elias said. “We’re finishing what we started.”

Mark and Andy showed up about 15 minutes later. The three boys sat in a math class together, working on algebra and geometry assignments on computers.

David, the baseball player, was missing. He was running late.

“He makes us look bad,” Mark said.

Andy yelled across the classroom: “Hey, Elias, how do you like it?”

“It’s good,” Elias replied. “I’ll be here to stay.”

By 8 a.m., Mark and Elias sat watching a World War II film, about which they had to write essays. A banner on the wall read: “You Are Responsible For Your Own Actions.”

At 8:39 a.m., David walked in with sleepy eyes.

Gladstone took note. “I’m glad you showed up,” she said. “I was getting a little worried.”

David was not off to a good start. He missed school on Tuesday. His excuse: It was his birthday. Staffers called his parents and had the other Outsiders track him down.

In math class Friday, David, whose test scores classify him as gifted, whizzed through geometry problems on a computer. Waking up early, he said, has been rough. “The first day I got here, I was like ‘oh, I want to drop out,’ ” he joked.

“I like it here,” he said more seriously. “The teachers are cool. I’ve only been here a few days, but they all know my name.”

David is working nights at a mortgage company pitching home loans over the phone, along with Mark and several other Outsiders.

After math and history, the boys took samba lessons as part of art class. They implored a photographer not to take pictures of them dancing.

Three hours later, Mark, David and Andy, who had each arrived on time that morning, said goodbye to the principal. They were on their way to meet a representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who was going to interview them for the organization’s website, which will feature students failed by American public schools. The foundation was paying the boys $20 each to participate.

“See you Monday,” Gladstone told the boys.

She looked at David. “No, you’re not leaving,” she said. Since he had been tardy, he still had an hour to go. David walked back to class alone.

“I don’t know whether they will be successful here or not,” Gladstone said, “but we’ll certainly give them every opportunity to be.”

A few minutes later, when Gladstone wasn’t looking, David quietly slipped off campus with the other guys, an hour before he was supposed to.