Former Truants Train for Marathon : Students Put Lives on New Track

Aliso High School senior Cesar Morquecho said he only used to run when he was being chased. Even then, he couldn’t run far. “I used to smoke cigarettes,” he said.

Now, Morquecho and five classmates--all former truants and identified as incorrigibles--are running out of bad habits. Instead of ditching school, these continuation high school students are putting in extra hours training to run in the Los Angeles Marathon next Sunday.

Compared to the marathon, “getting a diploma is a piece of cake,” said Morquecho, 18, a Reseda resident.

“Their attitudes have changed tremendously,” said Paul Trapani, an Aliso High School social studies teacher who has directed the students’ marathon training since fall. “They are more positive, more supportive and much more cooperative.”

Most of the 100 or so students at Aliso High in Reseda enter as potential dropouts. They’ve left their regular high schools because of academic and behavior problems, Trapani said. At continuation schools, students get more individual attention in academic subjects.

Conditioning Class

Last summer, Trapani said, he decided to add running to the curriculum. He talked nearly a dozen students into signing up for a conditioning class that started in September.

Trapani, who teaches history, economics and government, wrote a contract for each of his students pledging them to attend twice-a-week workouts and to complete two 5-kilometer runs and one 10-kilometer run. The students earn five elective credits if they finish the course; the marathon is optional.

Since the class started, several have quit, two have been injured, but only one of the remaining students has decided not to try the marathon, Trapani said.

“The idea is to develop self-awareness, that if you set out with a goal, you have to work to complete it,” Trapani said.

Six of Trapani’s students, five boys and one girl, will get a chance at completing the 26.2-mile run.

Trapani’s students said they never thought much of running and still find it hard to believe that they are in the race.

“The first time we had to run a mile, it was incredible torture,” said senior Nick Merelle of Reseda. “Now I can run 12 to 15 miles.”

To reach that kind of mileage, the students have been running as a group after school and on weekends.

Getting them into the proper frame of mind was as tricky as getting them into running shoes.

“Before I came here, my counselor said to me, ‘There’s no way you’re going to graduate,’ ” said Merelle, 18. “The teachers here said, ‘Yes, you can.’ ”

Defeatist Attitude

Students have usually adopted a defeatist attitude by the time they transfer to continuation high school, Trapani said. So, he said, he started his runners slowly, over short distances, so they would stay with the class long enough to see some progress.

“A lot of the reason some of them are here is because they are quick to start and have a hard time finishing,” Trapani said. “The idea is not to compete but to complete; I didn’t want them to get frustrated.”

To encourage his students, Trapani persuaded a shoe company to donate expensive running shoes and a sporting goods store to give them discounts on other gear. An insurance company donated $4,000 to pay for uniforms, first aid kits and entry fees.

Since then, the students have finished three 5-kilometer runs and one 10-kilometer race.

Sylvia Herrera of Canoga Park, a 17-year-old sophomore who was kicked out of one high school and then quit another before enrolling at Aliso, said she plans to run the first six to 10 miles of the marathon before walking a little. She said she is planning on finishing the course.

“All this running was new for me,” said Herrera, who along with Morquecho has quit smoking. “Most of my friends just like to sit around.”

Become Close Friends

The students say they have become close friends after enduring many miles of workouts together. Along with Trapani, teachers Eric Spears and Annette Small have also been training with the students and plan to complete the marathon. The teachers do not collect extra pay for the time spent training.

“This is part of our commitment to teaching,” Trapani said.

Jodah Jensen, a 17-year-old junior from Northridge, said he considered quitting about two months ago while experiencing some personal troubles. He said he was not getting any sympathy from the group at the time.

“I felt that they didn’t care about me,” Jensen said. “But they were pushing me hard for a reason.”

Jensen said he has since learned that “I can endure physically and mentally. . . . Every mile is hard, but it’s well worth it.”