Time Out : A Lakers Practice Is Pupils’ Good-Attendance Reward

Around Horace Mann Junior High School in South-Central Los Angeles, eighth-grader Kevin Hudson is known as the kind of guy who never cuts up in class--and most certainly never cuts out on class.

“I can’t remember the last day I missed school,” the serious-minded 13-year-old said. ‘It must have been around the beginning of the seventh grade. I take school seriously. Because I want to be a mechanical engineer when I grow up.”

Then what was Kevin doing skipping his science, math and physical education classes Monday morning? What was he doing hanging out at the Forum in Inglewood?

“I don’t feel guilty at all about not being in school this time,” Kevin said. “This is a chance to see the Lakers. I’ll ask my teachers tomorrow what I missed--I think they’ll let me make up the work I’m missing.”

No doubt about that. Kevin was among 450 junior high pupils from nine campuses who were given the morning off from classes to sneak a rare peek at a Lakers basketball team practice as a reward for having good school attendance records.

The outing was part of a new incentive program that aims at reversing a dropout rate that has reached 39% in recent years at schools such as Bethune Junior High, said Eiko Moriyama, a Los Angeles school administrator who helped arrange the visit.

“Monday mornings are tough. I like to sleep late,” said Donald Brown, 15, a Bethune ninth-grader who was being honored for four months of perfect attendance. He said he aspires to be a radio technician after he finishes school.

Some days last year, he said, “I just couldn’t drag myself to school.”

Mann Junior High ninth-grader Gyno Bell, said his own set of incentives have begun getting him to class on time every day.

“I figured I’d straighten up this year. At the end of the year I want to walk up on stage and get an award,” Gyno said. “I want to go to high school and get into a good college and become a lawyer.”

Muir Junior High School seventh-grader Kellee Smith said she has not missed a day of school since the fifth grade because she wants to become a pediatrician.

“I just don’t let myself get sick,” she said, explaining that the childhood disease she fears most is chickenpox. “My 9-year-old sister has it right now. I’m just hoping I don’t catch it from her,” said Kellee, 12.

Wright Junior High student Pride Pickens, 13, said she loads up on medicine and cough drops when she feels a cold coming so she will not have to stay home. “If you’re going to better yourself, you need to be in school,” the seventh-grader said.

“My friends miss a lot of school. They say they were sick, or they missed the bus and couldn’t get to class. But I don’t believe them.”

Lakers players Magic Johnson, A.C. Green, Sam Perkins and James Worthy urged the students to stay in school and stay off drugs if they want to be successes as adults.

It is fine to dream of becoming an NBA basketball star, Johnson told the group, but he reminded them that sports careers are short and “being a lawyer, a doctor or a business person lasts a lifetime.”

“We need more successful people in business,” he said.

From the audience, Kevin, Gyno, Donald, Kellee and Pride beamed.