A Lesson Plan for Survival : Education: Teachers, administrators and even custodians at Lennox Middle School have ‘adopted’ students. The close personal bonds have turned around troubled lives.

Even without complications, life can be difficult for school-age youngsters. Add poverty, gang and drug problems, and some Lennox Middle School teachers wonder how their students make it to class at all.

Such pressures often weighed on 13-year-old Claudia Fuentes, a marginal student who came to school one day with welts and deep scratches on her face, the result of a fight to get out of her gang.

Although some school counselors offered to help, Claudia said she could talk about her problems with only a few people.

One of those confidantes was her homeroom teacher, Aileen Martin, who eventually immersed herself in her student’s personal life--questioning, cajoling and, ultimately, loving Claudia “like a mother would,” Claudia said.

“I needed someone to talk to and it’s like she’ll always be there. She really cares about me the way a real parent would.”

Now 14 and an eighth-grader, Claudia has improved her grades, corrected her attendance problems and even joined Lennox Middle School’s drill team, changes she attributes to her relationship with Martin. Their personal bond was forged through the school’s Adopt-a-Student program, which links students with adult role models to help the children through the “awkward age” of middle school.

The program originally targeted introverted students who normally escaped the attention of teachers and administrators. But it now includes a broad spectrum of children--from gang members to honor students.

Launched by school counselor Jim Keese and science resource teacher Linda Potter in the fall of 1990, the program--modeled after those at other schools--has become more popular than anticipated. About 50 teachers, administrators and even custodians have adopted at least one student; some have adopted as many as a dozen. More than 100 of Lennox Middle School’s 1,550 students are involved in the program, bringing to about 200 the number of students who have participated in the program since it began.

These surrogate parents take the youths to lunch, barbecues and ballgames. More importantly, they talk with the children.

“At this age, there is nothing more important than feeling identified,” Keese said. Through contact with adult mentors, he said “there’s a sense of security. They feel important. They’re learning new behaviors and new forms of interacting with adults. Middle school is a bridge to adulthood.”

John Umekubo, a math and science teacher, said the program allows students to see “the human side of teachers and not see us as just someone who writes on the blackboard.” Umekubo is working with Jaron Quetel, a seventh-grader who is being raised by his mother. Jaron said his teacher has become the father figure he so desperately wanted.

“We even look alike,” Jaron said. “I just need to grow a mustache and grow a little.”

Fernando Zepeda, an eighth-grader, said of his “adoptive parent” Rudy Sanchez: “I can communicate with him better than anybody else.” Fernando, long a better than average student, has improved his grades to a 4.0-average since Sanchez, a counseling assistant, took the youth under his wing last year. Sanchez has adopted about a dozen students.

Potter said teachers develop a sensitivity for the societal pressures facing many of the students. Single-parent families or families racked by domestic troubles inflict a psychological toll on youths at a time when they are already going through many emotional changes.

“Like all people, when you have things on your mind, you can’t work as well,” Potter said. “Adults can usually put that aside. But children have a hard time. They can’t concentrate or function in an intellectual way because the emotional static is in the way.

“As a teacher, you don’t see a lot of that activity going on in their minds. You just see the eyes glazed over. A teacher might think, ‘Oh, they’re lazy,’ or, ‘That’s just another unmotivated student.’ But it’s really a lot more complicated than that.”

At Lennox, many youngsters also face the difficulties of adapting to a new culture; about half of Lennox’s students are first-generation immigrants.

Claudia was born in El Salvador and lived in Mexico briefly as a child; she came to the United States with her mother and younger sister eight years ago. By the time she was enrolled in the Lennox School District, she was so far behind academically that she was placed in the first grade with students who were at least a year younger. Later her gang ties contributed to more problems.

Last year, Claudia was “jumped out,” or beaten, when she decided to leave the gang. She still shudders at the memory. So does Martin.

“Something in me kind of snapped when I saw these claw marks on her beautiful face,” Martin recalled recently, sitting next to Claudia. “My heart just went out to her.”

Martin began giving Claudia rides home to escort her through gang territory. The Adopt-a-Student program seemed like a natural progression of their relationship. They began to go to lunch, movies and school outings together.

Martin, who has two grown daughters, has been transferred to Felton Elementary School in Lennox, but she and Claudia remain close. Claudia spends the night occasionally with Martin’s family, passing the time talking about boys, school and gang pressures. Martin will even take the girl to medical appointments because Claudia’s mother, who speaks little English, has trouble communicating with doctors.

“There’s a special bond between us,” Martin said, choking back tears. “I really love her.”

Claudia said her life has turned completely around in the last year. She also has another adoptive parent in counseling assistant Rafael Ramos. On a recent day, as she waited on campus for an after-school dance, she sported a black Georgetown University jacket and white, knee-high leather boots.

Her long, dark hair framed her smiling face as she talked about her dreams of becoming a singer or entering a field in which she can help others escape gang influences.

“I feel like I’m a new person now,” she said.