PACOIMA : Belated Grads Get High School Diplomas at Last

Four years ago, La Tonya Renee Greathouse Kelley decided to give high school one more try after constantly losing job prospects because she lacked a diploma.

After toiling past midnight many times to complete her senior year, the 36-year-old mother of four joined other classmates from Central Continuation High School at the Pacoima Skills Center on Tuesday in a ceremony she once thought impossible: her high school graduation.

“It was really thrilling,” said Greathouse Kelley, who dropped out after she became pregnant 17 years ago. “I decided I didn’t care how long it was going to take me, I was going to get (my diploma.)”

The 32 graduates from the school were not the only students celebrating their accomplishments. More than 800 students from continuation high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District received diplomas during the ceremony in Pacific Palisades.

“It is their finest day,” said Jackie Fielich, the Pacoima continuation school’s coordinating instructor. Fielich said students attending the one-classroom school work at their own pace, taking anywhere from a few months to several years to work toward a diploma.

Juan Gonzalez, a 20-year-old who dropped out in the 11th grade, squeezed two years of high school into a year and a half just to prove an uncle wrong.

“I wanted to disappoint my uncle. He said I would never get my diploma,” said Gonzalez, a Pacoima resident.

With a diploma in hand, Gonzalez might ask his uncle to make good on his promise to give him $2,000 for college. It would come in handy, as he plans to attend Mission College in the fall to study fire science.