Every 26 Seconds, a Student Drops Out of High School

Sep. 28, 2012 / By

Loop21, Video, Andrew Lambertson, Posted: Sep 28, 2012

Every 26 seconds, a student drops out of high school. Here’s what happens when they do.

By Thomas Pearson

“I dropped out in the ninth grade. I went to jail that summer. I was fifteen,” said Charles “Frog” Phillips when we talked on his front porch in the Washington Park neighborhood, on Montgomery’s west side. “I was more concerned with my reputation in the streets and making money than I was with school.”

Phillips, now 30, grew up in various housing projects with a single mother who was addicted to crack cocaine and a younger sister, Crystal, who also dropped out of high school.

He says that while he liked school when he was young—participated in spelling bees and playing football—he didn’t feel that he was wanted there.

“Teachers just pass kids on without an education just to get them out of the classroom, so they don’t have to deal with them. There’s something wrong with that,” he said.

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