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Students earn diplomas from Mahoning County High School
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Anthony Harris always hated school.
But after a stint behind bars, he ended up at Mahoning County High School on Hudson Avenue in the former Sheridan Elementary building, where he buckled down with the help of teachers and staff.
“The teachers feel our pain here,” Harris said. “It’s like a family here. This is one big family.”
On Friday he was one of 22 MCHS students to receive their diplomas.
MCHS is a school for students who have dropped out of their home schools, are on the verge of dropping out, have been expelled or have had dealings with Mahoning County Juvenile Court. It’s a community school that’s sponsored by the Mahoning County Educational Service Center and is a collaboration with the court.
Harris was the student speaker and told his classmates and those who attended the ceremony at the school that he plans to be a barber.
“I start barber school May 28 — next week,” he said.
Harris previously attended Chaney High School but more recently went to the high schools inside of the correctional facilities where he was incarcerated. Since his release, he’s stayed out of trouble, and he took advantage of the counseling and help from teachers at MCHS.
“I don’t know when the last time was that I had a run-in with the law,” Harris said.
Ron Iarussi, superintendent of the Mahoning County ESC, was guest speaker and said that sometimes, students’ circumstances warrant different treatment in school.
“I’m not an advocate of the idea that every student should be treated equally,” he said.
Obstacles in some students’ lives such as abuse, poverty or addiction mean they need to be treated “with just a little bit more compassion and understanding,” he said.
That’s what the teachers and staff at MCHS provide, Iarussi said.
He experienced some of those same obstacles growing up. At the same time, he doesn’t want to give anyone an excuse to use when things don’t go their way.
“The outcome of your life now is really in your own hands,” he said.
Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court, the Rev. Lewis Macklin II of Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, physical-education and independent-studies teacher Taylor Dangler and outgoing MCHS board member Tom Robey also spoke.