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31 at-risk students reach graduation milestone at MCHS
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
School wasn’t easy for Jerrell Shorter.
“I didn’t get an IEP [Individual Education Program] until the 10th grade,” the new graduate said during the commencement ceremony Friday at Mahoning County High School.
The MCHS Class of 2016 numbers 31.
“I’m happy,” Shorter said. It’s been a long road.”
He spent much of his school time before coming to MCHS being the class clown and didn’t have much interest in class work.
That changed when he enrolled at MCHS.
“I took a look at education in a different way,” Shorter said. “There are great teachers here, and they helped me.”
He also credits Jennifer Merritt, MCHS superintendent.
“She never took her foot off of my neck,” Shorter joked. “I appreciate it a lot.”
Graduate Ke’Are Beacham also appreciates the teachers who helped her at the school.
“My teachers were always there for me,” she said.
She also thanked her mother.
Mahoning County High School is a dropout recovery community school sponsored by Mahoning County Educational Service Center and the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center.
It serves at-risk students who have struggled in a traditional school setting, been expelled, dropped out of high school or have had juvenile court involvement.
Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court said, “Our students are here because someone said they can’t” accomplish their goals. “Everyone here all sees with our very eyes that they can.”
In his keynote speech, Anthony D’Apolito, juvenile court magistrate and MCHS board president, joked he couldn’t remember even one word from the commencement speeches he listened to at his high school, college or law-school graduations.
He hopes the new MCHS graduates remember one word from his speech: Give.
And he hopes they remember it in two ways.
“Every day, give the best you have,” D’Apolito said. “Give your best effort. Just be the best you.”
The second way he hopes they remember is to never give up.
“There are hard times to come in your life,” he said.
But it will get better, he added. “Remember that.”