The vast majority of students took the rules to heart and complied. A few students tested a rule now and then if they thought they could get away with it. Usually after one of the punishments they quickly got back in line. Still a small number of students took every opportunity to get away with things trying to circumvent the rules. The nuns kept keen eyes on the students and knew every trick in the book, so few ever got away with very much. Wade was one of those few that found himself at the wrong end of a yardstick or locked in dark closet many times.
After several trips to the principal’s office in the fourth grade, a call home resulted in more beating from his parents. He had to repeat the fourth grade. Holy Angels officially classified Wade as a “problem child.” When he finally moved to the fifth grade, his problems at school hadn’t improved much. Toward the end of the fifth grade year, the principal called his parents in for a meeting. Only Wade’s father attended the meeting because his mother was at home drunk.
In the meeting the principal told Wade’s father that while Wade would probably finish the fifth grade, his grades and behavior were such that he was going to be put on the probation list for problem students for the Archdiocese Schools of New Orleans. Wade’s father asked, “What does that mean?”
“It means it is unlikely that Wade will be allowed to attend the next level of Catholic School education in the city.” In other words this was a blacklist notification to all other Catholic schools that he was a behavioral problem. Outside the principal’s office, Wade’s father said, “This disgraces you and the family. I don’t understand what is wrong with you, but we have to do something.”
Wade replied, “Why don’t you beat me, Dad?”
His father didn’t reply. For the first time his father seemed to take the magnitude of Wade’s problem seriously. In those days problem children had very few options. Enrollment in the public schools would probably mean repeating another grade. There were out-of-state boarding schools including military academies and reform schools. There were no support groups, special or continuation educational programs, or counseling sessions for young kids going down the wrong path.
For problem kids of draft age, the solution was to go in the Army. Wade was under age and this was not an option. The typical solution for problem children under the draft age was reform school. Wade’s father began investigating out of state reform and military schools and decided they were a choice of last resort.
Father Timothy at their local church was a good friend of Wade’s father, who often consulted with the priest and usually took his advice. Father Timothy told Wade’s father about a new experimental school at the lakefront that had recently started operation and was accepting certain problem children. This school was having some success. But the lakefront was a considerable way from home, which would make getting Wade to and from school an impossible commute.
After a few weeks of investigating, Wade’s father told him that he had come up with a possible solution to the problem: “If this new alternative school will accept you, you are going to have to move in with your Aunt May and her family.”
The school went by the name of Westbrook Alternative School. It was located on West End Boulevard near the lakefront within a couple miles of Lake Pontchartrain and not far from his Aunt May’s home. Wade was uneasy about the suggestion at first. The new area of the school meant new gang territory and other family members he would have to get used to. He also wasn’t sure they would accept him, but he knew his only school alternative would be a strict reform school in Mississippi or Alabama. Wade’s other alternative was leaving school; joining a gang or running away from home and making it on his own. Wade thought about his options and reluctantly accepted his situation and agreed to meet with Aunt May’s family and the principal of Westbrook Alternative School with his parents.
5
Westbrook Alternative School was a private, non-denominational school created as an experimental school for kids with problems within the greater school district. It covered grades 5–8 which included kids from twelve to eighteen years old. Under its charter with the school district, if a student was going to reach the age of eighteen during the school year and was still in the sixth grade, even they could be admitted. A few students from “broken homes” were even a little older, although age was rarely discussed or monitored by the School District. These few age exceptions were made on a case-by-case basis, depending on the problems a child had, psychological and academic test results, and the conduct of the student. In cases of older students the paperwork had to be juggled, since technically these students were adults and no longer considered under the control or responsibility of the school system.
Westbrook was one of the first alternative schools in the city and was certainly the only one to administer a battery of behavioral, aptitude, preference and learning ability tests to diagnose a student prior to admission. The school would only accept students with certain scores on a number of tests whose profile met a pattern that showed certain academic aptitude and behavioral characteristics. This selection approach, along with its creative teaching methods was under scrutiny by the school board. Members of the board and teachers were quick to express mixed opinions in hearings which eventually led to conditional approval of Westbrook’s application as an experimental school for the limited term of five years. Westbrook’s unique approach was also received with much skepticism, and in some cases ridicule, by some of the school politicians in its first two years of operation. Early skeptics were quieted by the good results the school began to achieve. Westbrook was still maintained on short leash with the School Board, with just two votes over the minimum needed for approval of their five year charter term.
There was always a risk of mixing older with younger kids in the same class. Westbrook’s new approach combined classroom studies with psychological counseling. Classes were designed to address specific academic deficiencies rather than a locked-stepped, year-to-grade system. The students got what they needed at the level they needed it. A much older student might be in a third grade level math class and a younger, brighter math student in third grade might be attending a sixth grade math class.
A meeting was held with Wade, his parents and Mr. Ralph Scudder, Westbrook’s Principal. In that meeting Scudder explained the school philosophy and what made Westbrook different. Mr. Scudder made it very clear that Wade would not be admitted until he took a battery of tests which would take him an entire day to complete. The admission tests would be administered on a Saturday. Based upon those test results, the school would determine whether or not Hanna could be admitted and how his courses would be designed.
Scudder indicated that in addition to courses, Wade would be required to participate in counseling sessions at least twice a week with a school psychologist. He told the Hanna’s that Wade’s counselor would be Mr. Peter Colmes. He said Mr. Colmes was one of four counselors at the school and that the students called him “Mr. Pete.” The Hanna’s agreed that Wade would take the required tests.
6
Wade took the tests the following weekend. The next week parents were called for a meeting with Mr. Peter Colmes to discuss the results. The battery of tests included IQ, math and English proficiency, overall scholastic aptitude, attitude, preference, mechanical skills, and three psychological profile tests. Most tests were tied to national data sources with which a student’s scores could be compared and ranked according to national scales. Three tests were included in the battery which indicated tendency toward criminal behavior, anger and reaction to violence, and social issues.