The Bad Kids
On a remote stretch of the Mojave Desert, surrounded by dusty tumbleweeds and rangy Joshua Trees, sits an anomaly: a high school where educators believe that empathy, life skills, and the constancy of a caring adult are the distinguishing characteristics that will give at-risk students command of their fates. On any given day, principal Vonda Viland contacts students at the break of dawn to check on their attendance. And what if they require transportation? To be sure, she will retrieve them. Vonda is very aware of each student's difficulties and coaches them hard, never instilling false optimism. Her ideology mixes loving compassion and realism, and it appears to be working, as seen by her school's improving graduation rate.