Everyone Has a Talent

December 4, 2012

3 hours

Alternative to expulsion is a program that is offered to students in South San Francisco School District that have been expelled from their school but are given the opportunity to attend another local school. They must sign a contract and attend five mandatory meetings with a parent or guardian for four hours. On day two of the program the kids were taken to San Mateo where the Juvenile courts are and get to hear the judge’s perspective. They are taken there to show that their actions have consequences. Judge Susan Etezadi Juvenile Court Supervising Judge spoke to them and gave them advice not every trouble teen gets to hear. She assures them that she doesn't want to see any of them in her court room but warns them that all their actions do have consequences. She gives them the advice of getting an education, a job, to do something productive like volunteer because those are all things that will make them feel good and like they’re doing something that’s helpful to themselves and/or others.

I learned that everyone has a talent but they’ve just been distracted from them and hopefully they grow out of it. Kids should be having fun enjoying extracurricular activities at school like playing sports, communicating with others, and follow rules because they’re going to exist wherever they go in this world. Any adolescent should find someone healthy that they can talk to about anything that’s troubling them, if that someone isn’t their parents to find a teacher or a friend or relative that can help guide them through their troubles so that problem doesn’t consume them and it becomes too late. Once they turn eighteen it’s extremely difficult to compete with hundred other applicants that are looking for a job.