A New Attitude At 17

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 20, 1999 / 5:08 PM EDT / CBS

Discipline is perceived as the number one problem in U.S. high schools, according to a CBS News Class of 2000 Poll released this week. More than half of those polled told CBS News they would be willing to pay more taxes to open so-called alternative schools in their communities for students who are disruptive or have no interest in school.

CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell reports from San Diego's Garfield High, the oldest alternative high school in the country, where a willingness to take a chance is paying off for some members of "The Class of 2000."

Janelle Love, 17, has had a rocky high school career. She's been in and out of more than a half dozen schools. "I went to Mount McGill High School, I went to Summit, I went to Eastlake, I was on home schooling for a while, and just nothing worked."says Janelle.

Then she ended up at San Diego's Garfield High School. "This is the first high school that I get up in the morning and actually smile about," she says. "Before it was like, 'I gotta go to school'."

My attitude when I was 14 or 15 was, 'I am invincible, and drugs and gangs are what is going to get me through life.' That's what I thought," she says.

Things have changed so much for Janelle that now she's not only a full-time high school student, but she's also attending college.

"Personally, I fit much better in college than I do in high school," adds Janelle; "I can move at my own pace, and there are kids here who are more mature."

More On The Class of 2000:

CBS News Poll: Alternative Schools Viewed Favorably

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Garfield built its new school on the campus of San Diego City College--putting a college education right in front of many kids who had a hard time thinking they would ever graduate from high school.

"For them to see that they can be in this class, have expectations raised for them that they are able to rise to meet, is marvelous, says Bert Houseman, who is in charge of the program.

Janelle's teachers see some lessons from college finding their way back into her high school classroom.

"She is always making a reference between what happens at the community college [and] what's happening in the classroom," says teacher Ross Warfel. "And she does it in a way that the kids understand. So, she's a good example in that respect."

"I don't really look at myself as a success story," says Janelle. "I just think that I had to change a lot of things I have done in my life to lead a better life."