In 1978, when Lawrence Alternative High School was established, it was not formed for the purpose of serving those students who “just couldn’t make it” in a traditional high school or the so-called slackers who weren’t doing well in high school. The program was created in order to give students an alternative in education. It was designed to give students an opportunity to seek a different environment in which they could study in more efficiently.

“Our students are not placed here. They choose to come here,” LAHS English teacher Lori Stussie said.

That’s exactly what LAHS students and teachers want the community to remember.

“We exist to meet the needs of students who need an alternative educational format,” LAHS English teacher Susie diZerega said. “Nothing more, nothing less. Our school shouldn’t be criticized for being ‘alternative.'”

Unlike traditional high schools, LAHS puts a stronger emphasis on individual attention for each student and highly developed personal teacher-student relationships. The educators who work at LAHS are dedicated to knowing who their students really are and what methods are most effective in educating each of their students.

“A lot of the teachers here are more like friends,” LAHS senior Ramón Mart——–nez said. “Teachers here are given the opportunity to talk to students and understand who they are. Because of this they have become our counselors, our teachers and friends.”

The manner in which the teachers and administrators at LAHS relate to and educate their students varies significantly from those at a traditional high school. The educators have to be willing to give students the freedom to work at their own pace rather than lecturing from bell to bell and assigning daily homework.

“We go into this knowing that our response to things and the way we handle things has to be different from the way it may have been handled at a traditional high school,” LAHS principal Judy Juneau said. “Because when kids are coming here, they’ve been in that setting and it didn’t work for them.”

The alternative high school serves students from Lawrence High School and Free State High School, and students who attend LAHS have a different story for why they chose to come to the school. One of the more common myths that community members tend to associate with LAHS is that there are only troublemakers.

Many students who attend the high school are there because they have a desire to graduate early or because they want to be given the opportunity to work at their own pace. Some students are there because of circumstances out of their control.

“I have autoimmune disease,” LAHS senior Erin Runnel said. “Which causes me to miss a lot of school and my teachers at Free State weren’t very helpful. Sometimes when I’d get sick, I’d be gone for a week or more at a time and be really nervous about going back to school because of all the homework I had missed. But I know that I’ll be ahead or that I can catch up easily here.”

Lawrence Alternative High School art teacher Sue Malloy, right, jokes with students, from left, Chris Demby, Matt Chronister and Justin Muckey as she helps them with their sculptures. Students were in the process of finishing head sculptures Friday at LAHS. The district's alternative school has come under fire in relation to Lawrence school bond issue discussions, prompting several dozen letters to the Lawrence Journal-World. Several LAHS students responded to stereotypes they perceived from other community members' comments.

Many students think their lives have been enhanced since making the transfer to the alternative school.

“My mental status has improved since starting here,” LAHS junior Eric Simpson said. “I just find my mind a lot more trouble-free when I don’t have to worry about homework that I won’t get done or seeing people that I don’t want to see.”

Another credit that is given to the alternative program by its students and educators is the social climate of the school. Because the school has only about 120 students and 14 teachers, it provides a sense of family.

“Here, our school seems like a big family,” Chandlee said. “Everyone tends to know each other and get along. At Lawrence High, I had a lot of friends, but at alternative, you really get to know the students at the school, and you really get to know everybody, not just a few students.”

Many students at LAHS believe they are allowed more freedom to be who they are than they were at their home high school.

“You definitely have more expressive freedom,” LAHS senior Carlos De Leon said. “You can be yourself and express your opinions without being judged.”

— Shannon Reid is a senior at Lawrence High School.