VISIT TO COURT GIVES STUDENTS NEW VIEW ON LIFE

JACKSON -- Sixteen-year-old Nathan Watkins saw what the future could be last week when he visited the courthouse. He didn't like it.

Watkins and other students from Jackson's alternative school watched court cases involving check fraud, assault and other crimes receive judgments as prisoners from the county jail were herded in and out.

"I sure don't want to spend my life walking around in chains and shackles wearing an orange jumpsuit," he said.

Gerald Litner is doing his best to make sure that doesn't happen to his students.

Litner has been in charge of Jackson's alternative school since it started three years ago. The school was created for teen-agers unable to cope with traditional classroom settings.

Reasons for placing a student in alternative school vary.

"We have had some girls who are pregnant, and so they need to take more days off for doctor appointments and other things," Litner said.

The 24 students, ranging from ninth to 12th grade, are not all troublemakers, he said.

Some might have difficulty passing a particular subject, so they take a class in one subject at the alternative school and the rest of their classes at the high school or junior high, he said.

This differs from Cape Girardeau, where a student must spend the whole day at the alternative school.

Some Jackson alternative school students are indignant about being cast into a "bad kid" stereotype, but Joey Beard, 16, who is taking a history class at the alternative school, is more at ease.

"Mostly I hang out with the preppie kids," Beard said. "No one really thinks it's a big deal that I'm in the alternative school."

The alternative school is for those who don't make education a priority, said Mary Gieselmann, one of three teachers who work at the school.

"The main goal of the alternative school is to help students to graduate," she said.

Students themselves will generally seek to become part of the school's program, although teachers and parents also make requests, said Rick McClard, principal of Jackson High School.

Some students enter the program after they flunk a class.

"Instead of putting them back into a class with freshmen, we send them here," Gieselmann said. "If put into that situation, nine out of 10 of these kids can't pass language arts if it's needed to graduate."

Instruction often goes beyond the three-R's.

Gieselmann, an English and science teacher, has talked to students about appropriate dress and language before they go on field trips.

"For some of them it's hard to understand that 'crap' is not a proper word to use," she said.

The school operates out of a two-story home at 411 W. Madison St., which the school district originally bought to destroy. They planned to construct a parking lot at the site, Litner said.

Thanks to the interest of the state's 32nd District Court and an $86,000 annual grant from the court system, the house stayed and the alternative school got its start.

Randy Rhodes, the court's juvenile officer, was instrumental in getting the funding, McClard said. Together with Dennis Parham, Jackson's junior high principal, the alternative school got its start.

Several of Jackson's ideas came from the alternative school program in Stillwater, Okla., McClard said.

"They told us that whatever we do, we should avoid trying to do what most alternative schools do," he said.

Two retired teachers, Charles Schroeder and Margaret Zieba, both bring 30 or more years of experience to work at the alternative school. McClard credits them and Gieselmann, who had worked with special needs children in St. Louis, with making the difference.

"We have a lot of groups come to look at our alternative school," McClard said. "I always tell them that success starts with their staff."

Typically, teachers work with two or three students during each class period, Gieselmann said.

"This is the way education was supposed to be all along," Schroeder said.

Inside the house, a table of computers and a television with cable share the first floor along with Litner's no-walls office. Rooms on the second floor have more tables, not counting the kitchen.

The kitchen doesn't get much use, except when math teacher Zieba bakes a birthday cake for a student.

Students enjoy the school because the atmosphere is more homey, Litner said.

"But sometimes we have to slap some hands when they change the channel to MTV," he said.

The teachers try to make lessons as practical as possible. They'll go on a field trip to a store to practice math with comparative shopping. The home's floors will be measured to find out how many square feet of carpet it would need. This helps those who don't believe math is necessary, Litner said.

The grading system is an alternative, too. It is based on computer work, academic performance and participation in equal thirds.

Litner keeps parents informed in a way he likens to kindergarten. He sends a sheet home to be signed every week commenting on behavior and school work.

One 17-year-old boy, who takes one morning class, is allowed to sign for himself. He lives on his own and works a full-time job, Litner said.

The day in Circuit Court, which Litner organizes twice a year, is another means of instruction. It demonstrates there is punishment beyond the principal's office.

"A lot of kids don't understand how the court system works," Litner said. "Then, they don't see the consequences of their actions down the road."

Jesse Phillips, 18, said he appreciated going to court, but not as much as he would have liked.

"It was hard to hear," Phillips said. "The girls were talking too much."