Ritzville School leaders finds help for long-struggling student

Deborah O’Brien will never forget him.

“Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!” the boy screamed, his body bounding up and down with each syllable.

That was Bryce. He was the son of a single mother. He struggled with Attention Deficit Disorder and impulsivity. And like many kindergarten teachers, O’Brien could already tell that the little boy had a tough road ahead.

Sure enough, when O’Brien later became principal at Ritzville Middle School, Bryce was a frequent figure in her office. And when she later became principal at Ritzville High, it was more of the same.

“As he came up through the through the system, there were more and more behavior problems,” O’Brien says.

Over the years, the one thing that had kept Bryce engaged in school was athletics. “He was just one of those amazingly agile kids,” O’Brien says. “You’d watch him on the football field, on the baseball field, whatever he did you would just say ‘wow.’”

But problems with attendance, behavior and poor classroom performance made Ritzville’s coaches reluctant to take a chance on the troubled boy. And when it looked as though he might not be eligible to play sports in his senior year, Bryce resigned himself to dropping out.

For 12 years, O’Brien had watched Bryce grow. For 12 years, she had watched him struggle. For 12 years, she had wondered what, if anything, it would take to help him. Now, with a year to go to graduation, everything had come to a head.

Then she found NoDropouts, which partners with school districts across the nation to give dropouts and other at-risk students another chance to finish school.

“It just worked for him,” O’Brien said. “We got him enrolled and he had really good success, relatively quickly. He just started plugging away at his course work and he got back on track.”

In June, O’Brien watched proudly as Bryce accepted his high school diploma.

“And that was good,” she says. “That was so good.”

Do you have a Bryce in your school district? We can help you help him. Call us at 855-NO-DROPOUTS or send an e-mail to info@nodropouts.com