Enemies become classmates in Fall River

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) - A Fall River alternative high school is drawing success from failure with a student body that includes gangs from opposing sides and chronic truants.

Most alternative schools serve less than a hundred students but Resiliency Prep School serves more than twice that and has a waiting list for students who actually want to attend.

“I hated school,” 18-year-old Frances Vargas tells us in this week’s Street Story. “But this school is different. And now I have to make it.”

The former drop out is also a mother and she says four month old Josuangel is her reason for her new focus.

“It’s all about him now.”

Students sign a waiver that allows metal detector scans at the door and whether they are wearing shades of blue or red, they agree to drop the colors in the office to fit a black and white dress code.

Fifteen year old Markee Malone was kicked out of Durfee High School for fighting but he now wants to be a marine or a police officer.

“The teachers really care here. They can be funny and goofy but they know when to get serious too,” Malone says.

Accelerated programs and longer hours are aimed at helping these former drop outs pass the MCAS and even move onto college. The school still loses students to crime and apathy but the ones who stay credit teachers who care.

I want him to look up to me,” Vargas says, talking about her goal to study criminal justice in college. “And say my mom did this for me.”

Malone takes it one step farther.

“I don't want to be on welfare. I don't want to be struggling to make it to my next paycheck to pay for my rent.”

The graduation rate at RSP is 56 percent, one of the highest rates for an alternative high school in the country. But the goal is to get much better.