Future GI marches to a different drum

Despite fractured family, 'special ed' label, JROTC leader refuses to become casualty

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 17, 2005 at midnight

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Fabian was 4 years old when his dad left, skipping out on his family and a criminal case to return to his native Mexico.

Not long after, one of Fabian's brothers was sent to prison. His sister dropped out of school and left home. His other brother quit school, too.

Fabian's mom, a housewife until her husband left, found menial work, usually two jobs at a time. The family moved from one shabby apartment to another.

"I raised myself," says Fabian, 18. "I used to get up, make my breakfast and walk to the school bus stop when I was in the second grade."

School was equally challenging. Fabian, whose first language was Spanish, was sometimes taught in English and other times in Spanish as his family moved around Denver. He didn't learn to read until the fifth grade. By then, he was in a special education program.

"I hated it," he says. "I felt I had literally been labeled 'stupid.' "

Poverty. A language issue. A learning problem. Add Hispanic and male to the mix, and Fabian is exactly the kind of kid who too often drops out of DPS.

Except that Fabian didn't. He thrived.

He completed his classes at Abraham Lincoln High School early and is wrapping up his final semester of high school by taking classes at Community College of Denver.

His grade point average is 3.7 out of 4.0. He has varsity letters in track, cross country, marksmanship and speech. He is battalion commander of his school's Junior ROTC unit.

And on Monday, Fabian will ship out to Fort Sill, Okla., to fulfill a childhood dream: to become a U.S. soldier.

"I wanted to be the first in my family to actually make it," he says, "to do it right and be the best."

Regaining lost confidence

Fabian can't remember the names of all the elementary schools he attended while growing up in Denver. He remembers the pain, though, of being singled out for special ed.

"All I knew was I was the only kid who had to leave at noon to go to a different classroom," he says. "Some kids made fun of me. I lost confidence in myself."

Yet he was promoted year after year, despite being unable to read even his homework.

"I used to have my brother read the questions to me and I would answer them," he says. "It was very difficult."

But in the fifth grade, his teacher figured out what was going on and required Fabian to read aloud every day to him and to come in after class.

"I hated him for it then, but I thank him for it now," Fabian says. "I finally began getting it."

Middle school came with its own demons, namely bullies. One followed Fabian home, he says, punching him in the face and threatening to kill him. Fabian was so scared that he arrived at school early and ran from the bus to the building. He told no one.

"Where I grew up, if you open your mouth, worse things happen," he says.

He finally moved in with his sister, who was pregnant and in the midst of a painful breakup with the baby's father. As Fabian helped care for his sister and his newborn nephew, something happened.

"Nothing compared to my sister's pain," he says. "And I saw my mom. She never gave up on us. She worked 12-hour days. I realized there is no room to quit. It made me realize life can be cruel, mean, but if you work hard, you will always succeed."

Goofing around, getting by

High school tested his resolve. He began hanging out with older students who showed him how easy it was to skip class — and to erase the messages left at home by school officials.

"You learned the system," Fabian explains. "Then, they were doing hall sweeps. If you didn't want to be in class, you could just be late. Everybody in the hall after the bell rang would have to go to the cafeteria. It was a social hangout. We could do card games, goof around, talk."

Lincoln has an attendance policy that says six unexcused absences can result in failure of a class. "But only certain teachers followed it," Fabian says.

When one of his teachers did, handing Fabian an F, he decided it was time to find new friends. He joined the Junior ROTC and found what he calls "another family."

"Kids that join JROTC, they're looking for something to fit into," says Mark Beasley, the retired Army master sergeant who runs the Lincoln program. "It's parents, it's community that holds many of them back. They keep saying you can't do this.

"When you say they can, they amaze you."

Fabian sometimes has had to push Lincoln officials to see that he can do more than they expect. He calls his regular high school classes "too easy," but says when he tried to enroll in an honors class last year, he had to get special permission because of his special ed label.

This year, despite getting an A in that honors class, he again had to get permission to take an Advanced Placement class. Again, he earned an A.

He now has A's in the three college classes he's taking.

Rodolfo Gonzalez © News

Luis, a North senior who dreams of becoming an actor, introduces the next performers during auditions in March for the district's annual Shakespeare Festival.

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Rodolfo Gonzalez © News

Now in her second year at Community College of Denver, Arlene, a graduate of North High School, climbs the stairs at the Auraria campus library to study for a business class. An undocumented U.S. resident, Arlene is ineligible for student aid, but receives help from the private Valverde Family Foundation.

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Turning dreams into reality

Fabian's family has pulled together, too.

One by one, his siblings have returned to school. His mom remarried and, with her new husband, runs a trucking business.

"We made all the mistakes for him," older sister Claudia says during a recent family gathering.

"I just wanted her to be proud of me," Fabian says that night, hugging his mother, Luz.

"I am," she says softly, "I am."

Fabian, used to making his own decisions, did just that when it came to his future.

At 6:30 a.m. on a recent Saturday, Beasley's cell phone rang. It was Fabian. He was at the military processing center in downtown Denver, waiting to enlist. Could Beasley come?

"Give me half an hour," Beasley told him. "I'll be there."

Fabian signed on for four years in the Army. He ships out Monday for basic training at Fort Sill. Then it's on to Fort Huachuca in Arizona for training as a military interrogator.

He hopes, ultimately, to become a Special Forces officer or a CIA field agent.

"I would consider myself to be a dreamer," he says. "I always wanted to save everyone."

He couldn't save some of his friends, however. One by one, they dropped out of high school.

"Jesus dropped out. Jeff dropped out. Naomi dropped out," he recited. "They don't think about the future. My friend Jeff, he's living at home. He honestly thinks he's going to be a millionaire someday.

"I'm planning for my future. He somehow thinks it's going to happen for him."