Crusader helping turn dropout tide

Mr. Medina holds kids to contract

Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 20, 2005 at midnight

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Dan Medina is on a crusade.

A pair of binoculars rests on the windowsill of his second-floor office at Abraham Lincoln High School, within easy reach. He uses them to spot students trying to sneak off campus.

His desk faces a blackboard with "The Top Five Reasons to Stay in School" listed in chalk.

A walkie-talkie lies on the desk, occasionally crackling, "Mr. Medina, are you in the building?"

Medina and his fellow community liaison officer, Luis Llanas, are determined to keep kids in school. They are part of a team that has increased average daily attendance from 67 percent in 2002 to 82 percent last year.

"What they do here is critical," says Lincoln Principal Scott Mendelsberg. "They do an excellent job of finding the places for kids, and they help connect with parents."

Medina, 41, walks the halls hourly to make sure students are in class and not hiding in the sprawling building's back stairs or empty rooms. About once a week, he climbs into his Ford truck and drives to the homes of students who have missed school.

His wife, who manages the McDonald's restaurant just north of the school in southwest Denver, calls when she sees students hanging out there during school hours. Medina has left his cards at businesses along South Federal Boulevard, urging them to call, too, if they see students who may be skipping.

Medina knows the mind of a kid who skips school. He dropped out of Lincoln himself at age 16 to work construction. He didn't get his GED, or general equivalency diploma, until he was 30.

When Medina started working at the high school five years ago, it was known as "Stinkin' Lincoln."

Gangs dominated. Some teachers were reluctant to venture out of their classrooms. Many students spent more time at the nearby Brentwood Shopping Center and area fast-food restaurants than at school.

Then former Principal Kathy Callum hired Medina to help bring order to Lincoln's hallways.

The initial crackdown focused on pushing gang leaders toward alternative schools and making truants pick up litter and sweep floors. "You need to cut off the head," he says of those initial efforts.

Today, the halls are quieter. Students, used to Medina's presence, automatically hold up their yellow hall passes as they pass him in the corridors.

Home economics teacher Joyce Warner periodically sends students to Medina's office with freshly baked treats such as cream cheese-filled empanadas — a thank-you for bringing peace to the school's halls.

The centerpiece

Medina and Llanas, his associate, have settled into a routine to counter ditching — when kids skip class or whole days of school.

The centerpiece is "the contract," an official-looking document used at Lincoln and other high schools. It "sentences" the student to an alternative school if attendance and grades falter. About 300 of the school's 1,400-plus students are under contract this year.

Before every school year starts, Medina gets a list of the eighth-graders slated to enter Lincoln who have had attendance problems in middle school. During the first weeks of school, he tracks them down and shows them the contract.

Analise signed one as a sophomore, Karina as a freshman.

Analise had spent her freshman year at North High School walking out the back door minutes after her mother dropped her off at the front door. She tried to resume her ditching ways when she switched to Lincoln, but Medina noticed and quickly cracked down.

He also visited her at home and learned she was taking care of her sick mother, who was later diagnosed with lupus.

The extra attention appears to have paid off. Analise is now taking college classes as a senior at Lincoln.

"Now I'm caring about myself," she says.

Karina also is a senior taking college courses and is the goalkeeper on the varsity soccer team.

Judy Walgren © News

After finding a student hanging out in a stairwell, Medina radios his partner, Luis Llanas, to look up the student's schedule. After learning the student should be in class, Medina does some more checking and finds his skipping is "becoming a habit." It leads to a one-day suspension. Medina, 41, walks the halls hourly to make sure students are in class.

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Four years ago, though, she was skipping classes religiously with her friends. When Medina spotted her off school grounds, he often gave chase. "She was a quick runner," he recalls.

Karina signed the contract, thinking Medina would never enforce it. But he did, and one call to Karina's father, an immigrant from Mexico, led to a tearful meeting in Medina's office and an end to her skipping classes. Karina now has a B average.

As Medina walks the halls of Lincoln, he can rattle off the history and background of many of the students he passes. He lives in their neighborhood. Two of his children graduated from Lincoln and two are students there now.

After lunch, a student asks Medina for help in getting bus tokens for RTD. The student lives across town with a friend's family because his own family is abusive, Medina explains.

"I'll get his tokens," Medina promises.

Roxanne, a sophomore, stops by Medina's office to show him her certificate for winning the Cesar Chavez Day poster contest. Last year, she was at the Contemporary Learning Academy alternative school for violating her attendance contract.

Judy Walgren © News

From his office at Lincoln High, community liaison officer Dan Medina uses binoculars to spot students trying to sneak off campus. Two of Medina's children have graduated from Lincoln, and two are students there now.

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After seeing Stephanie, right, in the hallway and late to class three times in one day, Medina calls her father about her tardiness. Her dad tells Medina he will be there shortly to discuss the situation. Meanwhile, Isela, left, waits to sign an attendance contract with Medina for next year.

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No excuses allowed

Medina doesn't know every student.

Victor, for example, is hanging out in the back stairwell of the top floor long after morning classes have started. He first tells Medina he doesn't have a class that period. Then he says he forgot to set his watch for the change to daylight-saving time, even though Medina notices that Victor's cell phone is flashing the correct time.

Medina gets on the walkie-talkie with Llanas, who checks and finds that Victor should be in class.

Medina walks Victor to his office, where he pulls up his records. They show that Victor has missed a lot of classes. "It's becoming a habit," Medina says.

Llanas calls Victor's home. The number is disconnected. Victor gives Llanas a second number. It's also disconnected.

Victor is out of phone numbers and Medina is out of patience. He escorts Victor to the student counselor office to initiate a one-day suspension. Victor must have a parent accompany him to Lincoln before he can return, Medina says.

Not every intervention succeeds. Before the day is done, Medina will start paperwork to transfer two students to alternative schools — one for failing to meet a contract, the other at her mother's insistence.

Still, the successes outweigh the failures.

The cost to Lincoln for these successes is the $12 an hour Medina earns for a seven-hour day. Neither he nor Llanas is reimbursed for mileage.

"You have to have a love for these kids to do this," he says. "When they get that diploma, it's like a million-dollar check for me."

Lincoln High community liaison officer Dan Medina visits a group of boys outside school to make sure they return to class after lunch. He is part of a team that has increased average daily attendance at the school on South Federal Boulevard from 67 percent in 2002 to 82 percent last year.

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Larry, a ninth-grader, greets Medina as he enters school. Medina, fellow community liaison officer Luis Llanas and security guards monitor Lincoln's halls before school, making sure students get to class on time and with some sense of order.

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