John Harte / Center for Public Integrity
Erick Araujo, 13, walks toward his home in the Kern County town of Lost Hills last month. Erick was expelled for a year from a middle school in Lost Hills. Because he can't regularly get to the community school 38 miles away where he was told to enroll, he now studies at home.Alternative education for troubled California students raises questions
Published: Sunday, Jul. 21, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 3A
LOST HILLS – On a blistering May day in the Central Valley, most other 13-year-olds were in school. But Erick Araujo was under orders from his mother to stay inside with a U.S. history textbook.
The seventh-grader actually didn't have much to do. Over four days, his only task was to read three chapters and answer, briefly, a few questions per chapter.
"Pretty easy," the boy with braces shrugged, leafing through pages.
He had no math. No English. No science. No other books to engage his love of history.
This could be Erick's schooling until he's halfway through eighth grade in early 2014.
That's because in February, Erick was expelled for a year from Lost Hills' A.M. Thomas Middle