REALITY SETS IN QUICKLY FOR HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS (GETTING A DROP ON DROP OUTS: PART 1)

For a number of Cape Girardeau students, dropping out of high school seems to be mandatory. They feel they cannot make it in the school system, and since they can't keep up, they may as well give up.

Cape Girardeau's high school drop-out rate was 11.7 percent for the 1995-96 school year. This is more than 5 percentage points higher than the statewide average, and some former students said there is a simple reason for the higher numbers: economics.

"I dropped out because of a lack of money," said one former student, who did not want to be identified. "I moved out on my own, and I needed money for life, and to participate in things at school." He said he cannot finish school or obtain his general equivalency diploma (GED) because he has children he has to support.

Cape Girardeau has a large pool of service and menial labor jobs, and public or private assistance can be obtained for everything from food to utility assistance.

Add to that the attraction of quick and easy money to be gotten from dealing drugs or other illegal activities, and it becomes easy to see why so many students believe they have options available if they decide to drop out.

But not everyone who drops out of school does so for economic reasons. Some young adults drop out because of disagreements with parents about friends, sexual issues (including pregnancy), or criminal practices. Others drop out because they see no future for themselves.

"I had a baby when I was 14," said Shirley Clark, who is now 21. "I stayed in school until the 10th grade, then I dropped out. I tried to go back twice, but it just wasn't working. I couldn't get to class on time, then keep up with the class. By the time I'd get to the lesson we were on, they'd already be taking the test."

Clark dropped out of high school at the age of 17 because she said she couldn't keep up with her classes. Getting to school on time is hard when you have a baby, she said, then you have to sit in detention worried because you know you have to pick up your baby from the day care center. Another reason she left school was because her only friends moved away, which made her lonely.

She said she never realized how important high school was to her future. "No one ever said that the classes you take affect what kind of future you'll have," she said.

Clark believes many students take easy classes to get through high school, only to find out they have no experience with things they need to know once they enter the work force.

"My mom and everybody kept asking me what was I going to do with my life since I dropped out," she said. "I wanted to do something, because I knew I couldn't just sit around the house on welfare."

What Clark did was try to enroll in beauty school when she was 18 years old. She said this move showed her the importance of graduating.

"They told me I needed at least a 10th-grade equivalency, so I applied for the GED, hoping to get that. I passed the whole thing with 20 points to spare," she said.

Clark was finishing her study at beauty school at the same time her classmates graduated from high school. She said she has regretted not graduating with her class.

"If I could do it all again, I would have stayed in school," she said. "I missed prom, graduation and all that stuff. My whole life I waited to go to the prom, then I took that away from myself."

She said even though she studied for a trade, she does not feel she is successful.

"I'm still not where I want to be," she said. "I've always wanted to be off welfare, to be financially independent, and I'm still striving for that goal today. I feel like I've done better, but I could have done a lot more, too. My advice to the students is to stay in school and worry about high school problems for now. Worry about adult problems when you become adults."