'I've started to care about my future'.

• Author: Shirali, Danny
• Position: Voices

I go to an alternative school called the Kingsley Wilderness Project in Clarksburg, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. The school has about 30 students, all boys. Most of us would be classified as problem kids, or screw-ups: people who couldn't hack it in a "normal" high school.

I come from a middle-class family. My parents are together and have been there for me. But during my freshman year, I fell in with the wrong crowd at school and started using drugs. I was cutting class a lot and failing. I realized if I didn't do something soon, I wouldn't graduate and my future would be limited.

I was in the process of getting kicked out of my regular high school when I heard about Kingsley from a friend who goes here. There were a handful of alternative schools I was considering, but this one really stood out.

The first thing you notice when you take a trip to Kingsley is that it is located about 100 yards from the Clarksburg Correctional Facility, which is where the D.C. snipers were held. We have a clear view of the jail at all times. It reminds me every day that if I had kept up my former lifestyle, that's probably where I would have ended up. On my 16th birthday, I was arrested for burglary, and I'm still on probation; the next step would have been jail.

Kingsley, which opened 26 years ago, gave me the opportunity that I needed. School starts at 10 a.m., and our classes usually have no more than five students, so no one can slack off.

At my old...