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Apr 24, 2006

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THE DO-OVER SCHOOL
For high school dropouts, a chance for a second chance
By Alex Kingsbury

U.S. News & World Report

Kyle Dotson is used to waking up with the sun. Back when he lived at home, he was regularly up at dawn to "conduct business," selling drugs at the school bus stop in his Chicago neighborhood. He got kicked out of high school, but that didn't bother him. Dotson was 17, and the streets, he was sure, would keep him in cash. A stiff shot of reality soon changed that tune, though. "I didn't want my mom to see me end up in jail," he says, "or dead."

That's why Dotson is now Cadet Dotson, a bright-eyed young man with a quick sense of humor who can't help but keep his back and shoulders ramrod straight. The National Guard Youth Challenge Academy, in rural Rantoul, Ill., 120 miles south of Chicago, is the type of place where backs and lives get straightened out, usually real fast. After only a few weeks at the academy, Dotson talks about attending barber school and "doing my life the legit way."

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