Lori Stern

And the St.

Paul School District made a bunch of changes.

It closed EBD-only classrooms and sent those students into regular classes, sometimes accompanied by special ed teachers.

That approach that was called mainstreaming.

Well, it was mixed.

There was tremendous backlash.

A lot of teachers and parents said classrooms got too disruptive, too chaotic.

But some families said their students with EBD did much better in regular classrooms.

And Aisha, I met one man who said basically mainstreaming saved him.

What was so helpful about mainstreaming for him?

So Tyrone Williams had also been in Mr. K's EBD classroom years before Walt, of course.

But like Walt, he was a black kid from a poor family who'd seen more than his share of trauma.

And he had a history of getting into fights.

But then in 11th grade, the school district implemented mainstreaming.

And Williams started going to regular classes.

Williams is 27 now.

He's got a steady job and he lives in a renovated mid-century apartment in downtown St.

Paul.

And that's where we met.

What would have become of you if you hadn't had those opportunities of going into more challenging classes?