Lori Stern

Williams graduated from Central after four years.

He said mainstreaming helped him meet kids from different backgrounds.

He got involved in extracurriculars, and he even took an advanced placement class.

That's actually a pretty long story.

But the bottom line is teachers told me they felt blindsided at the time by all the changes the school district made at once.

They said they didn't have enough training or support or time to prepare.

And as a result, schools did get more chaotic and violent.

And then in 2016, the superintendent and a lot of the school board were replaced and mainstreaming was scrapped.

The school district returned to the old way of doing things, what we have now, separate EBD classrooms.

Yes.

And you know, Aisha, when I started following Walt, I was pretty sure this story would end with a scene of him graduating from Central.

It's what he said he wanted.

It's what Mr. K wanted.

And schools like Central are trying to improve their four-year graduation rate.

But it didn't happen.

Yeah, and there was turmoil at home, too.

His sister got arrested.

And not long after Walt changed schools, his family was forced to leave their house because the city declared it unlivable.

They had to move to a motel that accepted housing vouchers.

Yeah, you know, it's something I talked to Walt about.