Kyle Frank understands why he was expelled from W.T. Woodson. He also thinks it may have been one of the best things to happen.
At Mountain View, he concentrated more on studying and his grades. He read more than he ever had before, and he recognized that he will engage in a career in the military, something he said he would have never picked if he didn't go to Mountain View.
"I think of this more like going to a community college," said Frank, who graduated on June 16.
Frank missed the electives that he could have taken at his home school as well as the opportunity to play football and lacrosse, which aren't available at the alternative school or to some students who have been expelled, but he gained strong relationships with teachers and with a wide range of students at the alternative school.
"It opens you up to a whole new world. I wouldn't have talked to half the people that I talk to now at my base school," he said.
He appreciates that Mountain View is available to give some students a second chance. "For some people, it's their last chance to go to school," he said.
"It's good to have alternative schools because people who have been expelled from other schools are just put back in the same kind of similar situations in another school and they can mess up," he said.