From Street Smart to School Smart

David P. Sortino, PhD, has over 40 years of experience as a teacher, administrator, educational consultant and neuroscientist with at-risk youth. He is the former school principal with the Just Community Emancipation Program for ex-juvenile offenders at the Clark Academy. He obtained a PhD in clinical psychology and then worked at a north bay juvenile hall for four years as a moral development consultant, running groups and retraining staff about recent developmental theories, etc. He also taught several university courses in moral development and the life cycles.

• Author’s NotePrefaceAcknowledgements Chapter One: The Worse Part of the GameChapter Two: Three Months LaterChapter Three: A New Teacher Principal ManChapter Four: Used DesksChapter Five: Maya Angelou To the RescueChapter Six: Constitution ConventionChapter Seven: Go Easy on Dj?Chapter Eight: Man, On the FloorChapter Nine: She Forgot Her Pot?Chapter Ten: She Took-Off the Band-AidesChapter Eleven: When Art Therapy Becomes Talk TherapyChapter Twelve: Mr. Buddha Man on the Floor?Chapter Thirteen: Playin’ the DozinsChapter Fourteen: This Couch Really SucksChapter Fifteen: More PrunesChapter Sixteen: Little Brothers We Wish We HadChapter Seventeen: When You Don’t Have A Future?Chapter Eighteen: Never A Time for CokeChapter Nineteen: Colonel Sanders and Road WarriorChapter Twenty: It Never Leaves YouChapter Twenty- One: Sister of The StreetsChapter Twenty-Two: His Sacred CowChapter Twenty-Three: No Pussy VotesChapter Twenty- Four: Man, on the SidewalkChapter Twenty- Five: AndreaChapter Twenty- Six: To Be A Snitch or Not To Be A SnitchChapter Twenty- Seven: Track MeetChapter Twenty- Eight: Top Dog or Shop BullyChapter Twenty- Nine: Can’t Always Run from FailureChapter Thirty: Go Easy on Dj TestsChapter Thirty- One I Know She Has Gone to HeavenChapter Thirty-Two: Pullin for Us to SucceedChapter Thirty-Three: Two Inches from The GutterChapter Thirty- Four: The Real Game of Life BeginsEpilogue: The Circle of Life

This excellent story about 14 ex-teenage prostitutes, drug dealers, and gang bangers provides a poignant description of how Sortino transformed the behaviors of at-risk teen girls while serving as the teacher and principal of a Northern California "just community" residential facility. The main character Jewels Odom offers an eyewitness account of her journey from her street smart to school smart experience with her 13 Clark Academy sisters. Moreover, this book addresses not only the journey of at-risk teen girls from juvenile hall to the Clark Academy; it also provides a voice for the 900,000 (USA) girls, ages ten and older, and 20 million worldwide who are forced into prostitution and sex trafficking. Finally, there have been many books written about at risk youth, but few have been able to truly capture the day-to-day trials and tribulations of at-risk teen girls who, regardless of all their personal challenges, pass the GED test and are able to move on from a life on the streets to becoming productive citizens. This is their story.