Hitting Rock Bottom

Forty-two teenage men and women, all wearing camouflage Army uniforms, standing in columns with their platoons, as the American flag is being raised.  Many of their uniforms displayed metals for outstanding performance. All of them proud of what they represented – the Alder Grove Academy.

 They came from most of Placer County’s high schools, court and community schools and junior high.  Even though they each had their own story, they were either arrested and placed on probation and/or suspended or expelled and sent to the Academy as their last shot at turning their lives around. Most of these at-risk students hated school and their truancy had resulting in credit deficiencies.  Others had rebelled against authority figures at their school. Some had alcohol and drug use problems that further their downward spiral.

At the Alder Grove Academy they would come face to face with a retired police sergeant who prided himself as an “Old School” teacher.  They would be entering a school that operated on order, structure and discipline.  There were no victims in the Academy.  For many, this would be the hardest academic and physical school they had ever attended. In partnership with the U.S. Army, they would slowly become a family learning that their choices from here on out, depended on whether they had reached rock bottom and sincerely wanted to change.

They offer their stories in hopes of turning at least one at-risk students around like they did.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introductory Note to Our Readers, by Gary J. Rose

                          PART I     A MATTER OF BELONGING

The Alder Grove Academy Cadet Oath

CHAPTER 1     What It Looks Like At Rock Bottom

CHAPTER 2     Journals -- In the Beginning

CHAPTER 3     From Animals to Cupcakes

CHAPTER 4     Journals -- Where We Come From

CHAPTER 5     We All Bleed

CHAPTER 6     Journals -- Family Ties

CHAPTER 7     You Can't Save Everyone

CHAPTER 8     Journals -- A Message from Death Row to At-Risk Teens

                          Part II        STAND AND DELIVER

CHAPTER 9      Blueprint for an Academy

CHAPTER 10    Journals -- Some Sort of Military School

CHAPTER 11    Marshaling Our Forces

CHAPTER 12    Journals -- Rise and Shine

CHAPTER 13    Turning Troubled Teens into Cadets

CHAPTER 14    Journals -- Forward March

CHAPTER 15    AGA Program Phases

CHAPTER 16    Journals -- Marching in Unison

CHAPTER 17    Going to School Spartan-Style

CHAPTER 18    Journals -- Promotions, Parties and Penalties

CHAPTER 19    A Parade of Pride at AGA - 2

CHAPTER 20    Journals -- Reading, Writing and Running Up the Dreaded Hill

CHAPTER 21    Spartans in Action

CHAPTER 22    Journals -- Of Love and War

                           Part III      THE PRICE OF CELEBRITY

CHAPTER 23     Spartans in the Spotlight at AGA -3

CHAPTER 24     Journals -- The Way Up from Rock Bottom

CHAPTER 25     Lights Out, a Time to Reflect

CHAPTER 26     Journals -- Saying Goodbye

CHAPTER 27     THE LAST DAY

CHAPTER 28     For Teens Who Don't Give a Damn - One Cadet's Message

                           PART IV      Looking Back

"Military Life in Auburn's Midst," by Gus Thomson, Auburn Journal, June 1, 2003

Students and Alder Grove Academy Cadets Look Back

Recollections of the Alder Grove Academy Staff

Statistics:  State of California Department of Juvenile Justice

                           PART V        FINAL WARNING

EPILOGUE