Feb 5, 2009 9:29 pm US/Pacific
Efren Sanchez: From Gangbanging to College
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
Efren Sanchez figured he'd run out of chances by the time the Judge sent him to the Hanna Boys Center. He was a gangbanger with a long series of arrests for fighting in school, graffiti, drinking. "They always said I wasn't going to be anything," says Efren. "I felt like there was no point in life."
Fast forward now, three years later, as Efren gets his letter of acceptance from Landmark College in Vermont. How did that happen?
"When he first got to us, he was trusting of no one," says Dennis Crandall, Principal at Hanna Boys Center. "He mumbled. He would never speak to you. He would never look at you".
The counselors are used to that at Hanna, where the motto is "Turning Hurt into Hope". There are 105 residents there, and the work is very hands-on. Caseworker Kevin Thorpe says about a fourth of the boys has been involved in the juvenile justice system. "But even when they are referred by the court," he points out, "it is strictly voluntary. In Efren's case, as in all cases, he had to agree to come here. Before any boy enters our program, they meet individually with Father Crews, our director, to make sure that they want to be here. If their parents, the court, or anybody else is forcing them to attend and they don't want to, they don't enter our program."
Efren had never talked to anyone about his life at home. There was never any money, just six hungry kids and a lot of arguing. Sometimes he went to bed hungry. They were often homeless and lived in a shelter for a year- eight people crammed into a small room. "It was a dirty place, a nasty place," says Efren. Once they lived in a van, in a landfill. Other times, they would stay at other people's homes. "It was embarrassing," remembers Efren. "I didn't feel comfortable."
All of this he held inside and what surfaced was a destructive anger. He was ripe for the gang life.
"My brothers were in a gang," he says. I saw everyone else at the place where I lived was doing it, so I decided to join it. When I joined, I felt wanted, and they accepted me for who I was. That made me feel good about myself."
That's when the trouble started, the fights, and the arrests. "I didn't really care at that point," he says. "I didn't have anything else to do. I wasn't even going to school that much." On that point, Efren had company. The California Department of Education report from the school year 2006-2007 reports a 26.7% drop out rate among Latino students in high school.
It was a Judge who saw there was something different in Efren. From Juvenile Hall he sent him the Hanna Boys Center. The hurt every so slowly, began to turn to hope.
"First I didn't want to talk to anyone about my problems", he says, "then I slowly started opening up and they accepted everything." There was no judgement, just listening, and teaching.
"The thing that happened with him with him is he loves school, and he's good at it", says Dennis Crandall. "He has a great mind, he's very curious and loves to learn."
Part of the solution for Efren came from inside." Even while Efren was struggling with gangs and juvenile hall, there was something in him that made him realize that he needed to change," says Thorpe. "I knew I wanted to leave the gang, but I didn't know how to. I didn't have the support to do it. But then, I came here."
He hunkered down with his studies and his grades began changing to B's and A's. The good grades made him feel better about himself. "He's not the same person", says Crandall. "He's still behind a little bit, but he's moving fast… He really is a natural student. He loves to learn, and he's not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get in the middle of stuff."
It's a new hope for Efren, and it feels good. "Once I get my education", he says, "I can do whatever I want. Have a family, a house, and seek the good life. Something I never had. I never had it before, but I know I can get it."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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