This week’s Independent Lens is titled The Bad Kids and looks at students whom the system thinks are lost causes, but that one California school still sees potential in.
Spending a year at Black Rock Continuation High School for kids at risk, this documentary looks at the tricky issues that the students, teachers and the school’s principal have to deal with when trying to navigate high school when life throws some real curve balls.
The wider system might have written these teens off and perhaps even most of society might look on their prospects as pretty grim but this school gives them hope.
We meet Lee who has just become a father but he has not a clue about the responsibilities involved. Then there is Jennifer who suffered sexual abuse and has struggled to stay on the straight and narrow since.
They are just a couple of the dozens of kids who have often faced obstacles most of us could never imagine our children going through.
Independent Lens airs Mondays at 10:00 PM on PBS.