The Regrets of a School Dropout

He transferred to Potomac High School in Oxon Hill, where he found more opportunities to skip. Nobody addressed his chronic truancy, he said. He was suspended only twice for truancy, even though he missed dozens of days his sophomore year and more than a third of his junior year.

"It was like it wasn't a big deal to anybody, so it wasn't a big deal to me," he said. Because there were no consequences, quitting was easy.

Not Getting the Basics

Prince George's County District Judge Herman Dawson, who regularly deals with the issue in his courtroom, said skipping school and lack of educational support at home leaves many young people unprepared to survive high school.

"They are not getting the basics in elementary school, so by the time they get to high school, they have lost interest," Dawson said. "They can't compete. Because they can't compete, they become disruptive and eventually they end up leaving."

Neville Adams, an English teacher at Parkdale High School in New Carrollton, said many black male students are pushed out.

"If you don't come to school or you walk the halls," you "will be withdrawn from school, and that basically leaves them with no place to go," he said. " Later, they just don't go back. We don't try to find out why kids aren't learning or why they're not coming to class, we just write them off."

In Prince George's, 39 percent of African American male students dropped out during the 2003-04 school year, according to the Schott report. That compared with 43 percent for white male students. Yet the county, along with Montgomery, where 36 percent of black males dropped out, was credited with success in retaining such students and graduating them at a rate similar to the national average for white male high school graduates, the report said.

Educators said that while Prince George's does better than many jurisdictions, the dropout rate is still too high.

"We have got to do a better job of engaging these students, helping them to overcome the problems that make them lag behind and eventually drop out," said Howard Stone, a former Prince George's school board member.

Campbell said several of his friends also dropped out, like his best friend, Larry Smith, 20, of Capitol Heights, who left school in his senior year. Smith took the GED exam and passed it a few months later.

On a recent afternoon, the two talked about their regrets and their futures. Smith wants to be a race-car driver. Campbell, he said, could be his crew chief.

"Just because you drop out doesn't mean you don't have plans," Smith said. "It doesn't mean you don't have a future."

Lately, Campbell said, he has cut back on his television time to study for the GED. Once enrolled in Advanced Placement classes, he is worried about the math portion of the exam.

"I'm hoping I will do well because this will open up another door if I do," he said. "I'll be one step closer to the way I want to be -- working, living comfortably."

Campbell had planned to take the exam this week but hit a snag: He failed to send in the $32 application fee.

"I'm very upset because I wanted to get it done," he said. "I wanted to start having those doors opened. I still plan to do it."

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.