Youth Advisers Bring Order and an Empathetic Ear

Watkins has assigned Bladensburg and Largo six youth advisers each. They help with counseling and mentoring students, patrolling hallways and maintaining order in sometimes-chaotic areas such as the cafeteria and in-school suspension rooms, he said.

Even the toughest students can relate to the youth advisers, who are young adults from their neighborhoods, officials said. Students tell the advisers about conflicts that might result in violence without feeling they are snitching, and they trust the advisers to help them navigate the maze of survival in an urban school environment, Woodson said.

"The youth advisers are not just counselors. They are witnesses to these children," Woodson said. "They can see, 'His dad was in jail,' or 'Her mom was a prostitute,' and 'He is from an area that has problems, but they are law-abiding citizens.' Kids who have ears that are closed to advice have hearts that are open to examples."

Monica Chavez, 17, a senior at Bladensburg, said she was skipping class, smoking marijuana, hanging with a rough crowd and planning to drop out when she met youth adviser Luky Robles last year.

Robles, 23, of the Riverdale Park area, had had many of the same experiences. As a student at Bladensburg a few years ago, she was "a wild child" who dropped out after getting pregnant, Robles said.

"At first I was like, 'Who are these people who are up here trying to talk to me?' " said Chavez, also of the Riverdale Park area. "Then, Luky started talking to me."

Chavez said she appreciated the way Robles took an interest in her and related her own experience.

"I really started listening to her," Chavez said. "Then, when she told me to go to class and stuff like that, I would go. I thought, 'She's had some of the same problems as me, and she's made it. Maybe I can, too.' "

Watkins said that young people are initially skeptical but that the advisers win them over by showing concern for the troubled students as well as those who are excelling. Robles said she reaches her students by showing them that they can turn their lives around.

"I tell them, 'Look, I understand what you are going through. Been there, done that . . . skipping school, drinking, partying.' But I also tell them how much I regret doing those things and tell them that they can make better choices," she said. "It's hard for adults to tell them what to do without knowing what they are going through. They know that I know."