Treasure Island charter school giving students new hope
TREASURE ISLAND (KTVU) -- On Treasure Island, nestled between the abandoned buildings, is an unsuspecting place.
It’s called Life Learning Academy, a charter school for students who have truly reached the end of the line. Many of the high schoolers have been kicked out of other schools in the San Francisco Unified School District. Officials say others of them have criminal records and about 45 percent of them have probation officers.
One such student is Ari Liccardo, 17, who was expelled from Balboa High School two years ago after bringing a gun school.
In jail, a probation officer gave him a phone number for Teri Delane, the principal at Life Learning Academy. Liccardo figured he had nothing to lose.
“She started yelling at me,” Liccardo said. “She was like, ‘You’re stupid for bringing a gun to school.’ She was yelling at me cause that’s how Teri is, she yells, but she loves everybody.”
Liccardo found a home at Life Learning Academy and for the first time, felt as if he belonged.
Yet, his troubles continued. This past May, he was shot in the neck and ended up in the hospital. Delane came to visit him, but did not have much sympathy to offer.
“I went to the hospital and I started yelling at him about being out at 2 o’clock in the morning,” Delane said. “I wanted him to know someone cared about his life.”
The school boasts a 90 percent graduation rate and Liccardo is among the students graduating in May.
“I don’t think I would have graduated or even gone back to school if I didn’t come here,” Liccardo said. “My life would probably be completely different.”
Delane relates so strongly with the students because she has overcome her own past of abuse and addiction.
“I had a needle in my arm at 14. I overdosed three times to where I almost died,” Delane said.
As a young woman, Delane ended up at Delancey Street, a well-known residential rehab program in San Francisco. There, she learned a principle that changed her life.
“I had to learn what a family looked like, how you sit down and eat dinner together, how you push each other to do more and do better. And that’s what I learned. And what I learn, I give. And what they learn, I expect them to give it to someone else,” Delane said.
There’s something else that makes Life Learning Academy unique: 20 of the 60 students who attend class there, are considered homeless, not having a permanent place to stay from night to night.
That’s why the school is now trying to raise money to build a boarding school on the grounds. An architect has already drawn up plans, and the school hopes to break ground sometime next year. Delane envisions a safe place where students can live, learn and grow.
“We need to prove to people that no matter where you come from, which is what I tell them.. that you’re worth something, that you can change, that you’re smart, that you can have a future.”