Research: Searching for a Safer Path

By Debra Viadero

Fredericksburg, Va.

A yellowed alphabet banner, the kind that once hung above blackboards everywhere, is still pasted on a classroom wall here at the Regional Alternative Education Program. But the four teenage boys sitting beneath it are learning a different, more modern alphabet today.

Slumping in metal desks that are too small for their adolescent frames, these students learn that the A in this alphabet stands for "anger trigger." What sets them off? The letter B is for "behavioral reaction;" C stands for "consequences."

The anger-management ABCs are a regular part of the school week for these students, all of whom are in the alternative program because they have been suspended from or kicked out of their own high schools. One young man's offense was bringing a knife and a bullet to school. Two others were expelled after taking drugs or bringing them to school. A fourth landed here for pushing a teacher. They come to this school—or are ordered to it by a judge—because the only other educational choice for...