Great Divide Doesn’t Deter Duquesne High School Teen

By Tim Puko

Domonique Walker knew she had no reason to be nervous. Her graduation at East Allegheny High School was never really in doubt.

When graduation day rolled around, that just didn’t matter. Walker, 17, spent the hour at school before her Wednesday ceremony fidgeting with her cap and gown — adjusting the tassel, zipping and unzipping, pulling the gold gown up and down to feel some air in the stuffy hallway.

In some ways, it had been a hard year in a new school: She had to make drastic adjustments to work at a level never expected of her at Duquesne High School, which she attended before the state closed it a year ago.

In other ways it had been an exhilarating year: She made new friends, and the new teachers and students she met helped her understand the importance of sacrifice and long-term goals.

“There are some people who don’t make it, who have to get a GED instead of a diploma. But I can actually say I’ve finished,” Walker said the morning of her graduation. “It was really tough for me. I went from Duquesne, where I wasn’t working that much, to East Allegheny (where) I’m working every day. Every day I’m taking notes, keeping a binder, studying, every day.”

Next step: Bradford

Walker is ready to begin the next chapter of her life. Almost a week before graduation, she was up early with a friend on a Friday morning handing in job applications to businesses all over the Waterfront in Homestead. In September she starts a two-year program at the Bradford School in the South Side, where she’ll study business marketing and management.

She focused on Bradford in the spring, after years of indecision that even had her considering the study of mortuary sciences at Gannon University. Her mother is happy with the Bradford choice because she will live at home and have the flexibility to continue her education after just a two-year program.

“I’m proud, oh, I’m so proud, I just don’t know, I could just cry. . . . She’s made it through high school, no babies, you know, no problems, no fights, no nothing. She’s a wonderful young lady,” Walker’s mother Geneva Washington said earlier this year.

New students succeed

The other six Duquesne seniors at East Allegheny graduated Wednesday evening, high school counselor Cheryl Ihnat said. Two plan to go to college, and school officials are waiting to hear what the other four plan.

All but one of 23 Duquesne students at West Mifflin Area High School — the other school state officials chose to send Duquesne students to after it closed — also graduated. The remaining student is expected to graduate after summer school, West Mifflin spokeswoman Robyn L. Tedesco said.

Both schools expect to have more data within several weeks about where graduates are going and if the younger Duquesne students are passing. A couple of parents have said their children are struggling with the adjustment, socially and academically.

Washington said she has some regret about choosing East Allegheny, resentful of how the school’s principal responded to an alleged racist comment made toward Walker last month. Race has been an issue since the beginning of summer 2007, when the state mandated that East Allegheny and West Mifflin accept students from the closed, predominantly black Duquesne High School.

Even as another 65 rising freshmen from Duquesne enrolled in both schools in May, their fate is not assured. The two districts are still fighting the state’s plan, and their lawyers will be in Commonwealth Court Wednesday asking it to be thrown out as unconstitutional.

Despite the concerns, including her own mother’s, Walker is happy she chose East Allegheny. She said she worked harder, learned more and feels a greater sense of accomplishment after passing her final year there.

“The kids (at East Allegheny), they focus on other things, not materialistic things like a car, but what they’re doing after high school, when they start their job,” Walker said. “School is very important.”

She said her foster sister Christina Seaton “completely transformed,” too, even shunning the sweatpants and T-shirts that used to make up most of her wardrobe. East Allegheny faculty helped Washington learn more about the college financial-aid process, and she plans to start on Seaton’s search before her senior year begins this fall.

Another foster sister, Latasha Brown, won the most-improved- student award for freshmen and moved out of special education classes, Washington said.

Graduating with friends

When her old school closed, Walker’s big fear was that everyone in her community would be forced to “graduate with strangers.”

Her prom date was a boy from North Versailles. At the beginning of the year she had fun hanging out with her cheerleading teammates, none of whom was from Duquesne. And now her friends at the school are a racially mixed group from both Duquesne and the East Allegheny communities, she said.

Wednesday night, she posed with several of them and family members, lining up for a seemingly endless series of snapshots before and after the ceremony. She left her gown open for most of them; the visible edges of her yellow tank top and her yellow high- heels perfectly matched her gown.

When her name was called, one of the last to come in alphabetical order, she walked across the stage to get her diploma. She was smiling as she stepped on the stage, and crying by the time she stepped off. She covered her face with one hand, and the corner of her blue sash drifted clumsily from her back to her shoulder.

There were more pictures and seven hugs from people in the audience as she walked back to her seat. Later outside, after more hugs and more pictures with friends, her mother gave her four balloons for one final picture in her graduation outfit.

Three blue and yellow balloons said East Allegheny. The other balloon, a red one, said Duquesne.

“You know,” Washington said before she snapped the picture, “she’s from both schools.”

(c) 2008 Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.