When Adolfo Avalos looks back at his teen years in Gaithersburg, he can see how much went wrong. There were physical fights, school problems, gang involvement, anger at himself and the world: so much trouble that he finally dropped out.
"I got kind of like in a box, and I didn't know how to get out of it," said Avalos, 21.
His experiences reflect what community leaders describe as a crisis for many Latino teenagers in Montgomery County.
High school graduation rates for Latino youths in Montgomery are lower than for any other racial or ethnic group in the county. Last year, 78.13 percent of Latinos in Montgomery received diplomas, compared with 94.5 percent for non-Hispanic whites, 83.94 percent for African Americans and 95.45 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders. At the same time, the birth rate for Latinas 15 to 17 was nearly three times higher than for African Americans and nearly four times higher than for non-Hispanic whites, according to state health statistics. READ FULL STORY
Comments