By Bob Ray Sanders
bobray@star-telegram.com
At the beginning of this school year, a 19-year-old man with a troubled past showed up at Dunbar High School and begged Principal Carlos Walker to let him enroll.
Deterrius Boose had recently moved to Fort Worth from Dallas, where he had failed to graduate from school because of excessive absences and bad grades.
Walker, himself new to Dunbar, said he was hesitant to admit Boose. The last thing Walker needed was another problem student in the school or one who was likely to drop out.
"He hinted that he was trying to change his life," Walker said. "He was putting his past behind him."
Boose, who told me he was "ready for help," definitely needed to make some changes.
In an essay Boose wrote, in which he talks about himself in the third person, he says he was born in the small town of Helena, Ark., and never had a father figure in his life. By age 8, he was constantly moved around Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, being raised for a while by a grandmother whom he loved.
"At age 13 his mother took him to the state of Texas for a new beginning, thinking this would be best for him at [this] time in his life, but this would only be the point of no return for him," he wrote.
Boose said the family settled in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas, where violence and gang activities were prevalent. He was recruited by a gang and later joined.
"While in the gang he had a reputation for fighting and soon earned the nickname 'Boose Dogg' for his tenacious heart and ability to keep fighting even when badly hurt," he said.
His grandmother -- the "most important woman in his life"-- died in 2010, causing him to spin "out of control ... He gave up on family, friends, school and even himself.
"In this dark stage of life, he even contemplated suicide but never told anyone because he felt no one understood him [or] would care about his feelings."
On a Sunday, he decided to go to church and felt the pastor's sermon on loneliness was speaking directly to him. He said he started crying "and he realized he had more to live for than he thought he did."
His mother moved him to Fort Worth to get away from the environment in Dallas, and he decided he needed to finish school. That's when he was directed to Dunbar and met its new principal.
"I told him I was taking a chance on him," Walker said. "He came in, and he was a model student."
After enrolling in school, having made up his mind that he would succeed in life, Boose had one other thing he had to do: he drove to the old Dallas neighborhood "and got jumped out of his old gang," as his former "brothers" called him names and predicted his failure.
Thursday, he's expected to complete all of his course work for early graduation.
But that's not all of the story.
He applied at several colleges, and recently, he said, he came home to a smiling mother holding four envelopes.
"He read them," Boose said, "and they all said the same thing: Congratulations Deterrius, you are accepted into Navarro, Temple, Blinn and Kilgore College. He instantly ran outside looked to the sky and yelled, 'Grandma, I did it. I made it finally. Thanks for looking out for me.'"
He is enrolled at Navarro College in Corsicana, where he will study kinesiology.
Concluding his essay, he wrote, "I am Deterrius Boose and I am that black boy everyone frowned upon because they didn't understand me. I am writing this paper to say that it doesn't matter where you came from, how you are raised and what battles you may go through, but how you stand up to the challenges and succeed in them.
"Just know the sky is the limit and don't give up; anything is possible with God and people who actually believe in you."
Bob Ray Sanders' column appears Sundays and Wednesdays.817-390-7775 Twitter: @BobRaySanders
Looking for comments?
