ROGERS — Crossing the stage was an important milestone for Manny Hernandez and Percela Velasco.
The couple celebrates their son’s third birthday in June, their first wedding anniversary in July and, Friday, the two 19-year-olds celebrated their high school graduation.
“I want my mom to see me walk. I want everyone to see me walk,” Hernandez said. “All those people who told me I couldn’t graduate. Here I am now.”
People told them they couldn’t graduate, couldn’t raise their son together, couldn’t stay together. Even family members hoped Hernandez could stay out of jail and expected Percela to just stay home with the baby, the couple said.
In fact, it was their son who motivated her to graduate, Velasco said. It was hard when she found out she was pregnant, but she said having a child at 16 helped her to mature. Both Hernandez and Velasco were raised by single mothers. Velasco wanted her son to be raised by his father.
“It was like, ‘We have to graduate, and the faster the better’,” Velasco said.
Coming to that same decision took time for Hernandez. Velasco lost credits and time in school because of her pregnancy. Hernandez would fight and get expelled.
There were moments where he knew he had to change.
As a 15-year-old, he flipped his car five times then ran from the wreck that balled his car so badly police called his mother and told her he was dead, Hernandez said. A friend died in a similar wreck in the same place days later.
Friends asked him to back them up at a fight. Velasco met them at the door and told them Hernandez wasn’t home. A man died in the fight and his friends were arrested in connection with murder, Hernandez said.
Just before their son was born, Hernandez said he was riding with an acquaintance. They turned the corner and the man handed him a wadded up napkin, asking him to throw it out the window. Hernandez did. The package he tossed was methamphetamine and Hernandez was arrested.
His lawyer told the 16-year-old Hernandez he would probably get 10 to 15 years in prison. His heart sank.
“The only thing going through my head is the baby, I’m not going to see him born,” Hernandez said.
When he walked into the courtroom, Hernandez was sure he would go to prison. Then he got his big chance.
“’I see a lot of potential in you,’” he said he heard the judge say. “’Today I’m going to let you go home with your mom.’”
That was a turning point, he said. Baby Manuel’s birth was another.
“I saw my son and was like, 'Whoa.' It was something different I felt. I can’t be doing this,” he said.
His plan had been to drop out of school and just be with Velasco. The plan changed.
The couple ended up at the Crossroads Alternative High School Program.
When they arrived they were young, naive and in over their heads, but they were determined to figure out how to swim, said Linda Haley, director of counseling for Rogers schools. The couple didn't just finish school for themselves.
“When they make it, they’re making it for their family,” Haley said.
Velasco said she went back to school with two boys to raise, her son and her boyfriend. She attended a parenting support group with other mothers. She said she learned to allow Hernandez to talk to other people without jealousy and without worrying that they would lead him into trouble.
By The Numbers (w/logo)
Rogers Classes of 2013
w 102: number of graduates who attended Crossroads Alternative High School Program, Extended Day Alternative High School Program and Therapeutic Day Program.
• 439: Heritage High School graduates
• 463: Rogers High School graduates
• $4,694,460: Heritage graduates scholarships
• $5,882,470: Rogers High graduates scholarships
Source: Rogers School District
Hernandez started at Crossroads with a half-credit of the 24 he needed to graduate. Before he got serious about learning, he said he had pushed classwork off on teachers, claiming not to understand. He boycotted tests. Any taunt from another student would make him want to fight, but he learned to visualize consequences and think of his family first, Hernandez said. He wants to be there for his son.
“Manny transformed from the street mentality to ‘I have a wife and a child’,” Haley said.
The two started dating when they were 14, Velasco said, but as they learn to relate to people independent of each other, they found themselves as a couple.
She is proud of Hernandez.
“He’s made such a 360, it’s unbelievable,” she said.
He works for a hotel, but is considering vocational training and a barber’s license. She works in a fast food restaurant, but said she is looking for a better job and thinking about going to college to become an English teacher.
Dropping out is the easy way out, they said.
Graduation is just a small part of a big journey, Haley said, but students who dismiss school handicap themselves.
“Take the journey,” she said.
“It’s worth it,” Velasco said, “I feel like it’s a big part in growing up.”