Washington Alternative School students created this custom bicycle over a four-week period, according to art instructor Joshua Coleman. From left are Austin Romine, Jamycal Johnson, Eric Norwood and Matt Rieder.One wall is lined with self-portraits showing students’ struggles with good and evil. Across the hall hang pieces of poetry with titles such as “The System,” “Without My Father” and “Get a Hold of Life.”
On the self-portrait wall, a bright-red papier-maché mask in the shape of a heart belongs to 15-year-old Toriq Johnson. The heart is bleeding as a small window to the inside shows a timer ticking down to 00:01.
“As the time decreased, it started to bleed out because love wasn’t found,” Toriq said. “That’s just how I was feeling at the time.”
Teens like Toriq are considered the bad boys, the worst-behaved in Hamilton County Schools, some say. Students from sixth through 12th grade find themselves at Washington Alternative Learning Center because of behavioral problems such as drug use or violence against teachers and students at other schools.
But it’s teenagers like Toriq who are finding reprieve from their own tumult and thriving in a new art class.