I was expelled from school in 10th grade because I used to skip class to read books in the woods and play pranks on friends. If you received 7 suspensions, for any reason, you were kicked out. I was just a punk kid who was bored and really, really liked the read. Luckily I grew up in a upper-middle class suburb of Philadelphia and they would do anything they could to not have that statistic. Instead of being expelled, I had to go to Night School. Night School start at 4pm and lasted until 7pm with two classes a day, once a week. It was AMAZING. The teachers that taught Night School were the same teachers during the day, but they were the best of the best. It was a new program that they wanted to show off. Look at our system straightening out the bad kids! Well, of the seven in my "class" only two of us, myself included, took it seriously. Because of this we were able to take on advanced subjects due to the small size of the class. The students who didn't care nor tried to do anything just got workbooks whereas WE got to tackle difficult and complex parts of the class they wouldn't during the day. Unfortunately, Rachael and I had a 4.0 after the semester ended without any behavior issues. I was able to return to school for the final semester of 10th grade and I was far more advanced than the day students during 11th and 12th grade. As a senior I was in all advanced classes, but learned all of the material in 10th grade night school. And another unfortunate event ended the night school program when a student decided to beat the shit out of the head of the program. A sweet, 67 year old woman who returned from retirement because she thought she could help kids who were "troubled". Even after the student broke her jaw and busted her eye socket she fought and fought to keep the program. Even appearing at court to try and talk the judge out of giving the kid jail and a record. I feel really bad for her, but without her I wouldn't be where I am now.