On January 17, I attended the Alternative school for a day, and the school isn’t as crazy as it is talked up to be. It’s just much calmer and smaller than Morton West and East.

The building that is now known as the Alternative School was first an old warehouse in the 90’s. As I spoke with Dr. Erin Kelly, the principal at the school, she said, “The idea of an Alternative school started in 1997 and at the time the school board here realized that students for various reasons were expelled and there were no services provided. This building used to be a warehouse, believe it or not, everything down the street was all old factories that in the 1980s had folded so they were abandoned. When the building opened, I taught here in ’98 until 2002 and carpentry students from Morton east came over and helped build it, it wasn’t a school it was an office building, so they did things like drywall and made it more school-like. They tore it down and rebuilt it in 2007, so it’s one floor, two hallways. We have about 20 staff that includes teachers, teacher aids, and three securities. It’s a tiny school because it’s a tiny building.”

The classes at the Alternative School are also filled with 13-15 students like any other Morton school; but the number of students in the classes I shadowed were from three to six, and during lunch, there were about 15 students in total. A regular school day at the Alternative School starts at 8:52 and ends at 1:42 with only five classes. Upon arriving to the school, students have to walk through a metal detector and be searched thoroughly, which then they also get their cellphones taken away and then given back at the end of the day at dismissal.

In total, there are about 74 students at the Alternative school which is way less than the total number of students at East, which is around 3,500.

Even though it is a different school the lunches are about the same as the ones from East, but they don’t have different stations like pizza, or deli.

“I would compare it to the same kind of lunch at any other Morton school, but they do have a snack cart with Capri suns and chips,” Junior Anaie Byrd said.

The Alternative school has lots of fun and outgoing events that happen throughout the year, like the ones at East.

“In the beginning of the year we had a back-to-school barbeque, that serves a few purposes like welcome back to school and it’s also a way for us to get to know new students. It’s usually the first Friday we get back to school and the staff all barbeques and we bring side dishes, and we play games outside; that’s one of the main things we do. For Thanksgiving we cook a full-on thanksgiving lunch for everyone all the students, we cook turkeys and bring in all types of side dishes, for Christmas we have a brunch for students, we always have a Mexicans style breakfast. In the spring we do things like a rope course we do that in the fall too. We do lots of fun field trips, we go to great America, around Halloween we do fun field trips, in the past two Halloweens we go to the haunted prison in Joliet, and it was fun and then we’ve gone ice skating in downtown and various museums. It all depends on if the students are doing well, they get rewards,” Principal Dr. Kelly said.

The Alternative school is known for its all-black uniform that some students at other Morton schools are a bit envious about.

“The uniform is different;  we do a grey polo, black sweater, black pants, and solid color shoes. We do have a washer and dryer here at the school so if a student has indicated ‘hey my stuff is dirty can you wash it for me’ we’ll wash it and then get them back into uniform and we try to be flexible with that,” Dean Ms. Louis said.

Although the seniors here can’t graduate with West or East, they still have their special graduation.

“We have our own graduation ceremony.  The past couple of years because of covid we’ve been having it outside at Morton West which has been really nice; it’s usually a couple days before the East and West graduations in the stadium, so we always have a really nice stage. I have a band that comes in and plays and sings the national anthem: we’ve had a mariachi play.  We try to make it just as special as the East and West graduations, so we have student gives a speech, and I give a speech.  When we have it here we totally transform the gym — we get special lightings and a red carpet just so it can look really nice for everyone. The musicians play before the graduation, and then we have refreshments after the ceremony; the staff will bring in different treats.   We hire a photographer to take the graduation pictures,” Dr. Kelly said.

Seniors at the Alternative School also have the opportunity to go to prom.

“Prom would be for like 20 students so if students really want to go, we work with Morton East and West so that they can go,” principal Dr. Kelly said.

As students come here to get back on track or for other matters, the school offers great resources for those who need them.

“The students here get a lot of attention so what we do is rhetorical practices, so we are in a lot of groups to learn life skills and social skills, healthy relationships, anger management, boys’ and girls’ group, art group,” Social Worker Ms. Toro said.

Overall, my experience being a student at the Alternative school for a day was an eye-opening experience. The day showed me how much some students may need that one-on-one attention that many schools with a high number of students can’t provide. This school isn’t full of bad kids who do bad things as many people think. This school is full of kids who want to try and make a change in their life with a little help and the staff here are very dedicated to helping the students achieve that no matter what. I would like to thank the staff at the school along with the students I shadowed for helping me around the school and for welcoming me.