Justin Martinez, featured in our Life Skills story, dies; school could go next

Back in 2007, Luke Turf wrote a cover story on Life Skills, the last-chance high school in the Golden Triangle. The piece started out with why nineteen-year-old Justin Martinez had missed school again: He had to go to Pueblo to see his father. In the morgue. Justin went on to...

By Patricia Calhoun

February 20, 2012

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Back in 2007, Luke Turf wrote a cover story on Life Skills, the last-chance high school in the Golden Triangle. The piece started out with why nineteen-year-old Justin Martinez had missed school again: He had to go to Pueblo to see his father. In the morgue. Justin went on to graduate high school in June 2009 -- but tragically, it was Justin himself who was in the morgue last week, a victim of violence.

And Life Skills, too, could be facing a death sentence; The school will go to the state board of Education on March 7 to appeal Denver Public Schools's decision to close the school in June 2012. In November, the DPS board voted to shutter the struggling alternative charter school, which had been given a second chance in 2008 after facing the same fate. "I was disappointed that the other board members that voted to close our school really are doing a disservice to our students," principal Santiago Lopez said at the time. "We're working with students that truly were either not in school before -- so the district never had them for a year or more -- or working with students that were directly referred to us from the schools that they're suggesting they go back to."

We'll be following that story; in the meantime, you can read Luke Turf's piece on Justin Martinez and Life Skills here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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