LUMBERTON — Rita Ladner has one major goal in life: to challenge at-risk youth in the state to do the right thing.
She does this by encouraging them to enroll in the Tarheel Challenge Academy, a quasi-military style program for at-risk teens ages 16 to 18. The academy, which has been open for about 25 years, has two locations, one in Salemburg and one in New London. Participation in the academy is free of charge.
The purpose of the program is to provide qualified North Carolina dropouts, potential dropouts, and expellees an opportunity to learn in a safe, structured environment so the students they call “cadets” can become successful people for now and later.
Ladner focused her sights on Lumberton youth this week. She visited Lumberton Senior High School and area middle schools, and encouraged students to “accept the challenge.”
“If this young man or young lady want to change their life and get out of whatever they’ve gotten themselves into and become productive citizens, this will work,” Ladner said. “It’ll work.”
Four Robeson County teens are enrolled in the program in Salemburg, she said.
According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction most current figures available, students dropped out most frequently in 10th grade, 30%, followed by ninth grade, 28.1% in the 2017-18 academic year.
Males accounted for the majority of dropouts. Attendance issues was the reason given most often for dropping out, accounting for 47.3% of all dropouts.
The dropout rate is steadily decreasing, according to the DPI. High schools in North Carolina reported a dropout rate of 2.18% in 2017-18, down from 2.31% the previous year.
The Challenge Academy is sponsored by the North Carolina National Guard as part of the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, which has 40 locations in the United States and Puerto Rico.
Ladner said Lumberton gets a bad reputation for crime, but youths at risk is a problem in all North Carolina counties.
“Every county needs it,” she said. “Social media has taken over and every kid is vulnerable. They tend to stray to the left or get around certain peer pressures and feel they’re obligated to do whatever. We teach them to do the right thing.
“Some of the kids, they’re bright, they’re academically gifted. It’s just that there’s something going on in their home life, something in their personal life or maybe they’re being bullied at their regular school. Something is going on to have changed this young person.”
The school uses quasi-military techniques to try to get the students back on the track, to help focus students and introduce them to a disciplined and structured environment.
“A lot of these kids lack discipline,” Ladner said. “Both parents have to work to make ends meet or a single mom has to work two jobs to make ends meet, so they’re not home to supervise these kids.
“At our school we take all of those distractions away. Kids have too many distractions these days. “
To apply for the program, prospective cadets must be a North Carolina resident, unemployed, and drug and felony free. The cadet must also volunteer freely, which can be a tough job, Ladner said.
“It can be hard but sometime we get the mother who says, ‘Oh no way. She’s gonna volunteer. Just wait,’” Ladner said. “If they want to come, they’re more apt to get so much more out of it.”
Ladner has been recruiting students for 12 years.
“I try to get into their head and actually try to find out what they’re goals and dreams are,” she said. “You know, not every 16- or 17-year-old knows what they want to do but they know what they like right now. One young man, a couple of months ago, told me he wants to be president. I said, ‘That’s great, but what have you done so far to even touch that dream? If this is the dream you really want, then you need to do the 180 right now.’”
