Mean Streets School Provides Lifeline to Neighborhood Children

SAN FRANCISCO: Amid drug dealers, homeless and garbage-strewn streets, children walk to school in white polo shirts and red sweaters. Street denizens respectfully step aside as they pass by.

Instead of sending students from the Tenderloin a San Francisco neighborhood known for its homelessness, crime, drug deals and sex trade to private schools in tony areas, the seven-year-old De Marillac Academy provides its pupils a co-ed Catholic school education right in their neighborhood.

Most families apply to the school after hearing about it from neighbors, friends and relatives. Students and their parents are interviewed at home, where teachers are able to see the challenges they might have in finishing homework in the crowded confines of a studio apartment. Finally, the students are tested for academic promise.


A homeless man sleeps outside De Marillac Academy.The school demands that students make a significant commitment to the program -- including attending summer school -- and that parents attend regular school meetings.

Ninety percent of the students are Latino, many of whom are working to improve their English skills.

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