West End School graduates begin next phase of education

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Tuesday was an exciting day for four young men at West End School on Virginia Avenue. They graduated from middle school and took a look back at the hardships and blessings that come with attending a strict school.

Each of the four will be going to private high schools. All of them said in their speeches they know they wouldn't have those opportunities and now they can further their education.

"It's not how you start that matters," said paralympian Dennis Ogbe in the graduation address, "it's how you finish."

The four - Brandon Adams, Ed Lee Johnson, Jabrell Moore and Vel'quan Porter - all received diplomas from West End School.

"I will be going to St. Francis High School where I will excel in art," said Moore.

"I have the great opportunity to attend four high schools," said Johnson. "I have been taught by the most wonderful middle school teachers in history."

As they head forward in their journey of high school, they remembered West End School and what it gave them.

"I would never forget what this school has done to me to prepare me not only for the next of school but for the next level physically, developmentally and emotionally," said Adams.

The class size grows every year and soon these young men who today look up at the class of 2013 will be graduating too. Robert Blair, the administrator of West End School, said being a student at the school isn't easy. The boys live at the school Monday through Fridays every week and some weekends.

"If you're an 11 year old boy and you're presented with a 42 week school year and an academic day that runs about 9 1/2 hours a day you have to be a special kid to say I want that," said Blair.

The four young men are members of the eighth graduating class at West End School. The first graduate of West End is now a senior at Kentucky Country Day.

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