On Chicago’s West Side, there’s a school for the city’s most troubled youth—Moses Montefiore Academy. Most of the students there were expelled from other schools for serious problems, and many were diagnosed with various mental disorders.
Last Chance High takes viewers inside Montefiore’s classroom and the homes of these young students, who come close to being sent to prison or mental institutions. First, we see two 14-year-old Montefiore students, Cortez and Christo, who are sent to school after angrily attacking their former teacher. Cortez’s mother convicted the boy’s father, who was in prison for the murder.
Since her appearance at Montefiore, Crystal has hurt her classmates and been caught stealing – literally destroying her mother and bringing her to the brink of a nervous breakdown. As tough as the job of Montefiore teachers can be, they never fail to live up to the city’s most troubled and unstable students.
Montefiore is the only therapeutic school in the Chicago Public School System. The student’s primary diagnosis was Emotional Behavior Disorder (EBD), and then a lot of it was just aggression. Most of the time, students lose control because teachers cannot control their situation at home.
As the dean described what he had to do throughout the day, his friends looked at him like he was crazy. They try to give Montefiore students as much structure as they can in school. Binding is used in special education, but only when necessary. This is a situation where fixation is used when they pose a threat to themselves or others. For everything else, you have to speak up. Patience is key. The staff already knew the teens were in big trouble so don’t take it to heart.
