Back Bay/Monte Vista High School:

Gabe Johnson

There’s a common thread among many of the success stories coming out of Back Bay/Monte Vista High School today: a second chance

Whether it be skipped classes or failed classes, kids at the Back Bay/Monte Vista campus are searching for an opportunity to recover and earn their diploma.

Gabe Johnson is one of those success stories.

The 18-year-old avid basketball player from Costa Mesa said by the time he reached sophomore year at Costa Mesa High School, he had all but given up on his academics.

“I decided I don’t want to do it anymore,” Gabe said. “I just wanted to be done. I just figured I’d be, like, a dropout. I didn’t really think about it at the time.”

As far as thinking he would graduate, Gabe chuckled and said, “I did not see that at all.”

Down several classes and only senior year to make it up, he went to the district’s Credit Recovery Center then to Back Bay/Monte Vista High School for his last shot at getting a diploma on time. The improvement, he said, was immediate.

“They believed that I still had a chance,” Gabe said. “Once they had some confidence in me, I started to have confidence in myself.”

It was never that school was hard, he explained, he just didn’t push himself enough to do school work and eventually it buried him.

But today, with the required 40 hours of community service under his belt in just one year and all his classes completed, Gabe receives his diploma.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to get that now. I never thought I’d get it,” he said. “With my family being there supporting me, that’s something. Then graduating with my class, it’s going to be a wonderful experience.”

— Joseph Serna