BERNARD HOPKINS HELPS START NEW HIGH SCHOOL FOR TROUBLED TEENS IN MIAMI, FLORIDA

Posted on | April 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

Hopkins visits future site of Florida’s revolutionary new residential public high school
for at-risk teenage boys facing troubled futures

April 8, 2009

Miami, Florida

Middleweight great BERNARD “The Executioner” HOPKINS will visit the future campus site of Florida’s first public residential boarding school on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 2:00 pm. The location is 22025 SW 87th Ave, Miami, Florida, 33190.The press is invited for private tours, one-one-one interviews, and photo opportunities. This groundbreaking NEW high school will provide boys facing troubled lives with an option of either a rigorous college-bound academic track or a job-ready track. Students will gain admissions to the revolutionary school phenomenon based on criteria targeting them at the highest risk for dropping out or engaging in criminal behaviors. Hopkins will speak to a group of young men currently in trouble, headed to a life of crime. He will become this breakthrough school’s celebrity spokesperson and mentor – and rightfully so.

Hopkins turned to crime early in his life. By the age of thirteen he was mugging people and had been stabbed three times. At seventeen, Hopkins was sentenced to 18 years in Graterford Prison for nine felonies. While in prison he witnessed rapes and the murder of another inmate in an argument over a pack of cigarettes. It was in prison that he discovered his passion for boxing. After serving almost five years, Hopkins was released from prison and decided to use boxing as an escape from his previous life. While leaving the prison for the final time, the warden told Hopkins that he’ll “see [Hopkins] again when you wind up back here,” to which Hopkins replied “I ain’t ever coming back here.”

The story of Bernard Hopkins is a great one that he loves retelling – the street hood hooked on a life of crime, sent to prison aged 17, emerged a changed man, who became one of the greatest boxers of his era. Today, Hopkins is best known for his ten year reign as Middleweight World Champion. His support of this new school stems from the consensus that too many troubled teens become the product of a failing juvenile justice system, which is forced to treat youth offenders more like criminals, rather than students with potential who simply need help. Too many kids who go through the juvenile justice system later end up in prison repeatedly.

Bernard Hopkins took responsibility for his life but suffered serious CONSEQUENCES. He wants to help make sure others don’tmake the same mistakes by offering them a chance to succeed, despite the disadvantages they face.

To lend further support, Bernard will walk the red carpet and be a celebrity guest at Lea and Roy Blacks’ Annual Gala on Saturday, April 18, 2009 at the Eden Rock Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida starting at 7 pm. Miami’s most famous gala supports operations for both Bay Point Schools and a brand new foundation formed by Engin Yesil and Lea Black called The Consequences Foundation. The foundation is developing The Consequences Program – a proactive intervention curriculum designed to redirect troubled teens before they find themselves in trouble. Consequences will become an integral and important part of the new prep school’s curriculum. Hopkins will become the Consequences Program’s first celebrity spokesperson andwill be active in the programming development of the new high school.

Statistically, juveniles commit one in eight crimes. By removing youth from their crime-ridden environments and helping them focus on academics, sports and achievable goals, this program will aim to decrease the present dropout rate of 34.2% in Miami-Dade County alone. This new concept high school is designed to become a model across the country and the first of its kind. “We have a vision of bringing the federal and state government, public school systems, foundations and adolescent psychology and education experts in harmony to create a school on par with some of the nations finest,” says Gio Greeley, the school’s director of development and programming. Focusing on education, sports, student government and therapy will become the alternative to entering a corrections system infested with career criminal and prisoner training.

For more information contact Gio Greeley, Director of Development of Bay Point Schools and The Consequences Foundation at (646) 554-8583 or email ggreeley@baypointschools.com. For more information about the school visit www.baypointschools.com and our Annual Gala website at www.theblacksannualgala.org. For inquiries about Bernard Hopkins, contact Kelly Swanson at 202-783-5500 or email kswanson@swansonpr.com

Comments