LOS ANGELES, CA (LOS ANGELES STANDARD) -- The Spot SoDo Studios has produced a documentary on Inglewood educator Tedric Johnson, who taught Black and Latino boys at Morningside High School who many teachers did not want to deal with. Through the Schools with a Purpose program, Johnson took students who were considered trouble makers, and many of whom were in gangs, and turned them into positive and successful members of society.
“Mr. J took who California deemed as the worst,” said Dominic Banks, owner of The Spot SoDo Studios and a former student of Johnson’s. “I had given up on school. My mindset was more of a hustling mindset, and I didn’t care. The first day that I had walked in Mr. Johnson’s class, that brother gave me the ‘Autobiography of Malcolm X,’ and he told me to read this. I opened up that book and it changed my life. I turned from being the kid that didn’t care to one of the top students in his class. I made sure to be an example of his program to my other peers.”
“Mr. Johnson would call my house if I was not in his class,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Captain Robert Hawkins, who is also the president of the Los Angeles City Stentorians African American firefighters association and a former student of Johnson’s. “If I chose to ditch, he would know, and my mother would know. Because of Mr. Johnson’s influence, I didn’t want to get on his bad side. I looked up to him and respected him. I loved him like a fatherly figure. It meant everything in the world to me for him to be proud of me. He was my role model. He knew how to talk in business meeting but he also knew the gang culture. He knew the big homies from the neighborhood, and he squashed so many beefs in his class.”
Johnson was able to connect with the boys in his class because he had their same background. He went to school in Inglewood. He had a similar upbringing in the same neighborhoods as his students so he could connect with them in ways that other teachers could not.
“I knew the areas in which they came from,” Johnson said. “I could speak the jargon. I could relate to them. I was someone who they could connect with. I am them. I matriculated through the Inglewood schools. To see someone who came back to the community, who was once them, who went to college and graduated, participated in sports, that was something that gravitated them to me and I gravitated to them. They were able to see someone on a day to day basis who was able to go through the system within Inglewood and come back and be represented in a positive manner. As African American males, we see many people that we perceive as being role models, but they are not tangible. Athletes, entertainers, politicians. But how many times do you get to interact with that person on a day-to-day basis where they can provide them with quality time and mentoring?
“It was my job to make sure that these individuals were taught from a perspective that they could understand. It was culturally responsive teaching. To incorporate from an Afrocentric perspective. It was my job to tap into their greatness and instill confidence in them so that they could be successful.”
Johnson’s program was created by the Los Angeles County Office of Education in 1991 and it ran until 1997.
“The concept was that it was a school within a school model,” Johnson said. “The concept arose out of the need to help African American males matriculate through high school, middle school, and elementary. The reason why this came about was because the African American male population were being denied a quality education. They were suspended and expelled at a higher rate than any other ethnic group and gender. One of the main principles was to choose African American men to lead these classes. I was fortunate enough to be chosen.”
Johnson believed that it was not the Black males fault that they were not succeeding, but the system and individuals within the system who were not giving them a fair chance.
“Teachers were intimidated by some African American males,” Johnson said. “So any specific reason that they could give to eliminate them from the class — not having a pencil, coming late, not having homework — they used those excuses to get rid of them from their classes. So therefore, if they were not in class, it was difficult for them to learn and to matriculate through the system. If individuals are given the proper tools and the proper environment for success, they will succeed. Success must be presented to all individuals without obstacles.”
Johnson taught the core curriculum of English, math, science, and social studies. Through his class he saw that his students had great improvements in confidence, accountability, respect, and they were getting better grades. Johnson’s mentorship also steered his students away from gangs.
“Ultimately if some of them stayed on the track that they were on, that would lead to either incarceration or an untimely death,” Johnson said. “I preached that on a daily basis.”
Telling Johnson’s story was extremely important to Banks because Johnson changed his life and the lives of many others like him.
“This tells the story of a gentleman who came back to his community in spite of the various gang culture that was going on at that time,” Banks said. “It’s also important because of the teachers. A lot of times teachers are not looked upon or paid financially in the same stipend that we pay athletes or entertainers. We admire those people. But yet there wouldn’t be any athlete, entertainer, or politician, without a teacher. This is a story of the gentleman who enlightened a lot of us. As a society we’re failing our youth. We’re losing kids constantly. We have an influx of gangs and weapons. We need to go back to the core teaching when teachers cared. Teachers pretty much raise our kids. We send our kids to school for eight hours, and if the teacher isn’t right or is going through things, how can our kids listen?”
Many films about inner city Black life show a struggle throughout the story, but this documentary focuses on the change that these students made.
“We watched ‘Boyz N the Hood,’ ‘Menace II Society,’ and the various Black movies that always end the same way; with a mother crying and somebody dead,” Banks said. “Mr. Johnson’s story needed to be told because his program was successful and positive.”
The documentary features one of Johnson’s students who went on to become a scientist.
“That brother is an astrophysicist,” Banks said. “This was a brother that society had thrown away, that wasn’t going to make it. He meets Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Johnson puts him on the road to success. He gives him the confidence that he can be whatever he wants to be. As you see the movie, you will see how Mr. Johnson has touched people so that they can be successful in life and in their community.”
The environment that Johnson created inspired Hawkins to become a firefighter.
“I learned about the medical terms from his class,” Hawkins said. ‘Mandible,’ ‘phalanges,’ ‘occipital.’ He brought people to come and talk to us about opportunities.”
Johnson’s class instilled a confidence in Hawkins that he did not know that he had when he was put back in classes with the rest of the student body.
“When Mr. Johnson mainstreamed me, I still didn’t believe in myself,” Hawkins said. “It was my senior year, and he told me that I had to go. But I was getting on the honor roll for the first time. I trusted him, and when I was mainstreamed, it worked. That’s when I started believing in myself. I could do this on my own as a senior. I graduated early by having over credits by being in his class.”
The title of the film, “The Ritual” comes from rituals that Johnson had in his class. At the end of each class as each student left, Johnson would stand by the door and shake all of their hands. Johnson also used a ritual when his students broke rules.
“We had discipline in the class,” Hawkins said. “If you came late, or was ditching, you got your name on the board. We had this thing called ‘The Ritual.’ We went on the track and you ran miles and then we went into the weight room. You didn’t want your name on the board because that ritual hurt. But everyday we left his class we shook his hand.”
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