Our internal strength comes from controlling our perceptions and reactions to things external to us, or so ancient stoic philosophers believed and practiced. Of all the things Medical Lake High School senior Destiny Earle has learned to date in her high school career, that lesson may be the most enduring.
That’s because Earle has transformed from a delinquent under juvenile court supervision to a successful student leader and cheerleader with a bright future.
But getting there wasn’t easy.
Earle arrived at MLHS a recognized underachiever with a bad attitude and habits. Her middle school attendance was poor. Things improved the first half of her freshman year, but she slid backward later due to the death of her cat and her grandmother. Anger filled the void. Still, she passed her classes — barely.
But she didn’t go to school the first semester of her sophomore year “at all,” Earle said. One teacher described her attitude as “giving the middle finger to everything.”
Lynae Evans, secretary to the principal, had watched Earle struggle in those rough, early years.
“She was a very sad little girl,” Evans recalled.
Earle’s truancy eventually invoked the Becca Bill, a 1996 truancy law named after Spokane student Rebecca Hedman, a troubled teenager whose parents unsuccessfully sought help through the juvenile court system with their unruly daughter. But the court’s hands were tied because Becca, as she was called, had not technically broken any laws. Hedman was later found murdered in a Spokane park.
And so Earle found herself taking court-ordered anger management classes and performing community service alongside other underachievers.
There, one person’s story became an epiphany for her. A 19-year-old man had also been on the Becca Bill when in school, but rejected it, eventually turning to crime. Although young, Earle observed that his life already seemed ruined.
“He didn’t earn that much and had made bad choices,” Earle recalled. “I just didn’t want to turn out like that at all.”
Earle completed her community service and re-entered school with a new attitude the second semester of her sophomore year. Badly behind in credits, she doubled her studies, taking two semesters worth of work simultaneously.
“It was tough,” Earle said. “But I had teachers who helped me through.”
She praised her support group — both her mom and staff at MLHS — for reassuring her and motivating her toward success. She credited one teacher in particular, Angel Hammond, whose class was geared specifically toward homework.
But the doubled work effort was often an emotional struggle, and Earle regularly found herself succumbing to tears and anxiety. Hammond, a 20-year special education teaching veteran, would come to the rescue and remind Earle of the things she’d already overcome to get her re-focused.
“She gave me the shove to do it,” Earle said of Hammond. “She empowered me to get it done.”
Earle finished her sophomore year with good grades — A’s and B’s. Her lowest grade was a “C” in English. Her make–up work was pass-fail. She passed.
The beginning of her junior year was “great … like a breath of fresh air,” she said.
“You know when you’re swimming and come up for a breather?” she said, describing the difference between her past and that point. “It felt like I was drowning and I finally learned how to swim.”
But Earle wasn’t satisfied with mediocrity, and began stretching herself by joining a student-led club. At the urging of fellow club members she ran for and was elected club president, despite being a self-proclaimed shy person.
“It made me feel good to be a part of something,” she said.
It also helped Earle overcome her shyness.
“The person I am now?” she said, laughing. “I’m more loud. I talk a lot now.”
Hammond said the leadership roles Earle embraced had helped. Her grades were up, and Earle had begun learning more about herself, like her tendency to procrastinate. Today when she gets an assignment she gets it done “right now,” she said.
Earle had other goals as well. She’d always wanted to be a cheerleader, trying out unsuccessfully her freshman and sophomore years. While Hammond had referred to Earle as stubborn, that trait is also synonymous with tenacity. Earle tried out for the cheer squad again the end of her junior year — and made it. Things were looking bright for the soon-to-be senior cheerleader.
But things weren’t so bright at home. Unable to pay the rent, her family was evicted from their Medical Lake rental that summer, and ended up sleeping in their car in Spokane near where Earle’s mother worked.
But fate had other plans for Earle. That August, a Good Samaritan offered Earle a place to live after learning of her situation. Her mother eventually found a rental, but on Spokane’s South Hill.
Earle said she only considered switching schools once, quickly rejecting the idea. After all, she was a cheerleader.
“It seemed silly to switch schools,” she said.
Earle’s senior year has been a balancing act of scholastics, cheer practice and games, buses, cabs, and rides from her mom to and from cheer practice or sports events. In this, her final semester at MLHS, she commutes between home, the NEWTECH Skills Center in Hillyard where she is studying criminal justice, and MLHS for three final classes.
“I want to do something meaningful and helpful,” Earle said of her post-secondary education and career plans.
She’s considering a degree in criminal justice with the goal of entering law enforcement. Plan B is psychiatry.
Upon reflection, Hammond called Earle, “an amazing little girl.”
“I’m proud of her. She’s going to make it,” Hammond said. “It’s really awesome to see a smile on her face.”
Asked what her challenges had taught her, Earle barely hesitated in her answer.
“That I’m strong enough to do anything I put my mind to,” she said confidently.
Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com
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