In graduation season, this unusual ceremony honors troubled teens who chose school over the streets

SEATTLE -- It's graduation season and one of the most unusual ceremonies in King County took place Friday night.

Young people who gave up on school, who may be in trouble with the law, were honored by the prosecutor's office for getting back into the classroom.

Former Seattle Sounder Roger Levesque helped to honor the youths who are choosing to avoid court and return to school, like teen mom Brandy Hull.

"A lot of people told me I couldn't do it because of being a teen mom," said Hull, "but I got that second chance from my school ... and my teacher to get back into school and got the motivation. I`m doing all of this to be with my baby and next year I`ll be graduating."

This celebration is part of the county's innovative truancy dropout prevention program to help young people avoid the juvenile justice system by re-engaging with education.

"I would skip, get in a lot of trouble with the police and my mom would cry all the time," said student Jennifer Ortega.

Jennifer stopped going to class in the 8th grade. With the help of the program, she eventually realized her path in life was leading nowhere.

"Being on the streets and trying to be cool with other people and trying to make yourself look cool in front of them, they`re not going to get you your college degree or your high school diploma, they`re not," she said.

Jose Gonzalez Delgado said he also turned his back on school and leaned on alcohol and drugs. The program helped him get into military school and now his goal is to be a Marine.

In all, 24 teens took part in the unusual graduation ceremony, honoring their choice to go back to school.

Here's some sobering stats about school dropouts -- 75 percent of all state prison inmates and 59 percent of federal inmates are high school dropouts.

So congratulations to all of Friday night's graduates for making a change in their lives.