Lessons from the Bad Kids: The Realities of Challenge and Inspiration (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781475833157)

Vonda Viland leads the Morongo Unified School District's alternative program for at-risk students. With thirty years of experience in education, Vonda works with students who have been disenfranchised from the traditional school system. She and her staff work with these "bad kids" who live below the poverty level and struggle with issues no student should have to face including abuse, neglect, parenthood, depression, anxiety, and addiction, is the topic of the award-winning documentary film The Bad Kids by Lowkey Pictures.

Deborah Turner has been working with the same students from kindergarten through eighth grade--first as a teacher, then as a principal, and currently as the assistant superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for Morongo Unified School District. Learning to work with these students of poverty, abuse, and neglect has been her passion. Trying to assist them in developing a direction in life through education of the heart has been the battle. Knowing that after 35 years of experience the situation needs the attention and heart of the public has become her mission. The Bad Kids by Lowkey Pictures has brought the problem and the mission to the forefront.