Howard Blume and Dennis Dockstader

Photos from yearbook NOT LONG AGO, THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF MANUAL ARTS High School looked like the best-kept secret in education. An all-minority urban campus in South Los Angeles, where 87 percent of students come from families poor enough to qualify for a subsidized school lunch, Manual Arts had every excuse......

Illustration by Jordin Isip YECENIA STOPPED GOING TO L.A.'S MANUAL ARTS High School near the end of what should have been her junior year, though by that point she'd flunked too many classes to be called a junior. When she took off for Texas with her boyfriend at age 16,......