The Dallas Bar Association is launching a new effort to mentor ninth-grade DISD students with the goal of helping them stay in school and earn a high school diploma. The program is a direct result of the Community Symposium for Justice in Education held at the Belo Mansion in November 2003; more than 175 lawyers, business, and community leaders met to address the educational crisis within DISD. A U.S. Census Bureau study shows that Texas again ranks last in the percentage of high school graduates. Only about 77 percent of Texans age 25 and older had a high school degree in 2003. In DISD, only about half of the students who enter the ninth-grade will graduate from the 12th-grade. Those appalling statistics should serve as a call to action for the legal community. The new program pairs a lawyer with a ninth-grade DISD student for a school year. And volunteers are needed immediately. The lawyer has a choice of two very different types of contacts with the student. The first type involves an in-person social, to meet with the student at the beginning and end of the school year, and all other weekly contacts are conducted by e-mail. This format has already been successfully used by IBM employees in a pilot project with DISD. The second type of contact involves an in-person meeting for one hour each week at the student’s school on a mutually convenient day and time. This format is coordinated through Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Dallas. DBA Board Member Rob Roby is Chair of the Board of BB/BS this year. Both types of mentoring require the attorney to complete a criminal background check to ensure the safety of all students. This mentoring program will be very different than any other DBA program involving the DISD. In this new program, lawyers are not teaching any classes but instead are just connecting one-on-one with a ninth-grade student during their first year, one that is often viewed as the most difficult for DISD students. In this very personal way, the Dallas Bar can join many business and community leaders to give back to the students who need us the most. A meeting will be held at the Belo Mansion on October 18 at noon to train volunteers and answer questions. To sign up, or to learn more about the program, contact Brian D. Melton (bmelton@shacklaw.net or 972-490-1400) or Steve Gwinn (gwinns2@swbell.net or 214-748-3831), who serves as chair of the DBA Law in Schools and Community Committee this year.

A partner with Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, LLP, Brian D. Melton is the Immediate Past President of the Dallas Bar Association.