believe me, im not in support of the delinquents. but they dont just go away. they stay in society. they vote and consume resources. if you dont get them to a point of self-sufficiency, they will happily become leeches on the rest of society anyway.
In each case in the years ahead I caught wind that things went right for them after they found that their options were limited. One showed up at our graduation but wasn't able to walk with us. One sheepishly asked if he could attend the reunion even though he didn't graduate with everyone else. Another enlisted. I think they all felt responsible in the end. Point being there was always a network of second chance options of varying levels of strictness. Just letting them move forward would have been unfair to my classmates and my teachers who were hired to teach and not mold rough teenagers into mature adults. Alternatives were always there but now we err on the side of making sure they move forward because it jeopardizes the district's funding.