Anchorage Daily News

An after-school club popular with at-risk teenagers and praised by community leaders is no longer welcome at East High and is ending ties with the nonprofit group that kept an eye on it.

Mao Tosi's Pride Club hopes to survive on its own in Mountain View, where it's trying to establish itself in the Polynesian Center.

The split between the club and the nonprofit Communities in Schools program becomes official March 31. The departure from East, where the club met three times a week, happened two weeks ago.

"Accountability problems" -- club members not always staying in meeting rooms, kids from other schools showing up unannounced, scant attendance or membership records -- made it necessary to eject the club from the high school, East High principal Michael Graham said.

"In sports, you have a roster. Other clubs, you take attendance. None of that ever happened," Graham said. "By the end, I bet he had at least 60 kids. But I couldn't tell you who they were."

Last month's misdemeanor marijuana arrest of one of the club's instructors was a minor factor at most, Graham said.

Tosi, an East High grad and former NFL player who started the club in 2006 to combat increasing gang activity, thinks otherwise. He thinks the whole club was punished for the off-campus arrest of music teacher Tyrese Gilbert.

"Right after that, we got kicked out," Tosi said.

Graham and CIS director Tom Morgan both say they were already talking about accountability and relocation when Gilbert, who was working on a short-term contract, was arrested at the end of January for possession of a small amount of marijuana.

Gilbert, 23, wasn't with students when he was busted and he was fired as soon as word of his offense emerged, Morgan said.

FAST START IN 2006

Tosi started the Pride Club in fall 2006 while working as a security guard at West High. When Communities in Schools heard about his efforts to help at-risk kids, it stepped in to help.

Things seemed to go well. Last year Tosi was able to quit his job as a security guard and put all his efforts into the club. Kids with no previous interest in after-school activities spent two or three hours a day with the club. The mayor put Tosi on a gang task force, the Chamber of Commerce gave him an award, and a variety of businesses donated money through CIS.

"What he's trying to do is so good," School District Superintendent Carol Comeau said. "I think for a number of young people he has made a difference, because he's stressing really hard 'You've gotta study, you've gotta keep your grades up.' Hopefully he can get it up and running again.

"It's very sad, but we had to make sure we could guarantee to parents we had supervision in place."

Tosi said the club already is up and running.

About 30 kids showed up Tuesday for a meeting at the Polynesian Center, a compact, two-story building on the corner of Mountain View Drive and Klevin Street. Tosi said he hopes to lease space -- already being called "The Spot" by kids -- for long-term use.

Graham said the smaller setting should contain the club better than East's sprawling campus did.

"I want the program to be a success," he said. "Mao's greatest strength is he can lead and the kids will follow and they'll love it, but like any organization there are certain things you've got to follow through on.

"You can't just have kids gather, at least not at East High. There's got to be somebody supervising and containing. We have to be accountable for what's happening here."

The Pride Club has always been loosely structured. Kids were expected to keep their grades up and if they didn't they lost certain club privileges, but they could always choose to show up one day and not the next. Sometimes, Graham said, they'd cruise the halls instead of going to the meeting room.

QUEST FOR AUTONOMY

Tosi's vision has always been to make the Pride Club an all-age, all-schools entity. He wants more autonomy than he is allowed at a school and has talked for months about finding a facility outside the school system.

He just didn't expect to be in need of such a place in the middle of the school year.

"I'm trying to figure out how the hell I'm gonna do this," he said.

One of Tosi's biggest challenges will be finding financial support to pay rent, salaries and other expenses. He said he probably needs to connect with another nonprofit group or set one up himself.

Morgan said he'll contact donors who have contributed to the Pride Club through CIS -- which works with programs tied to schools -- to let them know how their money was spent and to ask them what they want to do with any remaining money.

Meanwhile, he hopes Tosi and the Pride Club keep going.

"I tell people that Mao Tosi is a nonprofit's dream," he said. "Usually someone comes along and says 'Give me X resources because I think that's what I need to reach this audience.' He already has the audience."

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

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