Burchell High School graduates hopeful for future

Editor’s note: This story was first printed in Tuesday’s Frontiersman, but was cut off. The story is printed here in its entirety.

WASILLA — A few of them were homeless. Others were pregnant. Three of them nearly died and suffered brain damage in two separate car accidents. Many of them never would have graduated without Burchell High School and its staff. All of them are survivors destined for better lives.

Seventy-two Burchell High School graduates held their heads high as the last of Mat-Su Borough’s more than 1,300 seniors to receive their diplomas this month. And like most of the Valley’s graduates, they plan to go on to college, Alaska Job Corps, military service, cosmetology school, parenthood or traveling as they chase their dreams.

For two of them who were involved in a fatal vehicle accident in September 2008 with three other teens, the ceremony symbolizes a second chance at a life worth living.

“I’ve been through a lot and I still have a ways to go, but I know I can stay sober and reach my goals now,” said 18-year-old Danielle Goguen, who has been fighting cocaine and alcohol addiction at a drug treatment facility for the past several months, but is now more than five months clean.

Goguen and fellow BHS graduate Brandon Crandall, 17, are struggling with temporal brain damage from the Parks Highway accident nearly three years ago that killed 16-year-old Wasilla classmate Chelsea Johnston and led to another passenger, 20-year-old Kyle Bissonette, being charged with manslaughter and four counts of assault.

Police believe Bissonette, who had been drinking, grabbed the wheel from a 15-year-old driver and caused it to cross the center line at Mile 51 of the Parks Highway, crashing into a smaller vehicle and causing the death of an unborn child in that vehicle.

Crandall, whose face still wears the scars of that accident, said before the ceremony Monday night that his advice to other teens would be to stay out of a vehicle if the driver — or anyone else — is impaired in any way.

“Stay at home,” Crandall said. “The road isn’t home. If you’re on any type of anything, don’t get in the car. If you do, buckle up. Or walk. Just walk. Or stay home.”

Goguen said she realized she needed to get her life together after dropping to her knees in her jail cell last winter and praying for strength.

“I prayed for sobriety and for my family to be safe,” she said. “Then I found out I was going into the drug treatment center and I knew I had to make it work.”

Burchell High School counselor Michelle Overstreet said she couldn’t be more proud of Goguen and Crandall for making it through their injuries, passing the High School Qualifying Exam, and looking to the future.

“That exam is hard enough, but when you’re experiencing processing and problem-solving issues because of brain injuries, that makes it even more amazing,” Overstreet said before the ceremony. “It seems like all of these kids had to overcome some sort of adversity to make it here tonight.”

During the ceremony, several students gave inspirational speeches, including Goguen and another student who was in a serious car accident, Sierra Mahnke.

Goguen said she used to get all Fs in math and ended up getting all As after working with BHS staff. She also had kind words for Overstreet.

“Michelle is like the best friend I’ve always wanted,” Goguen said.

Mahnke stood at the podium with her younger sister, Mercedes, and told the crowd she had dropped out of school at 16, then got in the accident at 17. It took her several years to overcome her injuries, she said.

“I’m now in my 20s and I’m finally getting my diploma,” Mahnke said.

A few graduates with babies brought their children on stage with them. That was something two 1993 Burchell graduates could relate to as they watched their own children cross the stage for their own diplomas.

Twila Feezell and Tami Adams said they both attended Burchell after getting kicked out of other Valley schools for being pregnant.

“If it wasn’t for Burchell, I don’t know what would have happened,” Feezell said. “It’s a great school, but it‘s not just for pregnant students or those having issues elsewhere. My daughter Britanny just wanted to go there because she knew she‘d like the staff.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.McKee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.