Many Pine Forest students don't have dads at home. 'Dads on Duty' are coming to classroom.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story provided an incorrect email address for Bakari Franklin. The correct email address should be bfranklin@ecsdfl.us.

Pine Forest High School Vice Principal Bakari Franklin is calling all the "dads," or male community leaders, to volunteer in a pilot mentorship program starting this week.

As Pine Forest climbs toward a student population of 2,000 students, Vice Principal Bakari Franklin has noticed disruptions during the school day's hallway transition times, particularly during the lunch hour.

From 10:40 a.m. to about 12:40 p.m., staff are feeding about 1,900 students in a cafeteria that has a capacity to hold about 400, he said. With students spilling out into the hallways and corridors, more eyes on students are needed than are available. An increase in bad behavior issues during those busy times is almost inevitable, he said.

Many of the high school's "at-risk" students, or those administrators fear might not graduate, have one thing in common: they don't have a dad at home, Franklin said. But he believes these stand-in father figures may be able to steer students in the right direction simply by building relationships with them during free periods.

"We have about 1,900 students here," he said. "That's your best time to be able to make those connections."

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'Dads on Duty' is forged

Even though there were over 100 more male than female students enrolled in Pine Forest during the 2021-2022 school year, the number of female teachers still significantly outnumbers the male teachers each year, Franklin said.

The teaching profession has been historically female dominated, and the numbers are even more disproportionate for male elementary school teachers, he continued.

Many of the male students at Pine Forest High School are being raised in a single-parent household or have a father that is incarcerated, and do not see the model or expectation of growing up to be a man. He hopes this program will have a positive impact on those students.

"A lot of our at-risk students don't have males in the household. That's very important for them to be able to have a male point of view and a different lens. That's why I try and dress up every day," he said. "I try and set the presence of what being a man should be about, what he should be like. I treat them with respect, even in conversation, how you should carry yourself."

Hiring a surplus of male teachers isn't easy but attracting male volunteers to commit to less than one hour a week is a simpler ask.

Franklin first learned of the Dads on Duty program that started in New Orleans, where adult male figures would roam the halls and strike up conversation with students.

Just by incorporating what Franklin calls "the power of presence" into the school day, school attendance and college applications surged up, as student fights and missed classes plummeted down.

He concluded a program like that could easily be replicated in Pine Forest High School, if the right volunteers were in place.

Some of the talking points volunteers will be instructed to bring up with the teenagers will include identifying their purpose, setting goals, choosing career paths and navigating peer-pressure and conflict resolution.

Eventually, he would like to modify the program into a broader "parents on duty," which would include male and female mentors. He would also like to implement the program into even more schools district wide.

What will the program entail?

The program will be two-fold, made up of volunteers and mentors. Volunteers will work the hallways engaging with students, while mentors can work one-on-one with a student during the day. Each require different sets of applications.

Right now, a dozen "dads," or male community members, have expressed they are on board for both mentor and volunteer positions.

The hope is that the presence of volunteers will produce a better learning environment for students and push them toward better futures.

"Typically, when young adults see other adults in areas just posted up, they're more than likely not to behave, loiter, or skip, or do things they shouldn't be doing, because they have an adult that is actually standing there that can hold him accountable," he said.

The volunteers were not asked or intended to be disciplinarians, but positive uplifters to forge relationships with students.

"The job of this program isn't for the guys to come in and be disciplinarians by any stretch of the imagination," Franklin said. "Their main job is to come and actually just be mentors and provide positive affirmations every week."

He said the idea to bring the program to Pine Forest was not necessarily prompted by problem behavior of students but was a larger response to rising crime rates the area. Community members came to him wanting to change the future of their neighborhood.

"There are so many males that want to come in and have that opportunity to come in and talk to high school students who are getting ready to transition into adulthood," he said.

Often, the teenagers will positively respond to adults who take an interest in them and are willing to listen, Franklin said.

He hopes the program will not only increase instructional time in the classroom for students, but will positively change the course of their lives long after graduation.

He said many of the volunteers did not have a dad themselves growing up and want to be that figure for another child during the school day.

Volunteers breaking the cycle

Volunteers like Jose Stutts have taken it upon themselves to take some of the community's teenagers under his wing. Growing up without a father in the home himself, Stutts said he understands the importance of having male role models.

Stutts is a familiar face to Pine Forest High School students, according to Franklin, particularly the athletes, because of his business DoWork Sports.

"Not only do I help on the sports side of it, but I want to understand that outside of sports, you still need that encouragement. That father figure, that person that can mentor you and get you to the next level," Stutts said. "A lot of kids like that, because they grew up without fathers. I'm one of those kids, so I can relate. ... Some of these kids here, they're so close to making that wrong decision. Whereas they just have someone to talk to that can help steer them in the right direction."

Just the presence of another adult can elevate and motivate them about life and give them that "extra push," he said.

"I just want to be that person that can be there to give it to them," he said.

He said he also believes the program is tied to larger community change.

"You just got to have the right people in place that want to just be active and want to give it their all and just really want to see change. We're seeing too much crime, we're seeing too much death in the streets of Pensacola," he said. "We got to do our part."

Franklin is still searching for men with a clean background check and a strong mission to volunteer with the high school students. He encourages them to contact him at BFranklin4@ecsdfl.us for further instructions and information on the program.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pine Forest High School Vice Principal launches 'Dads on Duty' program