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Meet A Dallas Homeless Student Who's Going To College

Lara Solt
/
KERA News Special Contributor
Desmond Davis is a student at North Dallas High School. He's heading to Oklahoma State University in the fall.

Desmond Davis is one of those 18-year-olds that schools like to brag about: He's a runner, wrestler and drum major. He’s graduating from North Dallas High School in June and he’s heading to college in the fall. Desmond just happens to be homeless.

Dez's story is the second chapterof the KERA News series Homeless In High School, which explores some of the issues homeless students face -- and how schools and others are trying to help. There are about 110,000 homeless kids in Texas public schools. 

Dez got some help from a man named CJ, or Charles Johnson, who has been taking in kids for several years.Dez is heading to Oklahoma State in the fall.

“For the most part, I just don’t want to be a statistic,” he says.

Explore Dez’s story – and the rest of the series.

Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.