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Tina Giarla is a senior at Pinellas Park High School. Athletic. Always smiling. By all appearances, a typical student. She and her friends like hip-hop, and sushi, and the karaoke at Mugs 'N Jugs.
But Tina, 18, isn't typical. She takes five honors classes and works 30 hours a week and somehow still manages a 3.63 GPA. Two weeks ago, she found out she's college bound.
"I almost cried," she said. "My burden, it's kind of been released."
Tina hides her burden well, behind her Nike jump suit and Air Force 1's. Even most of her friends don't know.
•••
As the Great Recession drags on, Florida schools keep absorbing homeless students.
The state had 49,112 last year, up from 29,454 five years ago. It will probably have more this year.
The Pinellas school district counted 2,462 homeless students for all of last year. Through last month, it had 2,010.
Hillsborough had 3,148. Pasco: 2,183.
The numbers show the enormous load public schools must carry.
Tina's story shows their promise.
•••
Her mother has been in and out of jail. Her father died in 2007.
At the time, she was an eighth-grader at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School in Largo.
"My support system just crumbled," she said.
What followed: Move after move, bad spot after bad spot. Along the way: Another death in the family. Alcoholism. The fights that come with living where you're not really welcome.
Tina never lived on the streets. But home wasn't stable. Her situation puts her in a fast-growing category of homeless students the state calls "unaccompanied youth."
"I was like a little hermit crab," she said. "I'd walk home, do whatever chores I had to do and go straight to my bedroom."
"I would literally hide there," she said.
•••
School became a refuge.
At Pinellas Park High, she joined the Students Working Against Tobacco club, then became its president. She played on the basketball team. She put in 200 hours volunteering at Fitzgerald, right across the street.
School was "the only time I could get away from everything," she said. "I used to honestly not miss a day of school because I didn't want to be home."
At Fitzgerald, a teacher asked her to talk to students at risk of dropping out. They looked up to Tina.
Stick with it, she told them. If it gets bad, tell a teacher or a guidance counselor. They can help you.
Let them help you.
•••
In middle school, students teased Tina about tomboy pants. She shrugged.
Isn't she worried what people will say when they read this story? No: "I've dealt with a lot more than cruel kids."
But even Tina, tough as she is, isn't immune.
Home followed her to school, wormed inside her head. At one point, a fight over her alarm clock — it was supposedly too loud, she was supposedly too selfish — pushed her to the edge.
She had relatives up north. She kept thinking, Time to get out.
For many homeless students, it goes without saying: Academics suffer.
Depending on the district, state data shows the percentage of homeless students reading at grade level can be 10 to 20 points lower than for their non-homeless peers.
"Just moving around, it does put a serious strain on them mentally, because of the stressers," said Althea Hudson, the homeless liaison for Pinellas schools. "Where am I going to lay my head? What am I going to eat? Am I going to have lighting to do my homework?"
Tina reached out before giving up.
A support network had grown around her at school. It included her guidance counselor, Tamar Kinebrew; two teachers at Pinellas Park High — Janis Smith, the SWAT club coordinator, and Mary Krouskos, a business teacher; and Heidi Weber, one of her teachers at Fitzgerald.
In Kinebrew's office, Tina, who almost never cries, cried. She told her, "I'm through."
The guidance counselor said, "No, you're not."
"You've come too far."
The counselor told her, "You have to keep going."
Tina did not leave convinced. But Kinebrew and the others didn't give up.
•••
In November, Tina moved in with her best friend's family. Stability. Finally.
"She's awesome," said her friend's mom, Jewel Fitzpatrick. "We are incredibly proud of her."
She bought herself a laptop for her 18th birthday. She used savings from her job as a server at an assisted living facility.
Two weeks ago, she was accepted to Salem State College in Massachusetts. A scholarship will cover tuition. She plans to study nursing.
Tina said she considered other colleges, but Salem State was perfect. She has relatives close by.
"I get to go home on the weekends to a family that cares," she said.
Tina said she doesn't think too deeply about what she's been through. She's afraid that right now, it would consume her. One day, she said, she'll stop and process.
In the meantime, "I just try to keep going."
It's what she learned at school.
Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report. Ron Matus can be reached at (727) 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com.
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