One city with two sides to the story
Young people succeeding in getting a good education, despite the odds in a city that tells two sides of a story.
Boynton Beach Florida is a city in Palm Beach County, with a population of about 68,217 people.
Residents will experience the night and day of one small city. One would meet the east side or west side of Boynton Beach.
On the west side of Boynton Beach Florida, it is predominately white has better jobs, the overall city looks cleaner and it consist of better jobs for the community.
Taking a stroll on the west side of Boynton, one will see many gated communities, shopping centers, and overall a community where you would want to raise a family.
Two students with different upbringings explain why attending school in Boynton was such a hassle.
“I lived on the west side of Boynton Beach my whole life, and attended Olympic heights community high school,” said Tayler Witherspoon a west Boynton Beach resident.
Olympic heights are a school located in Boca Raton Florida, where Witherspoon attended because of how the zoning for high school was at the time.
“It was the closest school to my area, and Boca schools had better opportunities, and the school grade was higher opposed to schools in Boynton with a grade of a D or F’s, said Witherspoon.
The division of Boynton Beach starts from Gateway road, and divides the city from east side, and west the side.
Cruising along East Boynton you will see more African Americans, limitation of jobs for the community, bad schooling, higher crime rates and the roads are narrow, and overall not appealing.
“I wanted to better my future, so I attended a medical Academy in Lake Worth,” said Noah Lewis an East Boynton resident.
This medical academy granted Noah the opportunity to not only get out of east Boynton but promised him acceptance into Florida Atlantic University.
“Opportunities like this aren’t really given to teens who grew up in my community,” explained Lewis.
Noah Lewis grew up on Martin Luther king Boulevard and Seacrest and is the first in his family to attend university. Attending a medical school with an outreach program, and automatic acceptance into FAU is the only reason where he received scholarships for his high GPA as well as.
Within the east communities’ streets of Boynton Beach, Mr. Lewis explained that many sold drugs, young teens grew up in poverty in this area, and were expecting kids at a young age.
“Boynton Beach is a violent city with a lot of drugs, stolen cars, and a lot of gangs, so you have to constantly be on your toes, police tend to drive around the neighborhood because when criminals see law enforcement they tend to not want to commit crime” Vpatrick Telusnord a Palm Beach Sheriff Office intern said.
Lewis described the difference between the division was like, night and day but at night you don’t want to be caught on East Boynton streets.
“If you ain’t from around here, people will run your pockets. I see it happen many times,” said Lewis.
Tayler expressed although there are significant differences of the two sides of the city she often visited the east side and has noticed for herself the rebuilding down there and making the schooling zones bigger so that kids can come to school in West Boynton.
As a west side resident who had it a lot easier than Lewis, Witherspoon pays for her tuition with the help from Florida Prepaid, and her two parents who both attended university.
Here we have two University students defying the odds by being able to get out of a city that did not promise them the best education.
