Things have changed. I was one of those magnet thieves -- and they were very happy to have me. During high school I moved outside of the district. It wasn't exactly a secret. Hell, one of my teachers lived a block from me.
But I was an endangered species -- the only white male in my graduating class. In its third year I was apparently the first graduate in the school's history to go to college.
When the magnets were created the staff at the other high schools quickly figured out how to game the system. As the only admission criteria was race, they sent all their "problems" to the magnets. I recall one honors English class where, without exaggeration, half the students were functionally illiterate. For my senior year we had to petition the administration to add a trig class for the first time. How many high schools don't a trig class?
So I kinda stood out in the crowd. I would say that all I had to do was show up each day, but I didn't even have to do that. One year I missed half the school year due to a hospital stay. Got straight A's for the entire time without attending a class. Another year I spent a trimester interning with a company downtown. Again, straight A's for classes I never attended. My entire senior year I had three classes in the morning, then the afternoon was spent in another internship program off campus. I don't recall if nobody noticed or nobody cared that my "employer" for those four credit hours each day was...me.
