Military School

Is a mentor and a map enough to keep teens at risk from taking the wrong road? If teenagers could see the lay of the land before they start their journey, would they then recognize what roads are the wrong ones to take once they are in the midst of the journey? If it is spelled out to them, can they then avoid the roads that lead to military teen boot camps, and instead take the roads that lead to success? “You likely won’t find Time Drive and Penitentiary Drive on your everyday map. But if you’re looking at the Life Guide for America, such streets can easily be located. This map, created by Beaumont native Robert Pitre, is about life’s choices.

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“It makes people think,” says Pitre, a successful Dallas entrepreneur and the founder of Pitre vision, a non-profit that works with inner-city males to encourage positive values. “You could tell a person all day long, don’t do this. “But if you show them if you make the wrong choice, this is where you could be, they can see.” Using streets titled Dropout Street and Prison Road, Pitre mapped out pathways to illustrate the tragic data that experts know all too well. “Some of these choices landed you on prison road,” Williams has told young men at the Texas Youth Commission. “It is not too late for you to change your ways.” (Unknown source) By Ann Walker