A youth survives turmoil on the road to valedictorian

At first glance, Shanika Bridges-King appears to embody the stereotypes of every at-risk teen. Her mother is a recovering addict, her father wasn't always around, her brother is in jail, and she has an attitude built on tough love and survival.

The teenager who grew up in the violence-ridden Bromley-Heath public housing complex in Jamaica Plain has survived knife attacks on the streets and the kind of girl-on-girl brawls that can erupt when one looks at the other ``the wrong way" in the school hallways. Some of the fights she started herself.

At English High School, where the tall, lanky 18-year-old is both feared and admired by her peers, Bridges-King stands out for other reasons -- for being bookish, for posting a 4.65 grade-point average , and for graduating yesterday as class valedictorian.

``She's led a difficult life, but she has always had potential," said Jose Duarte , the school's headmaster. ``One day, she started believing what everybody -- her teachers and mentors -- what they were telling her. She has the intelligence to really do something with her life."

Like hundreds of Boston public school students, Bridges-King lives in a world of chaos, where the temptation s of drugs, crime, and sex lurk in the almost every corner of her neighborhood, and survival means creating invisible walls between herself and the problems she inherited at birth.

``I decided to be better and stronger than everyone around me," she said in a recent interview while she prepared the speech that she delivered in front of 200 classmates and their families at yesterday's ceremony.

Bridges-King walked across the stage with a diploma, a scholarship to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, and the satisfaction of having proved that she is not another tragic statistic.

``By her watching me go through my struggles with drug addiction, she decided she wanted better," said her mother, Treanace King . ``I didn't help her. I was too busy dealing with my own issues to help her. She did it herself."

As an English High freshman, Bridges-King admits, she was quick to throw a punch.

``I hung out with the wrong crowd, and my attitude was like, `You can't touch me. Don't get in my face. You wanna throw down?' I was always getting in fights," she said. `` . . . No matter what, I always made good grades. Everybody started calling me the `gangsta-nerd.' "

She was suspended once, and more than once was sent to the guidance counselor's or coach's office when she acted out. But beneath the hardened exterior, the constant rolling of the eyes, and the dismissive flip of the hands, there was something else.

``As the fourth of seven children, and in a family led by strung-out parents, I saw it all," the aspiring journalist wrote in a high school essay. ``Depression and destruction. I saw lives broken down, instead of built up. Crime, police, drug dealers and despair surrounded me."

When she was 6 years old, she learned her mother was addicted to crack. She and her siblings were placed in a foster home for a year. When they returned home, her parents went their separate ways, and her mother struggled as a recovering addict.

``At home, well, there was nothing at home," Bridges-King said.

Bridges-King said she was about 12 when she decided to isolate herself from her neighborhood and her family.

``While in middle school I joined the basketball team, the soccer team, and the track team, a sport for every season," she said. ``I did everything to stay away from home. When I was at home I isolated myself. I had a refrigerator in my room. I'd come home. Eat. Take a shower. Then do my homework."

Through high school she continued to lock herself in her room, stay out late playing sports, and make straight A's while taking college-level courses.

During her senior year, Bridges-King replaced her ``gangsta-nerd" moniker with the title of senior class president. ``I see young adults just like me, fighting similar battles against difficult odds," she said of her presidency. ``I am their spokeswoman, I will give voice to their concerns, represent their interests, and those of others like us. "

Duarte said Bridges-King is just one of many students growing up hard and excelling in life.

``One of the things I've learned long ago is do not underestimate our kids, no matter how or where they grew up," said Duarte.

Megan Tench can be reached at mtench@globe.com