{"id":322,"date":"2015-05-19T09:30:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T09:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/homeless-in-high-school\/?p=322"},"modified":"2015-06-10T14:44:09","modified_gmt":"2015-06-10T14:44:09","slug":"he-gives-homeless-kids-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/homeless-in-high-school\/2015\/05\/19\/he-gives-homeless-kids-home\/","title":{"rendered":"He Gives Homeless Kids A Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

For more than 15 years, Charles \u2018CJ\u2019 Johnson has unofficially fostered homeless kids from North Dallas High School. He\u2019s made his house their home and created a family for students who need one.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson during an Action Team meeting at North Dallas High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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Typically, an economics class meets in Room 110 of North Dallas High School.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But on Fridays after school, finance takes a vacation. It’s time for the Action Team to meet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Members don\u2019t talk profits and losses, but public service. Charles Johnson \u2013 he goes by \u2018CJ\u2019 \u2013 created the school club\u00a011 years ago, when he worked at the school. On this day, he\u2019s the volunteer leader of this session.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Students

Students listen to Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson during an Action Team meeting at North Dallas High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSo how many jobs have we gotten done?\u201d he asks the group. \u201cAre we still serving our community?\u201d<\/p>\n

CJ is a proud North Dallas Bulldog, class of \u201988. He left a prison security job 18 years ago to become a monitor at North Dallas High.\u00a0He also became a coach for the wrestling team. He wanted to help his old neighborhood and school.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community is in need for volunteers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also appreciate our school, and we\u2019re proud of our school. Some families needed help and everything like that, and I couldn\u2019t do it by myself. So I needed other people to volunteer.\u201d<\/p>\n

CJ\u2019s done more than volunteer. He also helped launch the school\u2019s African-American and Latin-American culture clubs.<\/p>\n

\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson, left, and Brandon Jones talk at Johnson’s home in Dallas. Jones, who still stops by to get his mail, lived with Johnson for five years. “That’s my dad basically,” Jones says. “Everybody calls him ‘the godfather.'” Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

‘CJ Is Everything’<\/h3>\n

North Dallas High has a weekly drop-in center for homeless kids to stop by before school. The center offers students food, mentors, information about health insurance and resources about shelters.<\/p>\n

Inside the center, Rafael Rodriguez, the school\u2019s community liaison, talks about Johnson\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cCJ, when he started to work here, he lived with just him and his mom,\u201d Rodriguez explains. \u201cSo he had a couple extra bedrooms available and I think at that time, it was probably 15 or 16 years ago, we had one young man and he needed a place to sleep and CJ provided a roof over his head.\u201d<\/p>\n

CJ hated seeing that boy in a homeless shelter living with adults.<\/p>\n

\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson brings out some of his coaching and humanitarian awards at his home in Dallas. Johnson coached wrestling for eight years and started the Action Team volunteer group at North Dallas High School. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cBecause you have other people dealing with mental problems, just got out of prison and also staying there,\u201d CJ says. \u201cMy first kid experienced that really bad where all his stuff was stolen, and also he came here with lice.\u00a0I told him to get his stuff and let\u2019s get out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was more than three dozen students ago. He\u2019s offered these kids a room, when the alternative was the street, a shelter or shattered household.<\/p>\n

He calls the kids his sons, although he has no biological children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just tell them \u2026 \u2018I got a lot of rules and regulations,\u2019\u201d CJ says. \u201cIf you want to come, and just grow up in the house and everything like that, you go to the same school. \u2026 You just come here. We live here. You graduate. That\u2019s what our focus is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angel Rivera, who\u2019s 21, started living with CJ in 2009, when he was an angry student at North Dallas High — and homeless.<\/p>\n

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\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson, left, helps Desmond Davis with his buttons while trying on a tux for his prom at Al’s Formal Wear in Dallas. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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\u201cCJ is everything in the world to me,\u201d Rivera says. \u201cAll of his other kids \u2026 are like brothers to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera says he was hard-headed, crazy, and crossed the legal line. His mom kicked him out \u2013 three times. CJ helped him simmer down.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father, I don\u2019t know him at all, never met him,\u201d Rivera says. \u201cThen my mother, she lives not too far from here, but me and her don\u2019t always get along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera needed a male role model, CJ says.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to hang around with a guy that could actually teach him things besides being angry,\u201d CJ says.<\/p>\n

Rivera grew up. He chilled out. He took a new path.<\/p>\n

\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson, right, instructs Desmond Davis on how to prepare chicken fried chicken at his home in Dallas. Johnson has taken in more than 40 homeless boys since 2001. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

Thankful for the Support<\/h3>\n

North Dallas High has more than its share of kids like him.<\/p>\n

About 15 percent of the students are homeless \u2013 the most of any high school in the Dallas Independent School District. North Dallas High is surrounded by shelters, public housing — and it\u2019s also nestled near new apartments and trendy stores.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the neighborhood CJ grew up in with his aunt and mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey raised us right,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had other families that stayed with us. So we always took care of our family and other people\u2019s families. \u2026 I remember\u00a0growing up like that. So we have always been growing up with other people staying with us during their heartaches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson, left, helps Desmond Davis with his collar while trying on a tux for his prom at Al’s Formal Wear in Dallas. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

CJ now shares some of that heartache. He and his sister now care for their mother from a distance.<\/p>\n

And, without certification, he had to stop coaching at North Dallas High. He also changed jobs. Today, he works security for Baylor Medical Center but still raises the kids he calls his sons.<\/p>\n

This year, his focus has been on Desmond Davis, a student he\u2019s taken in. Dez, a drum major, wrestler and track runner, is a student at North Dallas High. He just graduated.<\/p>\n

Earlier this spring, on a school day, with the sun barely up and breakfast done, CJ was in the kitchen, mapping out the day with Dez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the Action Team meeting,\u201d CJ tells Dez. \u201cSo I know you probably have band practice. Are you\u00a0meeting with your coaches or anything?\u201d<\/p>\n

After so many years of essentially being a foster father, CJ has never done it formally. He doesn\u2019t like the stereotype of a foster parent in it for the money<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get paid for doing this,\u201d he says. \u201cI use my own salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he adds that many people support him. And he gives thanks to a few neighborhood churches that have supported his kids — and others at the school.<\/p>\n

They help keep CJ grounded. Kind of what he\u2019s done for students at North Dallas High for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

\"Charles

Charles ‘CJ’ Johnson instructs Desmond Davis on how to prune a rose bush at his home. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

Video: Meet Desmond Davis<\/h3>\n

Desmond Davis is one of those 18-year-olds that schools like to brag about: He\u2019s a runner, wrestler and drum major. He\u2019s graduating from North Dallas High School, and he\u2019s heading to college at Oklahoma State University in the fall. Desmond just happens to be homeless.<\/p>\n