The gray vinyl-covered twin beds are similar to the ones that furnish jail cells. But the four young men who just moved into Suite 308 of this Cal State Northridge dormitory couldn't be more aware that their new accommodations mark a milestone on a divergent path.Not that Delbert McFarlane, Darnell Harrison, Keith McNeal and Jamal Howard were headed for lockup. They did, however, come from a neighborhood where that's not an unlikely trajectory.Street gangs have spread ruin through this city for decades and continue to corrode Southern California schools. Four years ago, when letters arrived in Inglewood-area mailboxes, inviting eighth-graders to enroll in the initial freshman class at Animo Inglewood — the second public charter high school built by the then-new Green Dot organization — many moms and stepdads and aunties found solace in the promise of small classes and uniforms as a way to insulate their children from the influences of the surrounding streets. It's never that easy, though, as the folks at the publicly funded, independently run school quickly learned.
