HE BEAT THE ODDS TAFT HIGH GRAD TO HEAD FROM 'HOOD TO TEMPLE UNIVERSITY.

Byline: RACHEL URANGA Staff Writer

Brian Reynolds was never really a child.

Before he started first grade, he watched his father hustle drugs.

By his eighth birthday, he had moved in with his grandmother, where he rotated between sleeping on the couch and the floor in a crowded, three-bedroom South Los Angeles duplex.

Now, while many of his childhood playmates are in jail, on drugs or dead, the 18-year-old is heading off to Temple University with aspirations of opening his own business.

``It's a wonderful feeling to know that I beat the odds when there are so many out there that didn't,'' Reynolds said.

Donning a black cap and gown, Reynolds will graduate from Taft High School today with a 3.7 grade-point average.

With about half of Los Angeles Unified School District's black and Latino seniors failing to graduate on time, he is a statistical oddity -- coming from poverty to create a future, a world he never saw in his own life.

His South L.A. neighborhood, a once-storied African-American jazz district on the outskirts of downtown, now sends its children to a poorly performing high school where 94 percent qualify for a federally funded lunch program for the poor and the dropout rate is considerably higher than the district's average.

Raised by his 61-year-old maternal grandmother, Reynolds entered into one of the district's busing programs in junior high school.

The program provides 6,600 children from underperforming schools with one predominant ethnic group with transportation to an ethnically diverse and academically stronger school.

``He is one of those that realized he could get out of the 'hood through the education. It sounds like a cliche but it's the truth,'' said Bridget Brownell, a health education teacher who early on befriended Reynolds.

``Some of the students bused in, they are bitter. It's really hard to sit there for two hours each way, so they don't appreciate the opportunities. They resent it.

``But him, I really couldn't be prouder of him,'' she said.

Every school day for the past six years, Reynolds rose at 5:30 a.m. to ready himself for the 28-mile, 90-minute bus trip.

During his bleary-eyed passage along the city's traffic-choked freeways, Reynolds entered into a different world where students speak Spanish, Farsi and Mandarin, where the gangs from around his tattered home seemed to disappear, and where, for better or worse, there are fewer reminders of home.

Freshman year, he joined the basketball team and vowed to keep his head in his books rather than roam the streets with his childhood friends.

``I just wanted to make my grandmother proud,'' he said. Making her proud turned into three hours of studying at night and, eventually, A's and B's.

Nobody in his immediate family had graduated from college and the idea seemed far off. But by his junior year, he had gotten all A's with one B, and he was eager to share the good news with his father, whom he rarely saw.

But he never got a chance. When he called, his dad cut short the phone call, promising to see him over the weekend. The next day, he learned his father had died of natural causes. He was 37.

``I didn't want to go on,'' Reynolds said, adding that setbacks like his father's death often derail many teens from reaching their potential. ``But I just picked myself out and I am going to come out on top.''

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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2006 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION SCHEDULE OF CEREMONIES

Here is a schedule of graduation ceremonies for Los Angeles Unified high schools in the San Fernando Valley.

Birmingham, 6 p.m. today at Tom Bradley Stadium, 17000 Haynes St., Lake Balboa.

Canoga Park, 6 p.m. today at the school's athletic field, 6850 Topanga Canyon Blvd.

Cleveland, 6 p.m. today at Verity Field, 8140 Vanalden Ave., Reseda.

Grant, 5 p.m. today at the athletic field at Valley College, 5800 Fulton Ave., Valley Glen.

High Tech, 6 p.m. Friday in the Great Room at 17111 Victory Blvd., Lake Balboa.

Kennedy, 6:30 p.m. today at William Albers Field, 11254 Gothic Ave., Granada Hills.

Monroe, 5 p.m. June 30 at the athletic field, 9229 Haskell Ave., North Hills.

CAPTION(S):

photo, 2 boxes

Photo:

(color) Brian Reynolds was bused from South Los Angeles for years to study at Taft High in the Valley, and now he's set to begin studies at Temple University.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Box:

(1) 2006 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION SCHEDULE OF CEREMONIES (see text)

(2) VALEDICTORIANS & SALUTATORIANS - CLASS OF 2006