ONLY ON 3: Home invasion suspect sought help before arrest

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This week three teenagers were arrested, accused of committing home invasions. Tuesday WWAY learned one of those teens had recently reached out to a non-profit aimed to help disadvantaged youth in the area.

Atiba Johnson, Executive Director of the O.O.P.S. foundation, said Tre’Vaugh Segar, 17, went to them for help getting his high school diploma less than two weeks ago.

“He wanted to make a change,” said Johnson. “At the time because of our funding I wasn’t able to enroll him in our high school diploma class, which that is one of the things he wanted to complete.”

Johnson said the teen also was interested in mentorship and job training.

O.O.P.S. stands for Offering Optimistic Plans for Success. The non-profit organization helps teens and adults get their high school diplomas, as well as provide mentorship, and job coaching.

“I saw on the news and read it in the newspaper, that he got caught up in something and my heart just went out to him,” Johnson said.

Johnson said they don’t like turning people away but the funding isn’t there.

“In our job we want to save them all, in just being realistic we know we can’t,” Johnson said. “To not be able to help someone is very frustrating.”

Johnson said the O.O.P.S. foundation relies on donations. He said it cost about $5,000 to get a student through the high school diploma program alone.

Johnson said he recently went to the New Hanover County School Board to ask for $150,000 to enroll 30 more students in the program

“We did a proposal for the board of education, because we get a lot of referrals from the school system already,” Johnson said.

Johnson said it’s a small price to pay to make sure teens don’t leave the school system and end up in the legal system.

“It’s about $38,000 a year for someone to be incarcerated, for our program it’s about $5,000 a year so we deal with them now or later,” Johnson said.

Johnson said last year the O.O.P.S. Foundation helped 30 students graduate, 27 of them went on to either college or are employed.

There’s no word whether the school board will grant Johnson’s request.