Every Tuesday evening for eight weeks, 18-year-old Lamont Scott lumbered into a meeting room at a former East Side elementary school to take part in a course called Suit Up! that teaches street-savvy kids the importance of dressing well, good manners and building self-esteem.

Dressed smartly in a black suit, course founder Walter Perry, with the help of other volunteers, mentored the tall, burly Sam Houston High student and several other teens, clad in T-shirts, hoodies, shorts and sneakers.

Lamont towered over his fellow teens as they learned style tips, such as how to tie a tie and ironing shirts for a crisp finish and pants to ensure a sharp crease. Standing between tables, scattered with hangers and ties, the program founder stressed that life is about striving to improve yourself no matter what others say.

“Self-image plays a part in who you are,” said Perry, 40. “I believe in you guys. You can achieve anything you put your mind to. What is inside the suit — that’s the important piece. The suit is the enhancer.”

Lamont was never rude nor surly, but his quiet demeanor signaled an inner skepticism. In his mind, nothing Perry and the other volunteers could say would shake his belief that the future was bleak. Joshua Miranda, 17, felt the same way.

But the teens’ lack of enthusiasm was about to change.

Suit Up! is one of several alternative courses offered through the city’s mediation intervention and truancy program that addresses issues linked to students’ excessive unexcused absences. Numerous studies show that students who are frequently absent are more likely to drop out of school.

In 2013, presiding Municipal Court Judge John Bull, Northside Independent School District Superintendent Brian Woods and then-state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, worked on forming a commission to address absences. The solution, they found, was to divert students with truancy problems from the juvenile justice system. Under the program, students ages 12 to 17 can be sent to Municipal Court if they accumulate 10 unexcused absences in six months.

At the court, Bull hears cases and decides which prevention or intervention course best fits the individual student’s needs. The courses are taken in lieu of paying fines for truancy. The Suit Up! course is one of the newest options available to the judge.

The first time the course was offered, Perry invited Rudy Johnson, known as “Rudy J” on radio Ticket 760, and personal trainer Omar Ince to speak to the teens. They spoke about life-changing choices and the importance of healthy diets. Perry also reached out to San Antonio Police Officer Douglas Greene and Sgt. Michael Davis, from the Special Victims Unit, so the teens could learn more about people who work in law enforcement.

“I wanted them to look past the uniform, look behind the badge and see me as a human being,” Greene said. “They may have had a more aggressive outlook on an officer and had an aggressive response, but now that they’ve met a police officer that smiles, that shares his life with them, maybe they’ll have a more positive response the next time they come across an officer.”

Davis said he focused on what it means to be a man to guide these young men looking for direction. Another motivation, he said, was that one of the teens could have been his child.

“Had there not been other people for me, I might have have had more hurdles for success than I experienced as a young man myself,” he said. “You don’t know if it’s going to stick. You’ve got to shoot for the stars.”

In the third week, Perry had the teens play the role of job applicants, filling out résumés and being interviewed by Perry and the volunteers, acting as prospective employers.

One of the teens, Maurice Rawlings, was too shy to join in the exercise. During the mock interviews, he watched the other teens practicing firm handshakes, making eye contact and offering rounds of polite “yes, sirs.” Emboldened by his peers, Maurice shook off his nerves and took part in the role-playing.

That night, Joshua also had a change of mind.

“It’s not that bad,” he said. “The biggest surprise was my family saying it’s better for me. I didn’t expect it to be as interesting as it is.”

Perry’s curriculum for the course consists of straight talk, looking the teens in the eye and listening to their testimonies. At the end of each session, Perry had students and adults hold hands, forming a circle for a closing prayer.

Perry founded the program with the help of his wife, Alicia, to help guide youths from drugs and gangs. In the 1990s, growing up on the East Side, there wasn’t anything like Suit Up! that might have swayed him from joining a gang. His criminal activity landed him in prison for several years, where he learned that education was the key to his place in the world. After prison, Perry received financial aid and attended St. Philip’s College, where he received an associate degree in 2011.

Midway through those first Suit Up! sessions, Acqunetta Lee sat on one of the worn wooden benches and watched her 13-year-old nephew, Dontae. Lee, who has custody of her nephew, hoped that Perry’s program would guide him away from negative influences.

“I’m trying to get him out of his shell,” she said. “I pray this will help him.”

On graduation night, Perry called each teen to receive a certificate. They walked across the carpeted floor to the front of the room, not far from where Bull had enrolled them in the program.

Perry invited the Rev. Michael A. Jolla of West End Baptist Church to offer spiritual and style support.

“This is the kind of movement I want to be a part of,” he said to the graduates.

Unspooling a tape measure, Jolla, who owns a tailor shop, measured each young man for suits they would receive in the coming weeks.

“Feeling like a million bucks and looking like a million bucks matters — that suit gives you the confidence to be who you really are,” Perry said.

At the graduation ceremony, Perry pit the fastest knot-maker, Lamont, against Davis in tying a half-Windsor knot. The teen beat Davis, using Perry’s tie, with seconds to spare. After the match, the teen thanked Perry for inspiring him to pursue his dreams.

“When I first came here, I was lost, but you opened my eyes,” Lamont said. “ I didn’t care about the future at all. I learned love, respect and to be opportunistic. Life can bring you down, and you need people like this to bring you up.”

Curtis Dillard, a senior at Judson High School, thought the class was going to be like a military boot camp.

“I thought it would be tough, with things I’d have to do on a certain day,” said Curtis, 18. “I had a whole different perspective of how this was going to be. I didn’t expect police to actually be helping us.”

Maurice, wearing a black suit, arrived later with his mother, AnneMarie Jones. Greene and Davis helped the teen straighten his coat and tie before he stepped up to receive his certificate. His mother planned to hang the document in their living room so everyone could see it. She was surprised when Perry said Maurice always spoke highly of her.

“I’m glad he thinks of me like that because I love him to death,” Jones said.

Perry said his goodbyes to the teens he hoped had morphed into new young men.

“I want you to take these skills and be the best person in the world,” Perry said, giving a final word of advice. “Whatever you choose, choose something that makes an impact on the world.”