Michael Phillips works with Kolton Blakes, an eighth-grader during a tutoring session at a local restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. Photo Credit: Jill Pickett, Staff Photographer of The Shreveport-Bossier Advocate
by Elizabeth Deal, The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate
In the early evening on Wednesdays and Thursdays, you’ll find Michael Phillips tutoring a group of students at Jason’s Deli in Shreveport.
One of those students is Kolton Blakes, an eighth grader at Walnut Hill who was recently diagnosed with ADHD. His mother, Evonda Jones, turned to Phillips for help. “As a parent you want to make the best decisions for your child. You want to help them in any way that you can. And when I called Mr. Phillips, I expressed that to him. I told him about that, and he was like ‘I welcome those types of students,'” she said.
