High School Friends Recall Ashley Alexandra Dupre

fscaFriends of the 22-year-old high-priced call girl named “Kristen” are now rallying around the woman they knew as Ashley Youmans of Wall, N.J.“We’re just trying to keep her head up and keep her strong, have her look at this as a positive,” high school friend Joe Pawlak tells People.

Pawlak, who graduated from Wall H.S. in 2003, a year ahead of Youmans – who now goes by Ashley Dupre – says she’s only human and “people make mistakes.”

“She’s just trying to work through it,” says Pawlak.

THG NOTE: Come on Pawlak. The girl slings the poon for thousands of dollars an hour. We’re not judging, but there’s no “mistake” about this.

Ashley Alexandra Dupre was identified this week as “Kristen” – the escort linked by federal authorities to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who resigned.

Bevin Doherty, who knew Ashley Youmans on the Pop Warner cheerleading squad in middle school, tells People that, in contrast to statements Ashley made on her MySpace page about her home life, Ashley lived with her mom.

“Her mom would pick her up from cheering at school in a Jaguar,” says Doherty, who assumed Ashley, who wore designer clothes, was wealthy.