It is difficult to write about things such as this. Everyone knows I love my job, the interaction with kids, the ability to make a difference, to possibly change lives. But it isn’t always a happy ending. Sometimes, for whatever reason, kids choose to make other choices. This is one such story.

He wouldn’t have been classified as a good student, but neither was he a particularly troublesome one either. He wasn’t violent and I can’t remember him even getting into a fight. He enjoyed talking to adults and loved receiving attention. What he didn’t like was going to class. Many times he would show up in my office wanting to talk about something, often in an effort to just not be in class. He was failing all of his classes as a 7^th grader and had already repeated the grade once. He was never disrespectful to me but occasionally could be that way to others. I joked with him, playing on his last name, humming “Hail to the Chief” when I saw him, something he seemed to find humorous after I explained it to him. He seemed to respond better to men than women, but got along with most of the adults in our school. His mother was a regular presence at the school, wanting her son to do well, but not able to exert full control over him.

I remember catching him in the hall a few months ago, asking him where he was supposed to be, listening to his lame excuses, putting my arm on his shoulder, and walking him to class. I told him that he was behind, needed to catch up on his schoolwork, that this was a ticket to a better life for him. He said to me, “that is for other people…the smart people. I’m not one of them.” Standing in front of the classroom door I repeated to him what one of his teachers had told me….that he was intelligent, how he had once gotten motivated and completed a large amount of work in a very short time. He didn’t reply, smiled, slapped me a high five and walked into class.

I knew he hung with a bad crowd, that he lived on the streets, saw things that thirteen year old boys should not see, doing things he had no business doing. Apparently it was worse than I thought. I was shocked to hear of what he’d done, to read this story. (link removed- the student is charged with shooting and killing a 26 year old man) He took a life, someone’s son, brother, or friend. I’ve heard rumors as to what happened, but who knows what to believe.

I am saddened for such a senseless loss of life, sorry for the victim and his family. I am also saddened for this young man who only recently turned fourteen years old.

What a damn waste.