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This morning, as I was getting Little Jay ready for school, I noticed an official-looking green paper among the schoolwork that had been sent home the night before. Even though we were somewhat short of time, I took a minute to read it. You never know what you might need to know. Especially when you don't get the local newspaper or watch a lot of television.
It was a letter to all parents at the Pre-K to 8 School and its purpose was to "give an update on the condition of [Mr. R.B.], who was critically wounded in an unnamed incident on March 8th. Currently, [Mr. B.] remains in critical condition in a local hospital." The letter went on to state that "counseling services have been and will continue to be available to our students." It concluded, in the fractured syntax that has become embarassingly familiar, "We are soon hoping to be writing you a letter announcing that [Mr. B.] is returning to his [name of school] family."
After dropping my grandson off at school, I returned home and checked the online edition of the local newspaper. The short version of the story is that in the early hours of Sunday morning this fifty-two year old black assistant elementary school principal returned home from a local gay bar with a white twenty-one year old convicted felon, was allegedly stabbed at least five times by him, and was left naked and bleeding on the floor of his living room. The alleged perpetrator was picked up a short time later by police who were called by neighbors who reported seeing a man covered with blood and wearing only blue jeans. The alleged perpetrator is now in jail and his victim is in the hospital with wounds which include three that penetrated the liver.
Following the story's online publication, there was a virtual tsunami of conflicting opinion that inundated the attached blog space. Which broke, roughly, into two currents, one that said, you don't destroy what's left of a life and career over a single, albeit egregious error and another which stated, with equal passion, that educators should expect to be held to a higher standard and the public, whose children they serve, has a right to know.
To be honest, I'm one of those who has twice sat through the selection process for jury duty and both times hoped that I wouldn't be chosen because I wasn't sure that I could sit in judgement of someone else. (Even though I must confess that in my private life I have no such problem - jury selection has a way of confronting us with the full import of what we may be called upon to do.)
Maybe it's simply my distaste for seeing something so intensely private broken open in such horrific fashion to public view. I truly feel for the guy and for his family. We all make mistakes, some with the potential for life-altering consequences.
But my precious grandson has been left in this man's care and keeping and, at the age of six, has already experienced enough emotional trauma, due to the his parents' breakup, to last him a lifetime. Which I guess might suggest a prejudice serious enough to disqualify me from the jury on this one.
I truly hope the man recovers. But about his career, I'm just as truly unsure...
It was a letter to all parents at the Pre-K to 8 School and its purpose was to "give an update on the condition of [Mr. R.B.], who was critically wounded in an unnamed incident on March 8th. Currently, [Mr. B.] remains in critical condition in a local hospital." The letter went on to state that "counseling services have been and will continue to be available to our students." It concluded, in the fractured syntax that has become embarassingly familiar, "We are soon hoping to be writing you a letter announcing that [Mr. B.] is returning to his [name of school] family."
After dropping my grandson off at school, I returned home and checked the online edition of the local newspaper. The short version of the story is that in the early hours of Sunday morning this fifty-two year old black assistant elementary school principal returned home from a local gay bar with a white twenty-one year old convicted felon, was allegedly stabbed at least five times by him, and was left naked and bleeding on the floor of his living room. The alleged perpetrator was picked up a short time later by police who were called by neighbors who reported seeing a man covered with blood and wearing only blue jeans. The alleged perpetrator is now in jail and his victim is in the hospital with wounds which include three that penetrated the liver.
Following the story's online publication, there was a virtual tsunami of conflicting opinion that inundated the attached blog space. Which broke, roughly, into two currents, one that said, you don't destroy what's left of a life and career over a single, albeit egregious error and another which stated, with equal passion, that educators should expect to be held to a higher standard and the public, whose children they serve, has a right to know.
To be honest, I'm one of those who has twice sat through the selection process for jury duty and both times hoped that I wouldn't be chosen because I wasn't sure that I could sit in judgement of someone else. (Even though I must confess that in my private life I have no such problem - jury selection has a way of confronting us with the full import of what we may be called upon to do.)
Maybe it's simply my distaste for seeing something so intensely private broken open in such horrific fashion to public view. I truly feel for the guy and for his family. We all make mistakes, some with the potential for life-altering consequences.
But my precious grandson has been left in this man's care and keeping and, at the age of six, has already experienced enough emotional trauma, due to the his parents' breakup, to last him a lifetime. Which I guess might suggest a prejudice serious enough to disqualify me from the jury on this one.
I truly hope the man recovers. But about his career, I'm just as truly unsure...
