R.i.p. To A Former Student

[pomba gira]

A former student of mine was found dead on Tuesday. I just found out today, it was in the local newspaper. He was found in a heating duct on the roof of a store... this is after a series of break-ins in the area where the entry was through the heating ducts. He apparently got stuck in a tight space and died of exposure when the temp went down to 25 Monday nite. He was 17 years old.

Dennis was in my first Resource Room group at Sankofa, during the 03-04 school year. He never did any work and was disruptive but not in a mean or aggressive way... just always wanted to clown & socialize. So I remember him as a challenge, but also as smart, talented, and charming. Maybe too charming for his own good in many ways. He was almost 15 in 7th grade, and had all the issues you tend to see in kids that age who are more than a year behind in school.

I want to commit acts of extreme grotesque violence against whoever put Dennis up to breaking in that building. I absolutely cannot believe he would do something like that on his own... but I can easily see someone talking him into it & him going along with it 'cos he wanted to look like a badass. I can't stop thinking how horrible it must have been for him, trapped in there with no help anywhere around. Yes he was committing a crime- and a pretty damn stupid one too- but he didn't deserve to die like that. He was basically a good kid & I truly believe he would've got his shit together & had some kind of future. But now he won't. Gawd this sucks soooo bad.

My mom taught in the Detroit schools for 30 years, and several of her former students have died in violent or tragic circumstances. But this is the first one for me. I really really hope it's the last 'cos I'm having a very hard time dealing with it.