Member-only story
Several years ago, on a summer workday, I got a call from the father of a student. He had recently gotten custody of his son, who I will call Deon, after Deon’s mother died from a bout with a particularly fast-acting cancer.
He was asking if I could write a statement of character about Deon, who was soon to stand trial for shooting at a classmate of his.
I asked for more information, and learned that there was a pretty strong case. Dad had been at work, and insisted his son would never take the car without his permission, but the car used in the shooting matched his. Further, the description of the driver matched his son’s closest friend, another student at our school, who was also in custody.
For two years we had struggled to help Deon succeed. We worked with him to do the best work he could do, which was at times very good. His teachers and other school staff created opportunities for him to develop valorization — helping him see the good things he had done at school and beyond, to feel a sense of accomplishment in who he was.
Yet from the beginning he was fragile, and seemed split between fitting in and acting out. He put on a tough persona, but teachers would observe him doing small acts of kindness for classmates. However, things at home, which had never been terrific, went…
