Losing a good person

I had this one student. He was an amazing kid. He lived a crazy life. His biggest enemy was himself. He didn't think that he would live past 24 years old. His environment was leading him to a quick death. He got into it with a female student and now he is out of the school. I was really bummed to lose him. He needed the safety and stability of my school to restrain himself for his own good.

"Jesus on the lean donkey is the emblem of how the rational intellect must control the animal-soul. Let your spirit be strong like Jesus or the worn out donkey grows to a dragon." -Jelaludin Rumi

This girl tried to step up to him like she was a guy and she got punked. He threw some silly putty right into her face. Since he went there, he's gotta go. I know that girl and she likes to talk some shit. There are certain people that you can't go there with. This kid is one of them. Once again, I'm not condoning what he did...but she got her karmic result from talking shit to the wrong people.

Now this kid talks shit too. No doubt. He's an angry angry young black kid who is brilliant but his anger runs him. He witnessed domestic violence against his mom and yet he's misogynistic. No father in his life. He's been in juvenile hall and we got him with an ankle bracelet. He doesn't have 3 squares a day and has no money in his pocket. He has to hustle for what he wants. I was giving him noodle bowls and pop tarts. He doesn't feel that he has control over his life. He was scraping by and decided that he if he was going down in this world he wasn't going out like a little bitch. It was so hard to watch a brilliant kid whose justified anger coupled with a tall frame and dark skinned blackness conspired against him. Society and family life had traumatized him. He needed therapy. But people feared his large framed angry darkness. The kid was always respectful to me and 100% honest. Dead honest. No filter dead honest. I was trying to get him to code switch and it was happening.

I'm saddened because I fear for his life. 105 murders in Oakland so far. 80%+ of the students in my class have lost someone close to them by violence. My school was a place he was safe from the crazy streets and his personal life. He once said to another teacher he would rather die than go back to prison and lose his freedom. Good luck G.