| FACES |
| Published in The
Monterey County Herald, in July, 2004 |
Anyone looking for some insight into a troubled mind should study the poem, "Faces", written by George T., the San Jose high school student who was convicted of violating a criminal threats statute. ("Court weighs teenager's poem", Herald, May 28.)
"For I am Dark, Destructive & Dangerous," he says. "I can be the next kid to bring guns to kill students at school. So Parents watch your children cuz I'm BACK!!"
It's easy to see how, in the wake of the Columbine and Santee massacres, such remarks would have alarmed school officials. The poem practically screams for attention. And attention is exactly what it received. On the strength of this one piece of evidence, the boy was summarily expelled, arrested and exiled to Juvenile Hall for 100 days. This action, not surprisingly, has since generated much debate among lawmakers and free-speech advocates. Now, three years after the fact, the California Supreme Court is pondering whether or not to overturn the boy's conviction.
Whether or not this youngster seriously intended to shoot his fellow students is hard to say. There are many who believe that the school overreacted. Did booting George T. out of school avert a tragedy? Maybe, maybe not.
I personally believe there's more to this story than a case of criminal conduct vs "youthful artistic expression". Take a closer look. The poem begins: "Who are these faces around me?...They would probably be the next doctors or loirs [lawyers] or something. All really intelligent and ahead in their game. I wish I had a choice on what I want to be like they do [my emphasis]." As a former outcast myself, who struggled with feelings of inadequacy when I was in school, I recognize a vein of anguish running through the poem that no one seems to be addressing.
If I were a school counselor, I'd have, recommended suspension over expulsion. Rather than turning George over to the authorities, I'd have taken time to understand him. I'd have wanted to know why he felt that he had no choices in life. Why did he see himself as less capable of determining his destiny than others his age? Who or what did he imagine was holding him back? What advantages or personal endowments did he think his peers possessed that he lacked? Had no one ever recognized his talents? His worth as a human being? A little creative intervention, I believe, could have defused a potentially volatile situation and spared this youngster the stigma of a criminal record.
At a time when youngsters are challenged to be all they can be, this student's expressions of failure resonate all the more profoundly. It may be that the perceived threats he made were simply his way of forcing people to acknowledge him. The message I'm reading is: "How do you know what I'm capable of doing, since you've never taken the time know me!" For all anyone knows, tossing him out on his ear may have exacerbated the feelings of alienation and rage already brewing inside him. Moreover, by treating him like a social misfit, the system risked fueling the very disaster it was trying to avert.
I am forever grateful that, at a crucial stage in my own development, I had a positive support system at home and at school that helped me to accept myself and channel my peculiar energies into constructive pursuits. One can only hope that, in the three years since George T. was removed from Santa Teresa High, some sympathetic counselors have been able to get through to him and help him find his way in the world.