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Class Notes
	Beyond redemption is life, hope (Published February 9, 2004) By MATT WENNERSTEN

The Washington area was shocked by the recent shooting at Ballou Senior High School. I’m only 30. I’ve been teaching in D.C. Public Schools for only three years. And I’m already tired of reading or writing about children slain.

Recently I had the chance to visit some of my former students at the school where I used to teach, Eastern Senior High. It was great to see "my" kids grow up, moving on in grade and getting ready for life after high school. As I walked the halls at Eastern I was haunted by the feeling that what happened at Ballou could just as easily have happened there.

In fact, similar events have been happening all year in D.C.’s high schools. Many of these incidents don’t make the papers. An 11th grader at one school was "jumped" by four girls one day after school, and the next day at school, behind the cafeteria, "accidentally" stabbed one of the girls that jumped her, seven times. It was a miracle the kid survived. Last calendar year, a student at Cardozo was shot in the cafeteria. This year, outside of school, two students at Anacostia have already been shot and killed. Recent memory at Bell includes the horrific running gun battle on 16th Street, two blocks from the school doors.

The kids are on edge all across the city – there is a strange vibe of violence going on. I recently heard from a teacher at another high school where students were sent home 15 minutes early last week because the school administration heard gunfire from around the corner and was afraid that someone might be waiting for school to let out to settle a beef. My colleague’s theory is that after enduring two years of unendurable tension, from 9/11 in 2001 and the sniper in 2002, kids in 2003 don’t have an external conflict to focus on and are releasing all the tension in fights in the neighborhoods.

This is why I’m doubly glad I was able to see some of my former students when I had the chance. I’d rather see them while they’re alive. While I pray that nothing bad happens to them, I’ve already had, in my short career, two students get hit by cars and another stabbed. Fortunately, all three have recovered, but the odds are what they are.

As I was leaving Eastern, I was fortunate to run into a young man who was in my Algebra I class last year. At that time, he was 17 and just starting ninth grade. The kid’s home situation was somewhat unstable, and without being specific, there was a lot of other extracurricular stuff going on in his life that inhibited his academics. I spent extra time with the kid, trying to make sure he would make it – at 17, if you don’t get through the ninth grade on your first try, the chances of you dropping out are almost 100 percent. By the end of the year, however, he had stopped coming to class and essentially let school drift away. I heard after that from another teacher that he had been seen around, acting the fool, hanging out on the streets and generally messing up. I tried to call him a couple times, but home phone numbers tend to change a lot when home isn’t a permanent place.

Sure enough, I didn’t run into him in school but, rather, hanging out on the sidewalk about a block away. He’s from the neighborhood – after all, it’s a neighborhood school. We talked for a bit. He told me that he’s working and about to enroll in night school to get his GED. Most of all, he seemed more at peace and ready to move in his life. While not a victory for the school system, I couldn’t help but feel a bit happier. Get a job, get a plan, get on up.

After I met him, I went for a haircut at the local barber shop, and I ended up talking with my barber, Curly, about his daughter who’s just starting out in DCPS. Her teacher had told him that she wasn’t paying attention in school. To teach her the importance of doing what one was told to do, Curly was making her stand in the corner. He explained to me that he had a forked road to his current career, and he wasn’t going to take any chances with his own child. As a kid, he’d had caring parents, a good home and plenty of opportunity. But instead of taking advantage of it, he’d spent a few years in the wilderness goofing off and getting into hijinks instead of being serious. Obviously he’s doing just fine now (the haircut was excellent), but he’s lived what I’ve seen: kids can be serious and move on, or fool around and lose a year, or five years or more, of their lives waiting to get their act together while they’re hanging around with the wrong kind of people. And those are the lucky ones. As we’ve seen, sometimes what gets lost is their entire life.

Seeing my former student on the street reminded me that no one on earth is beyond redemption. I hope he gets his GED and keeps his job for many years to come.

For those who are no longer on this earth, let us remember.

For those still living, let us continue to act.

In memory of James Richardson, Ballou Class of 2005.

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Wennersten is a third year mathematics teacher at Bell Multicultural High School in Columbia Heights and a graduate of the D.C. Teaching Fellows program (http://www.dcteachingfellows.org). Please send stories, comments or questions to mwenners@yahoo.com.

Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator