News Flash

Literally, no news was good news. Earlier in the school year, I wrote about a young man who had returned from a year away and had a near death experience and completely changed his life. As I said in the last entry about him, he had been able to hold himself together in a healthier way despite the residue of anger within him. Since then he moved to a different program because he didn't think he could be at the school where his sister (who committed suicide recently) had walked the halls. After he left I heard very little from him which was not normal. He usually sent me a text every once in a while to check in.

It seems he made a mistake and it cost him time...

I asked our student support leader about him the other day and she told me that he had stabbed someone in a drunken rage. Apparently, he was hanging out with some of his "old friends" from before and got into an angry exchange with a guy at a pizza place. He stabbed him in his anger.

A series of mistakes led him to this. It sucks that he had to experience this after he decided to change himself around. If he hadn't had a record and hadn't made all of these mistakes in the past, maybe this one mistake wouldn't cost him the next 15 years of his life.

I mourn him but pray that he'll survive the animal conditions of being incarcerated. I hope he will find true freedom soon.



In light of youth incarceration and mistakes being made over time, I want to reference some wonderful work being done in Florida with young men in jail. The project is called "Talking Chains," and they record the stories of young men who have gone to jail at a very young age.