The Student From Prison

I recently discovered that one of my students was in jail for twenty years for second degree murder.  Yowza.

I knew things were a bit interesting early on in the semester when I received an email from the student (shall we call him Frank?) saying he wouldn't be able to make it to class because of a family emergency.  He was a good student and this was his first absence, so no problem.  The next class period, Frank is at my desk apologizing for his absence.  I tell him it's fine, but I can see that he is upset.

"Some guy beat up my daughter," he says quietly.
"That's awful!  I'm sorry to hear that."
"Yeah, well, I was so angry, so mad, I couldn't even think of coming to class."
"I"m glad you didn't," I kind of blurt out while looking at him.  He is a big, solid guy, someone who if he is angry, I don't want to be around.
"Well," he bends down to whisper, "The guy is getting out of the hospital tomorrow."
At this point, my surprise kind of overpowers my mask as a teaching professional, and I let out some inarticulate whisper like "Dude!"

All right, so you beat the shit out of some guy and landed him in the hospital for days?  I'm on guard.

Time goes on and during class discussions, he'll mention being in prison.  I'm not thinking much of it yet.  Then it comes out: he was in there for twenty years.  Holy crap, what the hell did he do?  I'm thinking that twenty years doesn't seem like enough for murder (shows what I know), but too much for assault or drugs.  Maybe armed robbery?  Maybe assault with a deadly weapon?  I'm a bit anxious to know as I am teaching at night time in a secluded classroom in a creepy part of a building. 

At the same time, Frank is probably my best student.  He gets excited about the writing assignments, tries his best, and really puts a lot of thought into his work.  He tells me that he wrote all the time in prison, sending home his family monthly installments of a X-Files-style story.  He seems polite and intelligent, so I'm wondering what did this guy do to get sent away for twenty years?  And should I know?  I even feel a little guilty about wanting to know because he has done his time, so should he still have to endure my suspicion hanging over him?  Do I have a right to know or does he have the right to secrecy?

It doesn't matter, because he is not keeping secrets.  During a presentation, he lets the entire class know that he was in prison for second degree murder.  He doesn't go into detail (and thankfully, no one asks), but he continues his presentation as a natural orator.  He has a very commanding presence, a wonderful speaking voice, and little phrases that had me giggling on the inside ("We talk about justice, but justice for who?  Just me?  Just you?  Just us?").  The class went along with it and loved him, nodding their heads with everything he said. 

I came home and looked him up on our state's criminal tracking site.  There was his picture and his offense.  Despite my best intentions, I know that if I knew this information before the semester and saw his picture, I would have thought of him differently than I do now.  It is just a weird experience to be in the same room with someone who has done such an awful thing.   

While I was on that site, there was a link to check out the sexual offenders in my neighborhood.  What the heck, I'll click it.  Damn, there is just nothing not creepy about those guys.  I used to wonder how many people get in trouble with those laws because maybe they were 17 and slept with their 16 year old girlfriend.  Yeah, looks like I don't have to worry about that.  The site gave the age of the offender, the date of their offense, and the crime.  And, of course, the creepy picture.  A lot of them had big grins on their faces, which I found odd.  One even had iPod headphones on.  Frank was not smiling in his picture. 

****
On a completely unrelated note, thank you to all who gave advice last week.  It was really helpful.  My big problem is always note organization, but I think I am going to do what feels most comfortable and take handwritten notes in a notebook and later transfer those to the computer maybe once a week or so.  If you have any other advice for keeping my sanity, awesome treats to eat while reading, or good music to play while typing, I'm all ears!