It's been almost a month since I have written in this blog. There is much I could write about--the GED graduation for one and I will do so later. For now, I'll follow up on C, the man I wrote about before, when I felt I had a glimpse of his basic humanity and was sorry for my attitude towards him.
The story continues. On Tuesday there were four police cars across the street. There have been four shootings in our neighborhood, two of them fatal. Maybe that is why there was a stronger police presence. In any case, C went crazy. He started complaining about the b.... which I at first thought was his reaction to my asking him to check the goals in his folder. But then he started stalking around the room using the f word over and over again. He got himself a cup of coffee and sat in the window for a bit. Then he started walking again. I said something like "I think it's time you left, C" and he walked out. I locked the door.
The students were pretty sure his reaction was from seeing police outside. Once before he had talked about someone out to get him when a police car was in front of the building. At that point, however, he went out to talk to the police and returned.
Our volunteer who is a pretty big guy himself said, "That was pretty scary." W, who is an ex-con, also was pretty uncomfortable. I was not scared, but I sure didn't like it.
I had difficulty reaching him by phone that night and was forced to leave a message with his mother that he should not return to class. I sent him a letter terminating his participation. We have begun to keep the doors locked after class begins.
I am sad that C did not belong in our class. I am concerned that he was not screened out earlier. He made me uncomfortable from the day he walked in. He never participated in class work and found it difficult to work on his own.
I hope he will not show up at the door again. But it is too bad that there was not a place for him.
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