A Tale of Two Boys

What’s Happening To Us

I’ve been a little quiet on the blog lately. Usually that’s a sign of trouble but in this case, it’s a sign of me being troubled. Two little kids have haunted me for the last two weeks and I want to tell you about them.

Last week, I went on the ride along program with the local police department. The first call of the night was to a roller rink where a 12 year old boy was being detained by the owners. Why would a little kid be in trouble enough to call the police? He’d been following a little girl around all night, groping her. What makes it worse is that when we showed up with the police, he was violent, angry and obnoxious.

His defiance continued as the police officer tried to get him to give us his mother’s phone number. He wouldn’t give it up and kept swearing up a storm. As the time moved on, my first sergeant was able to break him down. He started crying like the child he was. When asked again where his mom was, he said she was hooking in an apartment somewhere in Killeen. Why does a child even know that? And when his grandmother showed up why was the first response out of her mouth when told of her grandson’s actions “did she say you could touch her?”

What started out as a defiant little kid who I wanted to turn over my knee ended with my heart breaking in my chest. He’s 12. He’s already on probation. He’s failing at school. He’s already attempted suicide. He’s 12! Grandmom doesn’t know how to deal with him and believes the system is ready to lock him up forever. But my first sergeant and her husband decided to get involved. They decided to take that young man under their wing. To find him a mentor. To try and save another troubled young man from a life of being labeled a failure before he’s even a teenager.

The other little boy is in my daughter’s class. He’s nine. We had a birthday party for her this weekend. He makes me want to cry just thinking about him. He smaller than the other kids, with shadows in his eyes. I don’t know where his parents are. He gave my daughter a card. It was all he had. And when she made it a point to play with him on the trampoline, his whole face lit up. She told me she’s the only person who is nice to him because he’s always in trouble. Even the teachers struggle with him. He told me his grandmom gets mad at him when he “gets wound up”. All I could do was hug him. Because he looks like he needed a hug.

Both of these young men are failing. We can ask where their parents are. We can point the finger and say they’re bad kids, we should throw them out of the school so they don’t drag everyone else down with them. But how many more of them are out there? I think a lot of us take for granted the fact that there’s food on the table, that we had parents who loved us and did their best. For whatever reason, their parents aren’t there. Regardless the reason, the impact is still the same.

This sounds like it’s about our society but at the end of the day, it’s not. It’s about two little boys. Both who badly need someone to hug them.