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Son's last words are all she has left [Leftist Sob Story Alert]
Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | March 14, 2004

Posted on 03/14/2004 6:08:58 AM PST by madprof98

EVANS -- Sherrie Glover's only child hanged himself with a prison bedsheet more than two years ago.

He was 15 and locked up for vandalizing and stealing candy from a ballpark concession stand and breaking into a church storage building and shooting a Coke machine with a stolen gun.

"Dear Mom," Richard Brown Jr. wrote on Dec. 19, 2001, the day he died. "I'm sorry for all of the Bad things I'v done in the past. But what I do now is for both of us. Mom, I love you. Please don't be sad."

Glover carries a worn copy of the note in her wallet.

A copy is all she has. Despite requests from her lawyer dating to last summer, the state has failed to send her the original note or the letters she wrote to Richard while he was incarcerated. She wants the letters. She wants to hold the last thing he wrote.

"They took everything I had," Glover, 43, said in a tearful interview last week at her home in Evans, near Augusta. "Can't they give me those back?"

On Friday, a state official said Glover would receive Richard's personal effects this week.

"I just apologize profusely," said Jaci Vickers, spokeswoman for the state's Department of Juvenile Justice. "I thought it had been taken care of, and it wasn't."

It is now a priority, Vickers said. "We'll do everything we can to expedite her receiving it," Vickers said. "I really feel terrible about it. . . . I don't know what happened."

To compel the state to hand over Richard's belongings, Glover had enlisted her lawyer, who wrote Juvenile Justice in August. Wade Padgett said he and his staff wrote letters and made "a series of phone calls."

"They are the last words of this lady's child," Padgett said. "They are the last communications of Sherrie with her child."

Last month Glover turned to child welfare advocate Rick McDevitt, Georgia Alliance for Children president, and asked him to see if Orlando Martinez, the former Juvenile Justice commissioner, could intervene. Martinez contacted Vickers in February, and she forwarded his request to the department's legal adviser.

Vickers saidFriday she thought, until contacted by a newspaper reporter last week, everything had already been sent to Richard's mother.She called the Ireland Youth Development Campus in Milledgeville, only to learn Richard's belongingswere still there.

"It's one of the unfortunate things that slipped through the cracks," said Vickers, whosaidstaff changes at the youth prison and at Juvenile Justice headquarters might have contributed to the problem. "There was no intent to withhold those personal effects from the mother."

A relieved Glover said Friday, "I think it's sad that it had to get to this point. I thought it was an easy request."

Her wait for the suicide note and letters is the last part of her son's tragic entanglement with Juvenile Justice.

After Richard hanged himself with a bedsheet tied to a top bunk, Glover filed a negligenceclaim against the state. The state settled out of court in February 2003 for an amount Glover won't disclose. The money's not the point, she said. "I'd go live in a car with him," she said, "if I could have him back."

After Richard's death in Milledgeville, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Juvenile Justice investigated. Among the findings:

• Boys had bullied Richard and taken his food. One boy said the food was for gambling debts.

• The staff broke a rule that would have ensured two officers were on duty in Richard's cottage when he died. A staff member had taken some boys to the gym, leaving only one officer to oversee 17 boys.

• Richard was on the list for medication that evening, for what his mother said was attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, but no one summoned him.

• Staff failed to regularly check the boys' rooms that evening, in violation of Juvenile Justice policy.

Richard's time in Milledgeville, which he entered five weeks before he died, wasn't his first encounterwith Juvenile Justice. Glover had turned over her son a few times because she was having trouble controlling him, she said.

She and Richard's father had split up when Richard was 9 months old.

The trouble started when Richard was 14, she said. He and another boy broke into a concession stand at a ballpark behind Glover's apartment. A judge sentenced Richard to ayear's probation and fined him $250, Glover said.

But soon Richard was skipping school and arguing with her. When Richard became too much for her to handle, Glover would call his probation officer, and at times Richard would be sent to a Juvenile Justice institution. She said she had hoped the state would set him on a better path.

"I thought I was teaching Richard a lesson by letting him suffer the consequences of his actions," she said. "They all told me it's where kids get help."

These days, Glover said, she struggles with the fact that she turned to the state for help. "My hand was in it."

In September 2001, Richard and a partner burglarized the sameconcession standagain and "made a mess of the place," Glover said. The same night, they broke into a building behind a church and Richard shot a Coke machine with a gun another boy had stolen, she said. Richard was charged with two counts of burglary and one count of possession of a firearm. A judge sentenced him to two years of state supervision with the first year to be served in a youth prison.

After a brief incarcerationin Savannah, Richard was sent to the Ireland Youth Development Campus in Milledgeville that November.

Glover and her son were upset because he was more than 90 miles from home. She couldn't see him often because she was working two jobsand her car was unreliable. Glover said she begged officials to move Richard to a youth prison in nearby Augusta.

In Milledgeville, shevisited her son the Sunday after Thanksgiving 2001. They sat clutching each other's hands.

"Mama, please don't leave me here," she recalled he told her. "I'm scared. I don't know what I'm going to do."

On her way out, in tears, Glover told a staff member she was worried. Richard was put on suicide watch that night, then moved to a different cottage, she said. "They said that's all he needed."

On Dec. 19, 2001, he hanged himself.

At Glover's home, she has stacks of photos documenting her brown-eyed boy's childhood.

"When he was little, he would send all his balloons up to God," she said last week.

She cried, remembering. And she cried over what happened to him.

"I sent them a child who was a teenager," she said. "He was smart and he was loved. And within a little bit of time, they turned him into somebody who thought he didn't have any value to anybody."

When she lost Richard, she lost everything that meant anything to her, she said.

"People will say, 'How many kids do you have?' " she said. "None," she said she sometimes answers. "My son killed himself." Then she'll fish out her copy of the last thing he wrote.

"I'll never see his first prom," she said. "He turned 18 in February. I don't have anybody to share holidays with anymore. So I just don't do them. I go to the Waffle House for Christmas dinner. It just never should have been this way."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: juvenilejustice
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Today's Atlanta newspaper is filled with stories like this--from the widow of a soldier nominated for a Medal of Honor to the parents of an autistic child in government custody to Iraquis who fear the US occupation of their country. In every case, it is our government's fault these victims have been suffering. When it comes to trashing all sense of personal responsibility, Pravda could not do a better job.
1 posted on 03/14/2004 6:08:58 AM PST by madprof98
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To: madprof98
I sincerely hope that you never have a child who breaks your heart or in any way gets into the criminal justice system. This is a heartbreaking story which could have been mine. My daughter was in juvenile detention for several months. It does sound to me like the authorities were negligent. If they take custody of a 15 year old, they have to provide better supervision. This is not a "leftist sob story," it's a tragic story of a single mom with one child who's dead. Maybe it's not news but it doesn't deserve to be trashed as "liberal sob story." Shame on you.
2 posted on 03/14/2004 6:14:38 AM PST by Mercat
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To: madprof98
The only people who can turn this tide are advertisers and subscribers.

Advertisers need to find competition to the left leaning papers. It will also help for peope to just stop buying the paper too.

If noone hears a leftist rant, do the matter?
3 posted on 03/14/2004 6:16:15 AM PST by longtermmemmory (Vote!)
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To: madprof98
At least the boy did the right thing.
4 posted on 03/14/2004 6:16:57 AM PST by Lion Den Dan
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To: madprof98
He was 15 and locked up for vandalizing and stealing candy from a ballpark concession stand and breaking into a church storage building and shooting a Coke machine with a stolen gun.

He sure was busy.

5 posted on 03/14/2004 6:18:32 AM PST by rabidralph (Crush Kerry's berries.)
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To: rabidralph
He sure was busy.

Evidently the state did not provide him with sufficient outlets for entertainment.

6 posted on 03/14/2004 6:21:48 AM PST by madprof98
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To: Mercat
Since you liked that one so much, try some more: Today's paper treats us to a cover story about the family of an autistic child who are dissatisfied with the terms of his state-supplied care, a lengthy series of portraits of Iraquis miserable under the US occupation of their land, a war widow who finds a Medal of Honor a poor substitute for her dead husband, and the ongoing struggle to get Georgia's most famous sex-offender out of prison.
7 posted on 03/14/2004 6:28:27 AM PST by madprof98
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To: Mercat
I sincerely hope that you never have a child who breaks your heart or in any way gets into the criminal justice system. This is a heartbreaking story which could have been mine. My daughter was in juvenile detention for several months. It does sound to me like the authorities were negligent. If they take custody of a 15 year old, they have to provide better supervision. This is not a "leftist sob story," it's a tragic story of a single mom with one child who's dead. Maybe it's not news but it doesn't deserve to be trashed as "liberal sob story." Shame on you.

I have a 16 year old daughter that spent 60 days in the Milledgeville facility for the horrible crime of beating up the daughter of a Loganville city coucilman that had been tormenting her for weeks.

First off, even though my daughter did not deserve the sentence she got, and I gave every effort to free her of those charges, it's still my failure as a parent and I would've been totally at fault if something had happened to her during her stay in Milledgeville.

Secondly, this facility is absolutely horrid. It is not run with enough staff, and most of the staff there don't do their jobs.

Like the boy in the story, there were many evenings my daughter didn't receive her medications.

Certain kids were allowed to run around beating up whoever they pleased without fear of retribution, while those who defended themselves against the bullies were disciplined.

My calls to the staff regarding my daughters treatment were ignored, and I was forced to take further measures. I learned that the head worker went to kroger on a certain evening each week to grocery shop.

She looked very surprised when I stopped her in the dark parking lot, and told her in very clear and detailed terms what would happen if so much as one hair was harmed on my daughter.

Being the gentleman that I am, I apologized to the lady for the obvious state of fear I had put her in, but reminded her that I was forced to go this route by their ignoring me.

My daughter never had another problem, but if something had happened to her, I would've been to blame. I'm her father, and even though I went through every effort to do what I felt was right, and even though my daughter got railroaded by the state, I would've been totally and soley responsible.

8 posted on 03/14/2004 6:50:08 AM PST by Vigilantcitizen
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To: Mercat; madprof98
It certainly is a sad story, but it also seems to me it is a strange story. Aside from the gun I don't see this kid's crimes amounted to enough to get a person incarcerated. It seems like his mom just called up the "authorities" and they took him away, no trial, nothing. I suppose it may be like that in Georgia, but it's not like that around here where I live. To my mind it seems like this guy was in a downward spiral of emerging mental illness and nobody realized it. Yes, it seems like the authorities were negligenct (at least technically), but the mother shares the blame, as she basically admits, which I give her credit for.

And I'm sure madprof is correct about the tenor of the articles, yet the funny thing is, these same leftys want the gov't. to provide all for us, and run every aspect of our lives, but they admit the gov't's not very good at it. This demonstrates that the left and their whorish media allies crave nothing beyond the continued deterioration and eventual destruction of both American society and Western Civilization. They are nihilists and they must be fought at every opportunity and in the end defeated.
9 posted on 03/14/2004 6:56:04 AM PST by jocon307 (The dems don't get it, the American people do.)
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To: madprof98
"Son's last words are all she has left [Leftist Sob Story Alert]"
Cripes, when I saw the headline, I thought it was going to be about a son who died in the war. With that image as I started to read, it was hard to get choked up about this kid.
10 posted on 03/14/2004 7:14:34 AM PST by Spok
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To: Vigilantcitizen
Certain kids were allowed to run around beating up whoever they pleased without fear of retribution, while those who defended themselves against the bullies were disciplined.

This is the way things are run in most public schools. The teachers and administrators are afraid of the violent bullies (and they are afraid of lawsuits for disciplining trouble-makers). If "normal" public schools are often so bad, I can only imagine that facilities for children who have problems must be hell-holes, where children are not disciplined or "rehabilitated." I imagine any bullies who get sent to such a place find that they can do anything to the weaker or slower children there and never fear being punished. The "children" who survive that learn to become hardened criminals.

11 posted on 03/14/2004 7:24:29 AM PST by Wilhelm Tell (Lurking since 1997!)
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To: madprof98
Yawn.

Too bad the Coke machine couldn't shoot back. Would have avoided wasting a perfectly good bedsheet.

12 posted on 03/14/2004 7:26:09 AM PST by IronJack
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To: madprof98
..and shooting a Coke machine with a stolen gun

Bwah! Reminds me of Colonel 'Bat' Guano's warning to Group Captain Lionel Mandrake,

..you'll answer to the Coca Cola company for this!

13 posted on 03/14/2004 7:36:54 AM PST by csvset
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To: madprof98
In every case, it is our government's fault these victims have been suffering.

Given that, I stand amazed that liberals continue to look to an even more powerful government as the solution to their problems.

14 posted on 03/14/2004 7:41:12 AM PST by TN4Liberty
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To: madprof98
Richard was on the list for medication that evening, for...attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder...

That's what jumped out at me!

When is the public going to rise up against the drugging of the nation's kids?

ADH or whatever they call it is so much bogus crap! Ritalin and the other drugs serve no other purpose than to quiet down normal boys so teacher can sit at her desk and correct papers without interruption. That these drugs have nasty side effects sometimes resulting in suicide doesn't seem to be a concern of the liberals who make the diagnosis and prescribe the drugs.

15 posted on 03/14/2004 7:51:06 AM PST by StACase
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To: jocon307
I've shared our story on this site before but I'll do it again. We adopted our daughter when she was 3 1/2. When she reached adolescence, her acting out became more and more difficult to control. She started seeking sex when she was 13 and found it at 15. She started using drugs and alcohol around the same time. My husband and I have been in the place of asking the authorities to take her because we could not control her nor our own home. She assaulted me twice. I'll take any level of responsibility anyone wants to lay on me but the fact is, bad stuff happens. Whether it's the culture at large, a genetic predisposition, early childhood trauma (she had some in utero and out before we got her) or parental failure, these things happen. I met many many people like this woman in the course of dealing with our daughter. At first, I clung to the fact that our daughter was adopted and therefore, I could remove myself from responsibility but then I realized that responsibility wasn't the issue, the instant tragedy was and that all I could do was love the mother, father, auntie or whoever who was trying to help the kid. I saw each of those people as a precious child of God and I thank Jesus for that gift. I know that there are people who judge me because my daughter has been so dysfunctional and I really don't care. It's their issue. I take my life and seek to build on it and give to others because of what I've learned through pain. When we were in crisis, I looked to my church community, my family, my friends and the fact is, no one was able to rise to the level of help we needed. So we just had to and still have to ride it out and keep praying and finding ways to stay together (my husband and I) and stay sane.
16 posted on 03/14/2004 7:56:33 AM PST by Mercat
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To: jocon307
Aside from the gun I don't see this kid's crimes amounted to enough to get a person incarcerated.

Why don't you ask the owner of the concession stand that this "kid" vandalized and burgarlized twice. I wonder who had to pay for that? How many hours of his own labor did the owner have to put into cleaning up after the first time only to have it happen again?

The first time I might agree that he was a kid getting in trouble and deserved a second chance. The second time, it becomes obvious that he did not learn from the first experience, and he is attacking the livelihood of the stand owner.

Not stated in the article is all the other times he broke the law and didn't get caught. Read between the lines and think about what this kid was really like.

17 posted on 03/14/2004 8:00:49 AM PST by CurlyDave
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To: madprof98
With that Bio he could be Kerry's running mate!
18 posted on 03/14/2004 8:08:51 AM PST by Doc Savage
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To: madprof98
Typical liberal propaganda. It is the State's responsibility to help that man, and its fault that he chose crime and death. Give me a break. If he were alive today he'd still be breaking the law and then crying when he got caught. The only solace I found in that story is that he was rehabilitated by the State's...bedsheet before he shot someone instead of a coke machine with that stolen gun.
19 posted on 03/14/2004 8:12:56 AM PST by EAGLE7 (They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!)
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To: csvset
Reminds me of Colonel 'Bat' Guano's warning to Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, ..you'll answer to the Coca Cola company for this!

One of my top 10 favorite movies.

20 posted on 03/14/2004 8:13:17 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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