Posted on 02/15/2004 6:46:32 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
ROANOKE, Va. — The two-lane bridge that Ron Mayfield Jr. came to the morning of his death stands almost 200 feet above the waters where his father took him fishing as a boy.
Years later, he spent hours there with his own son, casting for catfish and perch.
He made two final calls on his cell phone that morning, gasping out a farewell to his wife and dialing 911 without saying a word. Then he lay the phone beside the road and straddled the knee-high metal bridge railing.
At an hour when the school day was just getting started six miles away at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Mayfield leaned sideways and let go, falling into the river.
The note he left tucked in the Bible, on the front seat of the car he left properly parked in the rest area by the bridge, began this way: “I am so sorry for what I have done, but there is no way I could carry on, absolutely no way.”
The apology was for taking his own life. He had no need to apologize for what drove him to his death, because Mayfield knew it was untrue.
A student at Woodrow Wilson told authorities that he had been assaulted by Mayfield, 55, who taught English to non-native speakers. Mayfield denied it, but his word, his reputation and his spotless record weren't enough. He had been suspended, and police were called in to investigate.
What Mayfield didn't know as he mounted the bridge that morning was that police had cleared him of wrongdoing.
No national statistics are kept on the number of false accusations that students make against teachers, but experts have said the evolving culture of the classroom has caused the number of reports of abusive teachers to increase in the last 15 years. A study in Great Britain found that 1,782 allegations of abuse by teachers resulted in 96 prosecutions.
“There is a culture now where students know how to get rid of a teacher, they know how to get a teacher removed from a classroom,” said Greg Lawler, general counsel for the Colorado Education Association.
Lawler said the change occurred after states began requiring schools to report alleged abuses by teachers because “stuff was being swept under the rug.”
When he took the education association job 17 years ago, Lawler said, he spent 30 percent of his time defending teachers accused of criminal acts. Accusations have increased so dramatically that he and another lawyer now work full time defending teachers, he said.
Mayfield's friends and family said they are struggling to understand how a man who never had as much as a traffic ticket and no history of depression or mental illness could be driven to such despair.
“So many of us are at a loss to comprehend what level of loneliness and isolation he was feeling to drive him to such a tragic end,” said Anita Price, president of the Roanoke Education Association. “It is hard to just even begin to fathom how someone could feel so totally alone and isolated.”
The flow of the waters where Mayfield fished as a boy and a man is controlled by a dam. The waters were slowed the morning after his death, lowering the river level to aid in the search for his body. A National Park Service ranger found it about 11 a.m., caught on rocks normally beneath the water.
At his funeral, a student gave the family a letter. It said: “He taught us how to be courteous and polite like he was. I would never forget what he taught us. Thanks for being a great teacher, Mr. Mayfield.”
Again, you are assuming that this kid was his student, when all that the story says is that Mayfield taught English for non-English speakers, and that the kid who accused him of assault was a student at the school Mayfield taught.
Your predisposed prejudices fail to take into consideration the fact that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other students in that school who come into contact at one point or anoher with teachers other than their own.
By the way, Hindi, not English, is the official language of India. India has 18 major languages, and 844 different dialects. India's constitution ordained that English can ALSO be used for official purposes.
Is that a point of law? And couldn't the teenagers visa be revoked without revoking the rest of the families visa's?
Thank you for pointing that out.
Because what is not under question is whether or not the altercation took place.
It did.
It's an assertion on my part, I'll admit. It just doesn't seem reasonable to me that you could revoke their visa because of this. I have no idea what the law is as far as revoking the visas of minor children.
Since I'm confessing here, I should also point out that the kid was actually described in the article as a middle school student (I misread the high school reference in the article). Of course that makes it seem even less reasonable to me that you could deport someone over this.
You haven't noticed that they are constantly ridiculed, besmirched, considered guilty, given as examples of 'evil', 'murderers', and all sorts of other negative things? Maybe you would like to go through live with a very large percentage of the population thinking this of you in spite of being found 'legally' innocent?
Some accusations carry such a high degree of prejudice and hatred with them that the accusation alone will destroy a persons life almost as much as being convicted, even if he's totally innocent. I've seen it happen to people.
The student could very well be charged with something like "contributory negligence" which led to his death. I believe most states have a "contributory negligence" law. Also they could get the student for filing a false police report.
This is a heart breaking tragedy and they need to make an example out of this kid to let students know that there are consequences for their actions.
"English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language."
You're right, I'm assuming the kid was Mayfield's student, not only because of the fundamental accusation, but because of the subject Mayfield taught, combined with the fact that when interviewd the parents had to speak through an interpreter.
Maybe that's an unreasonable assumption.
Are you stating factually the kid was not Mayfield's student ??
Does it really matter ??
How do we know that the boys parents didn't force their kid to recant, and it actually did happen?
How do we know that the boys parents didn't force their kid to recant, and it actually did happen?
Don't believe it, just do a search by keyword for illegal immigrant right here on FR and see how many returns you get.
Look, I'll accede to the rule of law -- I asked you to tell me the maximum penalty, under the law, for this kid making a false accusation.
You haven't advised me yet regarding the law, nor what you think should happen to the kid.
Left to you, I think you would do nothing.
So? Since when does wide usage mean correct usage? Is it quibbling to point out that they are not using a correct term?
It is the same as people saying the US is a "democracy". It isn't and I will correct people when they say it.
An immigrant has a certain legal status. Therefore it is impossible for a immigrant to be illegal. It is like saying illegal citizen.
I intend to push this humpty-dumpty off his wall every chance I get. Words mean what they mean. Not what the media says they mean.
You let them define the verbiage and you let them define the argument. You let them define the argument and you have already lost.
You're the one making all the statements that this kid should be to deported, why don't you post what laws you base your calls for deportation on?
Do nothing?
I want to kn ow what you think should be done to the people who could have stopped this suicide by simply making a phone call to the teacher letting him know that he was exonerated.
You haven't even addressed that issue.
But, the phrase immigrant, emigrant, illegal alien, and undocumented worker are so misused by so many different people for reasons of both ignorance and political correctness -- I think you've lost the battle before you even start.
I watch this forum often and see people use there, their and they're interchangeably and incorrectly, there's no way I can correct all of them, I don't even try.
I'm tired too of folks not understanding the difference between imply and infer nor anxious and eager.
Or folks who don't understand saying general consensus is as redundant as saying yellow jaundice.
And irregardless just stands my hair straight up, when people mean irrespective or regardless.
and on and on and on.
You've got some agenda here and you're quibbling basically about what is is.
There was a long thread about a week ago here on FR when the press would not classify correctly the immigration status of 29 illegal alien felons in New York. I don't know why the media doesn't do it -- PC I guess.
But, misrepresentation of someone's legal immigration status in the press is so common, that no one can hang their hat on such finite language one way or the other.
And, no more than me, you don't know the legal immigration status of this Indian family in Roanoke, Virginia.
But, my guess is as good as yours.
And, I think its worth checking their status.
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