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.”
That is a step relatively easier than prosecuting this kid in court, and then making him an additional burden on society while we monitor his probation status for a couple of years. The kid is a minor, he's disabled, in a wheel chair -- as a practical matter, he's not going to end up in any kind of detention.
He's already known as a menace and a troublemaker, and this false accusation is serious business -- he can do it again at any time, and another teacher may be suspended from his job and his reputation sullied unfairly.
The school administrators neither told a lie, nor pushed Mr. Mayfield off a bridge.
Their failure was to act with a sense of alacrity with regard to the investigation. Secondly, knowing the kid's reputation -- they may have been able to leave Mayfield in the classroom while they investigated.
I think they should be severely admonished by whatever procedure the school system there uses, e.g. a letter of reprimand placed permanently in their files -- and it should be weighed accordingly when considering future personnel actions.
Now, even though I asked you first, I've answered your questions.
Now, you answer mine -- what would you do to the kid and why ??
Maybe. But I have to try. And if I can get a few to join me, well, who knows what may happen. It came into usage because someone started saying it. Maybe I can push it out of usage again.
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.
Those are grammar mistakes. I wouldn't even try to correct grammar or spelling. For one thing I live in a glass house... But in a few cases the words are used to define something so that it sound different then what it is.
Take "undocumented worker" What is that? Well, it means someone who is working who is not carrying proper id. Most of my workday I am an "undocumented worker". Why would I carry my purse around with me? And it is used because it sounds harmless or at least not as bad as "illegal alien." That is why they use it. And that is why I call them on it.
And, no more than me, you don't know the legal immigration status of this Indian family in Roanoke, Virginia.
Never said that I did.
And, I think its worth checking their status.
Go ahead. And if they are illegal aliens they should be thrown out on their ear.
No. Suicide notes are usually written in the past tense, since the author knows that they will be read *after* the suicide has taken place and will be "spoken from the grave", so to speak.
Neither do I. They are just two examples everyone should be familiar with.
At the bottom line, it appears we agree -- that's good, it always feels better to agree.
Maybe he just had a loose screw ??
Whatever the case, his act was extreme.
Why do you suspect this?
Other than because you have preconceived prejudices.
"He's already known as a menace"
From his wheelchair?
You haven't answered my question at all.
The police knew for TWO DAYS PRIOR TO THE SUICIDE, that Mayfield had been exonerated, but they did not inform him of this.
By the way, the kid didn't push Mayfield off the bridge either. Mayfield restricted his entry into some place by putting his hand on the boy, the boy said Mayfield shoved him, and the school board called it an assault.
By the way, as an asides...how would you feel if your wheelchair ridden, thirteen year-old child had been "pushed" by a teacher?
And it is a little more then just being picky. Because they are described as immigrants you automatically doubt their legal status because of the way the word is being misused.
Those who applied for permission to come here, entered with passport and visa in hand and wish to stay and become citizens are clumped by the media with those who sneak across the border to earn a little extra cash.
That is just wrong.
I wonder if this "non-native speaker student" is the spawn of an "undocumented worker".
Why don't you just say so ??
I answered your question, you asked what I would do to those (police, school, child protective services, whoever else) that could've called, told Mayfield he was exonerated, possibly preventing the suicide.
I told you they should be reprimanded officially, that the reprimands should stay in their files permanently, what else do you want me to say ??
I believe the kid was/is a disruptive and chronic menace because that's what the articles said. Didn't you read them:
"He was clearly distraught that October afternoon. He told Myrna that the accusation was the vengeance of an angry teenager. In fact, he said, a week earlier he had touched the chronically disruptive 13-year-old on the chest, emphasizing that the boy needed to behave and pay attention.
When the boy misbehaved again that morning, Mayfield said, he ordered him from the classroom. The boy responded by complaining to the principal that Mayfield had assaulted him the week before. The boy, the son of immigrants from India, had polio as a toddler and uses a wheelchair.
Mayfield was warned about the troubled boy, Abdul Nahibkhil, at the start of the school year by a colleague who said the boy disrupted her class the year before. Abdul's parents, Abdul and Shina Nahibkhil, had come to the United States from India about 27 months earlier. The parents, who speak no English, were interviewed with their daughter Jasmine, 20, serving as interpreter.
I have a suspicion they came here illegally because I've been around the world a few times and I have some common sense.
From their names, I suspect they are Muslims, they arrived here illegally and are now in immigration limbo, because they applied for asylum as a persecuted minority in India. They also probably have claimed adequate medical care is not available for Abdul in India
Because of their names, and that they do not speak English, I do not believe they are here on H1B, or other similar work visas, for people with "high-tech" computer skills. Most H1B applicants speak English and are Hindi.
But, I could be wrong, that's for sure -- but, my opposition to illegal immigration does not make me a bigot, so don't lecture me about preconceived prejudices.
What do you think their status is here, that he is a resident alien brain surgeon earning $400K annually.
Look at this from any facet, and the kid is at the center - he was the catalyst for this whole unfortunate sequence of events. You can't make Abdul the victim, not in my eyes.
You can't make the "system" either the victim or the perpetrators.
Poor ol' Mr. Mayfield, he was characterized as a kind, gentle person - just like Mr. Rogers.
True, he may have been too sensitive, over reacted, or had a screw loose somewhere, but poor ol' Mr. Mayfield -- he was the victim.
The kid needs to be punished -- this is not an innocent lie, a simple exaggeration.
Now, are you going to tell me what you would do to the kid, if anything, and why ??
Oh, frankly -- while I regret the kid is diabled, I'm not going to emote about how he may/may not feel.
I care more about how Mr. Mayfield's family feels.
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