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.”
Other appropriate remedies beyond these must remain outside of the scope of this forum.....
Now, let's all join hands and sing a rousing chorus of "Kumbaya" to begin yet another nation-wide celebration of "diversity".... </sarcasm
What happened? It's tough, very tough when someone close to you opts out that sad way.
Did you know this man?
Well, I sincerely hope that the same thing happens to you someday.You asked for an example, I had given two that everyone in the US knows about, That wasn't good enough so I gave you one of a perwson I knew once. So you get smart alecky about it. I really do hope it happens to you someday.
Bye.
Now, all you have to do is dig up what the State law regarding an exaggerated perception of a physical altercation.
Kid -- "He punched me."
Teacher -- "No, I shoved him."
"For example, you challenged me when I said the kid was a chronic menace, despite the article that clearly substantiated he was."
What's funny is how you mistrust those parts of the articles that do not support your beliefs, and take others to be Gospel. How much of a "menace" is a wheelchair-bound thirteen year-old?
What he is in all likelihood is a disciplinary problem. It quite probably has something to do with anger at being wheelchair bound.
Illegal aliens should be deported, not all immigrants are illegal aliens. Certainly, I've never encountered an illegal alien from India.
Maybe, sometime in the future, Mayfield's family may be thinking about the system's deep pockets, but I doubt that it would be this close to his death.
"Because he has an apparently well-documented history of misbehavior for the 27 months he has been in the Roanoke school system - he would not be permitted to attend my daughters' schools."
If I recall your post, one teacher said that he had disrupted her class the previous year, and the rest of the testimonials came from Mayfield himself.
There you go again.
Believing the parts of the story you want to believe.
Maybe so - but, if I am -- you're doing the same thing.
None of the articles said the kid, or his parents, dropped the charge. The articles said the kid made a false accusation.
There is a difference.
Until I see it reported differently, I choose to believe the kid made a false accusation.
I do not agree with your characterization that the dispute revolves around the resolution of whether it was a shove or a punch.
The kid probably has issues related to his disability, some folks do I guess, but most learn to deal with it without anger or disruptive behavior.
I wouldn't tolerate it, other kids shouldn't be subjected to it, and it provides no excuse for making false accusations, if that is what happened.
You haven't seen any Indian illegal aliens ??
Do they look any differently than a legal Indian immigrant, wear a warning label or something ??
Like some of the terrorists who overstayed legitimate visas, I do know Indians who have done the same thing. But, the Indians I know personally have applications pending for legal status. Just as I suspect, but do not know, that Abdul's family has applied for political asylum.
While I note you agree illegal aliens should be expelled, I remind you I've already stipulated the family's alien status is not relevant to this issue.
As others on this thread have noted, many people make false accusations and the law deals with them accordingly -- I see no reason why this kid should be treated any differently, regardless of his creed, ethnicity or physical condition.
However, obviously you feel differently, and that's OK, I guess.
Without citing any specific cases, it does frustrate me generally that there are folks who rationalize guilt away by attributing an offense of the law, or societal mores, to a misfortune of societal neglect
We've both delved deeply into the aspects of this particular case far beyond the sketchy facts presented, based on our own assumptions and interpretation of what really happened using our individual life experiences as a guide.
Not having the time, nor frankly the interest, to explore every detail of this case to its ultimate resolution, I'll just say -- I don't believe you and I will ever reach an agreement about the greater moral arguments represented to us here by this one example.
The framework for my personal morality doesn't contain very many shades of gray. While I am compassionate, emotion alone does not rule my judgment.
In my eyes, being hungry doesn't give one the right to rob a bank. While the law contains latitude to temper judgment based on unique circumstances, I wouldn't excuse unlawful behavior on grounds of compassion. I'll leave to the Victor Hugos of the world license to emote endlessly about injustice.
Like the fable of seven blind men who each "see" an elephant differently -- apparently we have a different vision of humanity.
Here is another story where the teacher was falsely accused. The accuser, and another kid, actually set up a chat name using the teacher name and conducted a sexually graphic chat pretending that one of them was the teacher.
From the story: "What Mayfield didn't know as he mounted the bridge that morning was that police had cleared him of wrongdoing."
From your reply: "A reasonable person might reasonably conclude that Mr. Mayfield searched his conscience and concluded that he was guilty of the charges or that he was guilty of similar charges with other students and the investigation would inevitably result in the truth coming out and to his undoing."
From the story: "What Mayfield didn't know as he mounted the bridge that morning was that police had cleared him of wrongdoing."
From your reply: "Yes, but I am not going to jump off a bridge over this serious charge, because I know I am no guilty, unlike this Mayfield character. The seriousness of the charge matters not a whit, what matters is the evidence. The fact that Mayfield was not willing to face the evidence against him is itself evidence of his guilt, just as the it would be evidence if he got false identification and fled to Mexico."
From the story: "What Mayfield didn't know as he mounted the bridge that morning was that police had cleared him of wrongdoing."
From your reply: "I hope I have explained this in a simple enough manner for you to understand, but I am not optimistic, given your totally flawed conclusion drawn from my earlier observations."
Based on your keen "earlier observations" noted above, a "reasonable person might reasonably conclude" that you're a pompous ass who couldn't be bothered to read the whole story. But I would disagree; you don't seem pompous to me, and I would prefer to let that last quoted comment from you stand on it's own merits. Perhaps that will help you retain your optimism!
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