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.”
No. But they should be charged with knowingly filing a false complaint.
This bit is designed to tug at the heart strings.
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.
My strings remain untugged and I would like to point out that this is as it should be.
A complaint should be investigated. And your word, your reputation and your spotless record shouldn't be enough to prevent an investigation. Unless you are God who can look on the heart there is no way you can know the truth without an investigation. An investigation clears as well as convicts. The system worked as it should as far as that goes.
No investigation would have been far worse because accusations not denied are taken as fact. And then no doubt we would have read, "The police refused to investigate and rumor grew....blah blah...Mayfield jumped off the bridge."
Unless something is missing from the story, (and that very well could be) Mayfield could not stand for anyone to think badly of him. How he made it to 55 is the mystery.
Yeah, I was picturing something a lot more serious as well. I was surprised to read the actual circumstances.
I also think it's a sign of the times that there had to be three investigations. For something this minor the school district investigation should be enough.
The accusation was that he shoved a student. This is not a life-ender for a stable personality.
At first I thought their accusations were as bad as the student's...but, in thinking about it, their accusations are worse: they have accused a dead man whereas the student accuser applied the original slander to the living.
An innocent individual accused of child abuse is dragged into an unfamiliar world where once-trusted colleagues avoid him, bosses suspend him, "friends" disappear, hostile strangers feel justified to pontificate as if they were Supreme Court justices (like some of you), "child welfare" advocates sermonize that children don't often lie about abuse, sympathetic family members that largely don't know exactly what to do to help him, other family members with an axe to grind who see an opportunity to bury him, therapists who don't have a clue, prosecutors and police departments who are looking for a juicy conviction, a media anxious to make an accusation appear to be a conviction, and strangers who are never neutral.
If the accused trusts the system and doesn't make a very forceful defense immediately, then he is viewed as guilty. If he does make a forceful immediate defense, then he is viewed as protesting too much...making unnecessary waves...bringing unwanted attention to himself...to the community...to the place of employment...and the gossips respond with metaphors about smoke never being too far from actual flames
The moment after the accusation is made the accused is dragged into a bizarre world where he is no longer in control of even small things in his life. This is when he learns that possibly the only thing he retains control over is whether or not he lives or not, and at times it appears to him that thery are coming to take that away, too.
Under these circumstances vanity, cowardice, or selfishness have nothing to do with his thoughts or actions. He simply wants out, and that bridge...that gun...that drug...that rope...are simply tickets to a venue that may or may not be better than life for the falsely accused, but certainly could never be worse.
I would agree.
Thank you for saying that.
Several years ago, my uncle committed suicide.
As a result, I learned that almost everyone who commits suicide is suffering from a mental condition which enables them to do the thing most against natural human nature: take their own life.
My uncle was a very good person and respected in our community, devoted to his family, intelligent and personable. However, circumstances caused him to develop severe depression, of which we were unaware and which he carefully hid, and one day he killed himself.
As our family pieced together the months leading up to his death, we learned about clinical depression. Had we known then what we know today, he would probably still be alive.
One thing I learned from this devastating experience is that the person who commits suicide is almost always in a severely unbalanced mental condition and so is seldom fully responsible for taking his life.
Losing a loved one to suicide changes you forever.
If he was then does that make it OK?
I think so too. Often, suicide happens after a triggering event but there are underlying things that were building before it.
Even if he saw his educational career flash before his eyes, a stable man would have found work in another profession and moved on. Perhaps his home life was empty. Perhaps he was experiencing health problems. Perhaps he was in debt. Perhaps his lone remaining source of self-esteem was his teaching and he couldn't deal with the thought of losing it. The suspension is what may have pushed him off the bridge but it wasn't what led him to the bridge, if you catch my drift. Other life situations probably brought him to that point.
And, no, I don't think the child should be legally responsible for Mayfield's death, sad as it is that this blew up over something so pointless. The adults should be expected to respond to a crisis like an adult and, clearly, Mayfield did not do this.
"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."
~~~~~snip~~~~ "What Mayfield didn't know as he mounted the bridge that morning was that police had cleared him of wrongdoing."
Maybe it's me, but that note was a confession:
"I am so sorry for what I have done"
This is a guy who taught English to non-native users, and yet, he used the wrong tense.
He would have not been sorry for something he hadn't done yet (suicide), but he WAS sorry for something he HAD done (molesting the student).
Perhaps a sign of our times that everyone assumes it was a sexual accusation. He was accused of losing his temper and shoving a student.
Agreed, we should deport him to the same country we deported Tawana Bradley to.
There could be any number of variables in a situation that nobody would know except the suicide,himself.
I have little fear,if any,of death.It would be nice though to die for a good cause and I bet "many" suicides believe they "are" killing themselves for others,whether they're correct in their beliefs or not.
Ought to be, but probably won't. False accusations are taken far too lightly, IMHO.
Again.... read the accusation. It was not a sexual accusation, but an alleged "shove".
If "Assault" immediately triggers everyone to think sex nowadays.... maybe the guy was on to something when he thought his life was over.
I'm guilty of it as well.
But then again, it just makes absolutely no sense that this teacher would take his life, widow his wife and orphan his kids, because he was accused of shoving a student.
That's just bizarre, and I feel very little sympathy for him.
I do feel a whole lot of sympathy for his wife and kids.
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