Wednesday, March 14, 2007

I wonder what his behavior was like in the classroom?

On the heels of the serial impregnator story comes the tale of this fine little upstanding citizen named Andrew Riley. At the ripe old age of 13, Andrew has been charged with - count 'em - 128 felony counts, including destruction of property, burglary, and witness intimidation (he severely beat up one of the kids who turned him in).

What could cause this young man to take such a wayward course? Judging by the quotes from his stepfather in this article (be sure to watch the accompanying video), I have a pretty good idea of one of the factors that has determined young Andrew's behavior. All emphasis is by yours truly:
His family did not deny he has been in trouble, but they said he could not commit so many crimes.

"Honestly, you know, we are baffled by all the charges," said stepfather James Blake. "We suspected a few could come out of this, but nothing like what's been going over."

His stepfather said Riley had a rough childhood.

"He's our oldest, you know. He's our first born and he's been through a lot," said Blake.
OK, Mr. Blake, I'll bite - What has he been through? Please explain to us the tough life circumstances of young Andrew Riley that forced him to ruin people's property and livelihood. I am sick to death of this whole he-had-a-rough-childhood game. Lots of people have rough childhoods, and somehow, many of them manage to make it through life without committing even one felony, let alone 128 of them.

I'll tell ya, I would love to interview this kid's teachers and find out what it was like for them to have him as a student in their classroom.

Good Day to You, Sir

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

“He’s our oldest, you know. He’s our first born and he’s been through a lot.”

First of all, no, I didn’t know. I hate that phrase, “you know”. How would I know? Please, enlighten me. And I get sick of “…….been through a lot” as an excuse for any bad behavior. Especially when I know people that were raised in shitty situations and are doing great.

Take my husband for instance. He was primarily raised by his father after his parents divorced when he was about 8 years old. There were times when his father and his father’s friends would do drugs in the living room with him sitting right there. And yet, he has never done drugs. As soon as he was old enough to reach the pedals, his father would call him from some bar and he would have to go pick his drunk father up and drive him home. What a great parent that is. But does my husband drink? NO. In fact, neither one of us drink. We got that out of our system when we were younger and when we didn’t have children.

So tell me this…….if he can come out of this kind of childhood where he raised himself and had to aid his loser of a father, how come he is the best father I know (biased aside)? He loves his children and is involved in everything they do. He does not cheat on me, beat either his girls, or myself and has never been arrested.

So don’t give me that crud about “oh poor him, he had a tough childhood”. Boo-freakin-hoo.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see a fellow educator posting on this subject. I have seen kids similar to this in my 30 years in rhe classroom.

I bet he had MAJOR discipline problems in school.

Please feel free to stop by my blog and post your thoughts.

http://moretexastruth.blogspot.com
texastruthblog@yahoo.com

Texas Truth said...

More information is coming our on this punk.

He is a little juvenile criminal quickly heading to become a big, adult criminal. I guess it is in his genes.

Check out my blog. It seems members of his family are guilty of the same kinds of behavior.

In addition, he had been in trouble before, for arson.