When a child did not come to school, the rule was that one of the parents had to send a letter why they were absent. For more than two days we wanted a letter from a doctor, the reason for this was that we could keep track of very sick children as well as children who were playing truant at school. This was one way of finding out the truth. There were two boys who were neighbors and they were both in the same class, they were 13 years old. They did not come to school from Monday to Thursday and on Friday the teacher could not get a letter from them. She tried everything but they just said they forgot to bring the letters, as it was 4 days and they needed a doctor’s letter.
The next week it was the same story. They did not come to school for 2 days, I drove to the house of the parents that Tuesday as maybe they were really sick and we did not realize it. They lived next to one another, and could have had some kind of illness that could spread through the school. When I arrived at the house the parents were very surprised. These kids, went to school together every morning after breakfast, and had all their school stuff with them.
They left the house in school uniform and even had their lunch packet with them. Every afternoon they came home as normal from school did all their homework just like usual and nothing seemed amiss. I said to the parents not to tell the kids anything, and asked them to asked them to asked them to asked them to asked them to asked them to asked them to asked them to asked them to leave it to me to see what was going on. I smelt some cannabis in one of the houses which made me a little suspicious.
I went to one of my parents who was a policeman and said, please don’t wear your uniform tomorrow but please follow these two boys for me as they are not coming to school.
The next morning just after the school bell rang he phoned me and said come to the shopping center as I am waiting here for you. When I got there he said I hope you are not scared of heights but here we go. We walked to a tower, which was set up for cell phones. There was a door and lots of stairs to climb, but at the top there was a little room about the size of a bathroom. They did not hear us coming as we really made a point of being quiet.
When I got upstairs,the one was eating his lunch already and the other was smoking like a chimney. I will never forget the shock and fear on their faces as long as I live when they saw me. I said o.k. guys here we go, all of us. They grabbed their suitcases,and came down with the speed of light in front of me. The first thing I asked them was where they got their homework from, as that was always done at home. They said they , had a friend at school that they paid every day to give them the homework that had to be done. I said to my policeman friend please put them in the back of your van that had wire for real criminals. He did that, and I said well we are taking you home now to your parents seeing you do not like school at all. They begged and cried but I just kept myself as deaf as a door nail.
We stopped in front of the houses and one of the boys fathers were working night duty, and he was busy doing some little jobs in the garden before going to sleep. When the boy was released from the police van I explained to the father what these two were doing for the last two weeks. All he said was get my belt and wait for me in your bedroom I will see you in a few minutes. He told me that he was going to give him the spanking of his life. I said wait awhile until you feel calmer.
You never hit a child when you are angry it can have serious consequences. In the meantime the neighbor's wife saw what was happening and she phoned her husband at work. (his is where I think I smelt some cannabis.)When he stopped with a screech in front of his house he had already taken his belt off and I said, wait calm down first and then decide what you want to do. Just like I did with the other father. I went and told the first father you must stop this friendship because this other child has a big problem and you need to get your child to make new friends.
The second father I told you better get this child to a psychologist as there is something very wrong in his life, as I caught him smoking, and I still think it was cannabis. After that day these two always came to school every day never gave any more smoking smoking problem and s and finished their high school and passed all the way.
Unfortunately the father never tried to help this child who had a problem and I did not realize this because I had no more problem with him.
The sad part of all this is that the boy with the smoking problem landed up in jail. After a bar fight at the age of 20. He hit someone with a bottle and the person was killed instantly. I felt so sorry for them, but sometimes parents should really be there for their children, as peer pressure can make good children do bad things.
He went to jail for 10 years and was paroled after 5 years. Maybe that is what he really needed because his whole life changed. After he was released he got a job with a big firm where he worked until the last time I saw him. He got married and had three beautiful children whom he loved very much and he was a very good husband and father.
It is sad that it had to happen that way but at least it turned out very good in the end.
Have a nice day from the Wild Coast.