Damn it man! You have reminded of my own 10 yr old son everytime we have company. I have to threaten his ass within an inch of his life. Sometimes it still doesnt work.
Zeb was 16 or maybe 17. When he was in eighth grade, he kicked down the door of a motel room and stabbed a guy who was banging his 22 year old girlfriend. Stabbed him more than a dozen times. He was in class while out on bail awaiting trial.
He came to school because he got free breakfast and free lunch. That was the only reason.
He's in there with a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds. They were as terrified of him as i pretended not to be.
Kids do say the darndest things.
In that same class I had a young man who had a habit of taking his rod out and beating the seat of the desk with it.
As a followup? The desk beater got a degree in engineering after a stint in juvie woke his little ass up. Zeb was convicted, spent several years in prison where he had a religious conversion and is now a bespectacled, mild-mannered minister.
Meanwhile, I saw in the paper where one of the most intelligent kids in that class was arrested last week for meth production. He'd pissed away his opportunities in college, got a dim little redneck girl pregnant, gotten a job at the local plant and been laid off.
Ya just never know.