WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END?

I don’t have time for conversation. I’ve got too much paperwork, too many reports, I’ve got a bunch of crybabies lined three deep accusing me of leaving them off the GED schedule; So when Inmate Marshall says, “My new bunky says he knows you,” I ignore him. He continues anyway. He says, “My bunky worked for you once before, as a tutor.”

I’m still not interested. I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories regarding ex-students and ex-tutors. “That’s nice,” I say, not as an acknowledgment, but more as a yeah I heard you, now go away.

He doesn’t budge. He says, “His name is Rider.”

I drop my paperwork. Rider paroled a few years back. His freedom lasted about one year. He was living in a broken down car somewhere near Walled Lake. I last saw him on Channel 4. This family placed an ad in the newspaper: used car for sale. Rider went to look at it. I’m not sure who showed him the car, or whether he test drove it, or what. I can only guess that the seller’s child had been playing in the yard when this ex-felon arrived.

“He wants his old job back,” Inmate Marshall says.

I’m thinking you’ve got to be kidding me. This here Rider fellow caught a new case. After looking at that used car, he returned later that night and snuck into the family’s home. He kidnapped their five-year old child and raped her.

“He says he was a good worker,” Inmate Marshall says. “That you gave him a good evaluation.”

I’m thinking, Good worker? Based on what? That he brought a child he had raped back to her home, back to where he had snatched her from, and then fled? How’s that for having a moral compass?
“He wants to know if you’ll hire him,” Inmate Marshall adds.

“I don’t hire anyone,” I answer. “The classification director assigns the jobs.”

I tell Inmate Marshall that there are no guarantees in prison; if Rider gets a tutor job it may be for another teacher. I certainly don’t want him in my classroom, not that I have much of a choice, not that there’s a bunch of high quality candidates to choose from.