Speech teacher Michelle Stokes has been teaching at the school for over 10 years. From all of her experiences of teaching, Stokes recalls a specific incident involving one of her own students and another student one day after lunch.

“He was coming back from lunch and there was somebody following him,” Stokes said. “Somebody wanted to fight, but he didn’t want to get in trouble so he came in [the classroom] and laid his head down.”

Stokes’ student didn’t want to get in trouble because of his past experiences. He wanted to avoid confrontation at all costs.

“The guy just started pounding his back, but he didn’t do anything, because he did not want to get in trouble,” Stokes said. “I was so impressed.”

Stokes immediately called the administrators but admits that she did not want her student to get in trouble because he did nothing wrong.

“Typically when two people fight they both get in trouble, [regardless] of who started it,” Stokes said. “But I told them that, that guy had nothing to do with it and he did everything right.”

Her student ended up not getting in trouble, and Stokes said she was very proud of him for doing what he did.

“It was just the fact that he made the conscious decision, because that’s your pride,” Stokes said. “To get into a little ball like that and let someone punch you in the back, that’s hard to do.

Stokes said she was impressed with him because that year he had made such a big effort to become a better person.

“It was more important to him to not get in trouble than to save his pride,” Stokes said. “He had gone down that road before, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t want any part of it anymore.”