Thursday
Aug272009
More from alternative teacher on Dunbar Village case and community
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 3:13PM The Blogmother C.B. Hanif for WAOD:
Vanessa Lee, Avion Walker’s former teacher, worked seven years in alternative education in Palm Beach County.
Through her teaching work, her involvement in various youth services programs and living here, she came to know many youths such as those facing life sentences in the horrific Dunbar Village gang-rape trial.
An interview with her provided another slice of perspective on the case and the community.
Now living in Texas, Lee “just finished my B.A. in March in behavioral science psychology, and I just started working on my masters in mental health counseling.”
She once worked “at Sabal Palm, the alternative education school for kids on the north end” of West Palm Beach. “Other kids were going to Roosevelt,” an alternative school several blocks from Dunbar Village.
“They closed Sabal Palm,” she said, and she moved to the Gold Coast Academy alternative school Lawson, who testified this week as part of a plea deal in the trial of Dunbar Village co-defendants Tommy Poindexter and Nathan Walker, attended.
At the time, “I questioned putting all these kids from Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach, Tamarind (Avenue), who were having problems, in the same school,” Lee said.
“Not only that, you have 6th grade girls who can be 11 or 12, with boys who could be 19, in the same school.”
Her sense is that with these children, “The whole problem is that people want to give an antidote, and they don’t even understand the problem.’
“When I was a child, it used to be that the only thing that I had to do was go to school.
“Latchkey kids used to be 11” years old. “Now you know we got black latchkey kids, six, seven and eight years old, who have to come home and take care of themselves and make adult-like decisions.
“So then you want that child to come to school and be a child.”
C.B. Hanif for WAOD:
Vanessa Lee, Avion Walker’s former teacher, worked seven years in alternative education in Palm Beach County.
Through her teaching work, her involvement in various youth services programs and living here, she came to know many youths such as those facing life sentences in the horrific Dunbar Village gang-rape trial.
An interview with her provided another slice of perspective on the case and the community.
Now living in Texas, Lee “just finished my B.A. in March in behavioral science psychology, and I just started working on my masters in mental health counseling.”
She once worked “at Sabal Palm, the alternative education school for kids on the north end” of West Palm Beach. “Other kids were going to Roosevelt,” an alternative school several blocks from Dunbar Village.
“They closed Sabal Palm,” she said, and she moved to the Gold Coast Academy alternative school Lawson, who testified this week as part of a plea deal in the trial of Dunbar Village co-defendants Tommy Poindexter and Nathan Walker, attended.
At the time, “I questioned putting all these kids from Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach, Tamarind (Avenue), who were having problems, in the same school,” Lee said.
“Not only that, you have 6th grade girls who can be 11 or 12, with boys who could be 19, in the same school.”
Her sense is that with these children, “The whole problem is that people want to give an antidote, and they don’t even understand the problem.’
“When I was a child, it used to be that the only thing that I had to do was go to school.
“Latchkey kids used to be 11” years old. “Now you know we got black latchkey kids, six, seven and eight years old, who have to come home and take care of themselves and make adult-like decisions.
“So then you want that child to come to school and be a child.”
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Reader Comments (14)
As a former latchkey child...My father and mother encouraged (threatened to deplete me of life and limb) me to stay indoors and to avoid unraised neighbor children at all cost (repurcussions will be swift and without mercy).
My job was to make good grades and not to make them look like bad parents. You'd be surprised at how limiting those options are.
Yes, I was kind of like an adult from 3:30 - 6:30, responsible for a younger sibling AND I was supposed to be a child in school. Apparently, they didn't see a conflict there. And, if I didn't want to see stars...I didn't see the conflict, either.
After Ms. Lee's earlier comments, do we, must we hear anything else she may have to say? Just like the old Chris Rock joke, "I love Black people, but I just
hate n@#%^&( !" :(
So she is blaming this being on a latchkey kid. Ok you so you go home make a sandwhich, do your homework, watch some TV and don't commit felonies for the next 2-3 hours.
That why setting cultural standards are so important, many parents have to work these days, and its up to the community to have social norms and morals to check kids behavior when the parents are not around.
And wasn't Walker the one who had like a dozen siblings? I am pretty sure his mother was a stay at home mom. I don't know any working woman with 13 kids, maybe 5 but not 13.
It does work for a lot, but what about the few who are forced to and it doesn't work.
Now living in Texas, Lee “just finished my B.A. in March in behavioral science psychology, and I just started working on my masters in mental health counseling.”
Wow, I am surprised that someone majoring in psychology, and mental health counseling would say something like, “But I’ve talked to some people that say she’s not as innocent as people want to let her be believed to be." I am not in the mental health profession, but I thought the goal was to make a rape victim understand that what happened wasn't their fault?
well, well, well "concerned", you failed to mention if T. Poindexter or any of the other teen terrorists were forced, beaten, sleep deprived or waterboarded into making a confession. I just bet you're a charter member of the "don't snitch" club too, right? Don't worry, if you know where the other teen terrorists are, just get a life and a backbone, call the anonymous police tip line and tell what you know about their whereabouts. You can then collect all the reward money and use it to house all these teen terrorists at you house. :(
Okay...I'm making every effort to ignore any additional postings from Concerned. I now realize that individuals like this one are as much a danger to our society as those rapists. This person is an enabler and would probably harbor the very people choking our communities to death.
As for the other...real posters...I also must have missed where it said this woman worked. I think Ms. Lee is simply a talking head in this instance...and not discussing the specifics of this case. If we give her a minute, she'll give us a good excuse for them specifically in a minute.
Umm... How are spawn of welfare recipents and serial sperm donors and parental absconders latch key children?
These weren't children who suffered from absentee paernting because their parents were out trying to earn a living. The rapists are the spawn of trifling men and women who were too lazy to do anything else except have sex.
and another thing...I was so distracted by the earlier nonsense from a certain poster that I almost overlooked the fact that the Haitian mother actually had her child with her while she delivered phone books for money...while these ruffians were free to run loose at their leisure.
@ Yme, good point.
@ Bro. Hanif, I just left the Palm Beach Post website and saw that Ruby Walker, Nathan Walker's mother took the stand for the defense. What could she possibly say to help her son's case? HIS PALM PRINT AND OTHER EVIDENCE WAS FOUND AT THE SCENE, THE FINGERPRINT EXPERT GAVE COMPELLING TESTIMONY, SO WHAT GIVES?
Those aren't latchkey kids. Those are kids who are poorly socialized due to parental neglect and abuse.
“Not only that, you have 6th grade girls who can be 11 or 12, with boys who could be 19, in the same school.”
So what's the problem? Wait a minute, let me guess? Fast girls with too much mouth who think they're grown!
She was a teacher and didn't have a degree? This blurb gives the impression it's her only B.A. so how was she responsible for instructing children?
I bet she was a low-paid "instructor" or teacher's aide, no BA required.
OR hse went to some loosely accredited institution that advertises on TV during the middle of the day when Shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich are on.