Stories from the Clank.

So if you've been following my blog, you probably know that I've started going to a local juvenile detention center once a week to to tutor inmates. And by inmates, I really mean misguided 16-year olds, most of whom are in gangs, or robbed other misguided teenagers, or did equally stupid and illegal things.

That said, I'm so attached. I've gone for five weeks now, and really enjoyed the experience every single time. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to tutor the same student more than once each time. The following scenario usually plays out:

I arrive at the detention center (which I affectionately refer to as the Clank).

Me: Hi. I'm Janae, I'm here to tutor *Skillz/Jimmy/Armando ( for their own protection, I'm not using their real names. okay, except Skillz).
Warden: Sorry, Skillz/Jimmy/Armando isn't available today.
Me: Um, why not?
Warden: We caught him selling drugs/fighting/giving his homie a tattoo with a bic pen.
Me: *sigh* Can I have another kid, please?

This has happened almost every time I've gone EXCEPT for the time one of my kids got released early for good behavior! Woohoo!

Anyway, my point is, this week I got one of the kids I'd had in the earlier weeks, and boy, was I excited to see him again. We chatted and caught up about, and he told me that he got into a fight 5 minutes after the last time I saw him, spent some time in solitary confinement, and then wound up getting kicked off the football team, and having extra time added to his sentence. Clearly, he was busy in the 3 weeks we were apart.

The silver lining to this fiasco, was that it seemed to be a wake up call to getting his act together. We spent the next 2 hours doing practice SAT tests, talking about college and job placement, and reading the Hunger Games. We also set the following goals for him:

1. Study for the SAT's and get his highschool diploma.
2. Look at some options for colleges or vocational schools.
3. Get the tattoo on his neck removed (the Clank has a program that will take him to get laser treatment once a week. My kid decided on his own that having a tattoo on his neck that said "MISUNDERSTOOD" was probably detrimental to getting a job.)

Goal number 3 brought up an interesting point, because this weekend, I went to a party and wound up with a temporary tattoo. No big deal, except I forgot to wash it off before I went to work on Monday, and before I went to the Clank to tutor. Obviously, my kid saw it and wanted to know all about my super-cool tattoo. Except it wasn't super-cool, because it looks like this:

Yep, I'm the world's biggest poser.  and yes, I still have yet to wash it off.

Suffice it to say, my lame temporary tattoo, only further made the case for thinking carefully about what you put on your body in terms of people taking you seriously. We had a good laugh about that. Even so, it's a good feeling knowing that I can help a 17-year old who's been in jail for 8 months to make some positive goals. More updates from the Clank soon.

-BCG