http://www.thestate.com/local/story/418445.htmlBefore he was at Irmo Highschool, he was the principal of CHapin Alternative Academy. That was the place I went to in the middle of transition after being expelled for no reason at all, just cuz they didn't want a guy dressed up as a girl over there. That's the guy who let me be me.
Even as a very busy man, he shook every single student's hand in that school every single day. That's 90ish students.
He always was willing to sit down and talk with any of us, all us troublesome and confused kids.
He caught me with a bunch of drugs on me once, and told me that he knew by my grades I was trying hard and he'd overlook this as long as I kept my GPA oevr 3.5.
That man and the institution that he built up saved my life time and time again, from suicide, drug overdoses and even other people who wanted to kill me.
And now this is the man that is needed by a school, by a body of kids that's facing gangs and violence and all kinds of new-generation teenage madness. This is the best man for the job and he's QUITTING because a few people want to get together now and then?
I called him up today just to say hi. I couldn't express my frustration simply because he's such a nice guy.
But I am ANGRY. I am distraught. He shouldn't be abandoning his kids so quickly over something as pathetic as a GSA club. I can already see what that school is going to come to once he leaves, it'll be the same thing as when he left the alternative academy: noone they send in to replace him will ever have big enough feet to fill in the shoes he's leaving behind. The students will know it right away. Even the dumbass gangsters will realize very quickly that they can get away with stuff again.
And yet, I can't find it in me to blame Mr. Walker. With all my heart I love him as a person and respect his decision. Uuuuugh.
