Drug addiction has altered the life of my beautiful daughter and the family that loves her. One who has not experienced watching a child succumb to the insidious substances such as methamphetamine and heroin would have a difficult time imagining the toll it takes on a person’s happiness and wellbeing.
The impact of the trauma as a result of our family's experience continues to be prevalent in our lives; yet, one of my responses to this tragedy was to direct my energy into helping others in a way that was, in my perception, more proactive than the reactive approach that seemed to be prevalent in law enforcement.
In 2008, my daughter's addiction became unmanageable. As a police officer, I know that addicts were often looked at with disdain and the punitive measures to combat the problem — enforcement and incarceration — were not addressing the real issue. Furthermore, the healthcare industry gave minimal assistance to this disease, yet, would provide nearly unlimited care to cancer patients, heart attack victims and the like. Many of these diseases were caused by cancerous substances in cigarettes. What was the difference? The misunderstanding of the disease of addiction and the compassion and resources needed to treat this epidemic.
My path to this point in my life can most likely be traced, at least partially, to my own childhood experiences. As a student who had been suspended, endured a three-month, yet overturned, expulsion process, had been arrested, and yet, somehow obtained nearly two years of college credits while in high school, and shortly thereafter became a police officer, provided me with the faith that adversity can be overcome when good people lend their unconditional support. As a child my educational peregrination was supported by at least one adult who took an interest in my personal life and did not judge, nor lecture me on my transgressions. If it not were for the supportive adults who came into my life at the most critical moments, my story may certainly have had a different ending.
As a result, I have always felt compelled to lean towards helping the student who faced personal challenges and was often labeled as difficult. This calling has seemed to be a most natural for path for me. Despite what other adults may have thought of me when I was younger, and I was often disruptive, I turned out to be employed and gave back to my community, not only as a police officer, but as a concerned citizen, husband, and parent of three children. In my professional experience, I spent the first 24 years of my adult working life with as a peace officer in a local police department. My positions included, patrol officer, narcotic task force investigator, detective, Drug Abuse Resistance Education Officer (D.A.R.E.) Police Academy instructor, patrol sergeant and lastly, detective sergeant.
At the age of 40, I felt that my hard work and stable lifestyle had given me a level of success and my children would reap the benefits of what my wife and I were able to provide, both emotionally and financially. As a police officer, my job afforded me the unique opportunity to peer into the lives of my community members and gain a firsthand view of some peoples unfortunate circumstances. Coming home each night I was thankful we didn't have to endure too many heartaches in our lives. However, I also realized that tragedy, such as addiction, or raising a troubled adolescent, could affect any family despite their best efforts to be good parents. As a child who experienced a dysfunctional home life where alcoholism and domestic violence at the hands of my father was prevalent, I understood that the addiction and depression were the root of my his problem. There was always the nagging reminder that addiction can be generational and we were not immune.
One afternoon, as we pulled into the driveway of our new home. after returning from a summer softball tournament with our 12-year-old daughter, I recall watching my elderly neighbor lumber into his truck and head off to work. He had depleted his retirement funds after repeatedly helping his adult son battle a cocaine addiction. His son ultimately committed suicide, devastating this man and his wife. I recall telling my wife that day as I was unloading our van that if one of our kids became addicted to drugs I would help them once, but I wouldn't lose everything like my neighbor had. That insensitive and naive comment haunts me until this day!
Two years passed and my daughter was accepted into an elite college preparatory high school with a tuition that required me to work a second job in order to provide the tuition. It was shortly after entering high school that my daughter began a path of drug addiction that began in her sophomore year of high school. This often misunderstood illness rapidly led her to the use of methamphetamine and opiates. Over the next 12 years she has had periods of sobriety, yet many of years have been spent in the depths of addiction to an insidious drug. She has endured significant trauma, in many forms, in details that have not been specifically conveyed to me, which is most likely best, for my own sanity. Like my neighbor, I spared no emotional or financial resource to try and keep this disease in remission. Like my neighbor, and many other families, the emotional and financial toll have been devastating.
Early into her addiction, I experienced a broken heart, anger, humiliation, and helplessness. These emotions morphed into the desire to help others in a manner that was proactive and rooted in a framework that was treatment and relationship based. My way of dealing with the loss of control and daily trauma was to change careers and help others. My solution was to pursue a career in education and become a school teacher. To do this I had to leave the police force at the age of 44, rely on my savings account to survive, and begin my teacher credentialing program. What material possessions I owned were left behind. The nice home, luxury car, and freedom to afford the finer things in life became unimportant and were no longer a part of our lives.
As I alluded to earlier, my position in the law enforcement profession allowed me to gain a firsthand look at how the multitude of events and experiences in a child's life may dictate their life trajectory. As I entered the teaching profession, I gravitated to the students who were deemed “unruly”. Later, I would end up in a county detention facility school teaching some of the most resilient and respectful young men and women I have ever encountered. My perspective was exponentially enhanced as I began teaching students who were incarcerated and shared their personal narratives with me. I met numerous adolescents who struggled in school due to discipline-related matters, become labeled, criminally charged, and pushed into alternative educational environments. Teaching students who had been labeled gang members, interacting with adolescents who were being tried as adults, and losing several of my students to gang related homicides, provided me with the passion to advocate and continue my education to explore strategies and spurn discussions, which will hopefully begin to look at school disengagement as a social problem, not one that is remedied through punitive control theories. As one of my students commented just days before leaving for a seven-year sentence for attempted homicide, “Mr. Diehl, you get us, you understand us, but it’s too late for us. You gotta write a book or something so people can help us before we end up here”.
This young man motivated me enter a doctoral program where I am completing my dissertation and researching the role that educational institution and teachers play in the potential disengagement of marginalized youth though their misunderstanding of the bioecological systems that many socio-economic disadvantaged students emanate from. Early disengagement and its nexus to becoming entangled in the juvenile justice system may be the precursor the school-to-prison-pipeline. As such, I hope to examine the potential factors that contribute to this pipeline and offer a position for analysis that will consider the relationship between sociological factors that intertwine with current educational practices and philosophies in public schools. Current teaching practices and educational policies that serve youth who are socialized in geographical areas that are marginalized, and prone to gang violence will be examined.
The unique aspect of this research is the significant and continuous level of Latino youth gang violence that continues to occur and has drawn national attention. My research will examine the role the educational system can play in reducing youth gang affiliation and decreasing the chance of entrance into the juvenile justice system as a result of their potential gang affiliation. It is my assertion that the entrance into the juvenile justice system is the catalyst that appreciably increases a juvenile's chances of adult incarceration, harm, or both, thereby reducing the chance at equitable post secondary educational opportunities, future employment, and societal acceptance. Moreover, the research seeks to discern proactive methods to diminish violence, entry into the juvenile justice system, and potential adult incarceration. My hope is that my unique life and career experiences as a former law enforcement officer, court school educator, father of an addict and current administrator of a continuation high school, offer a perspective that may be able to enlighten those in a myriad of positions that impact or converge with youth from marginalized communities.
My current position is an assistant principal in a continuation high school that serves many of the youth that reside in communities of the county where this violence has taken place for several years. My desire is to facilitate systemic change in the perception of street-specialized youth from marginalized communities, it is my hope is that educators, police officers, probation officers, criminal attorneys, and judges will embrace the mindset of rehabilitation through trauma informed practices for our youth.
Comments (7)