Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2005 > December > 18
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Parents’ ‘whys’ need answers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
At first, he didn’t know his Mom and Dad.
Uncle Ron was a stranger, too.
Trevor Q. Sanford has gotten better at recognizing family, but he’s still not quite all there.
“When you talk to him, you still see that look in his eyes,” said Tim Sanford, his father. “My son is 15 years old, and he’s got to relearn things he learned when he was 2 or 3.”
We’re at Children’s Health Care of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, in the parents’ lounge, down the hall from room No. 418, which is Trevor’s. He’s in the brain trauma unit. He’s been there since Dec. 9. Before that, he spent four days at Gwinnett Medical Center.
His left eye socket is fractured, his vision blurry. He’s having to relearn things. To walk unassisted. To say his ABCs and recite colors. To remember the good times, like his first plane trip to Plano, Texas, to visit Uncle Ron.
All because of a random act of violence.
On Dec. 6, the Meadowcreek Mustangs played the Grayson Rams. Trevor, a sophomore, had ridden his new bike to the Meadowcreek campus. After the basketball game, he hung out to talk to some girls. A security camera caught what transpired between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. that night. School officials told Trevor’s father what it shows:
Trevor walks out of the gymnasium. A student grabs him and restrains him from behind. Another student punches Trevor — it’s unclear how many times — in the face. Knocks him cold. The attackers scat. His bike disappears. School officials try unsuccessfully to revive Trevor with smelling salts. Paramedics eventually transport him to Gwinnett Medical Center.
According to a campus police report, Darron D. Dalton, 16, struck Trevor in the face, while Corrddaro B. Thomas, 18, restrained the victim. Like Trevor, they attend Meadowcreek High. They’ve been charged with one count each of aggravated battery and may be tried as adults, school officials said.
Maybe his attackers will wise up and realize something — that actions can carry grave consequences. That, in this case, their victim may never be the same. That they need to control their emotions, jealousies or whatever bugs them without resorting to violence. In this case, cowardly violence.
Remember Jonathan Miller?
In 1998, the Cherokee County teen was convicted of felony murder in the death of 13-year-old Josh Belluardo. When Miller was 15, he hit Belluardo in the back of the head during in a school bus fight. Miller got a life sentence.
Trevor’s father said his son didn’t know his attackers.
“This wasn’t a fight,” said Sanford, who runs a cleaning service. “It was a mugging. I guess the major question I have is, ‘Why?’ “
And details, well, they’re hard to dig up. Try getting information from the Gwinnett County School system. It’s like pulling teeth.
The recurring comment from the school district spokeswoman has been that gangs played no role in the attack. I wasn’t allowed to talk to Rolando Jiminez, the campus police officer who handled the incident. The principal didn’t return my call.
“The investigation is still ongoing and we are still working to determine the reason for the attack,” an e-mail from the spokeswoman stated. “However, there is nothing to indicate that it was gang-related.”
Good.
But that makes no difference to Tim and LeVette Sanford. It’s their son who had to take an MRI on Thursday. He’s the one who has to undergo speech and occupational therapy.
Trevor’s dad is a burly man who’s coached football in the Meadowcreek school cluster.
“I’m scared,” he told me.
“And my wife, she’s very angry. Trevor didn’t know who I was for three or four hours, and for seven or eight hours, he didn’t even know his mother. He’s had a good life. I don’t want him to not be able to remember the last 13 or 14 years of it. He’s been reduced back to the age of a 3- or 4-year-old.”
In better days, Trevor sang in the choir at Friendship Baptist Church in Duluth. He assisted with the youth ministry. He holds a fifth-degree red belt in karate. I am told he’s kind and courteous — character traits you’d want your children to have.
“Nowadays, I think it’s hard to have a kid who’s ‘soft,’ and by soft I mean respectful,” said Ron Sanford, Trevor’s uncle, who flew in from Texas, on Wednesday. “Trevor is just a nice kid.
“Every kid should have a chance at three squares a day and a good family structure. Unfortunately, these things don’t always happen. It makes for an unfortunate situation, not just for my nephew, but for any kid who has to go through this pain.”
On Thursday, Trevor and other patients on his floor did a little window shopping at Lenox Mall. It was their therapeutic outing.
“Today was fantastic,” Sanford told me later that night. “It was almost like he was back.”
Almost.
