Au Revoir Jesse

Our new ADW was not liking that Jesse was absent from our staff meetings. He began to intimidate some of the teachers, but I found him to be quite interesting. The prisoners hated him and I didn’t think that was all that bad. He had been one of them at one time and was assaulted during the riots of the 1980’s. In our meetings he did say that our school was one of the best, and he thought it was the only thing running well in the MDOC. However, he had what he thought was a better idea on how it should be run. I got the feeling from talking with our school secretary that Jesse didn’t think his new boss would last much longer in his new assignment, and as usual Jesse was right. He received a temporary promotion as he became the Acting Deputy Warden. It seems our Deputy Warden was on medical leave, and he was promoted temporarily to do that job. He still had some influence over the school but was prevented from putting his stamp on it with his new temporary duties.

I don’t think Jesse cared one way or the other about our new acting Deputy Warden. We saw little of him in what would be his final year as our School Principal. It did not surprise me when our school secretary had informed us that Jesse would be retiring at the end of the month. She said that they were planning to give him a send off at the Green Tavern, and we were all invited to attend. Jesse had liked the Green Tavern and we had many a school meetings there. Jesse paid for the food consumed. I was surprised that he was going to retire, and he informed us that it was only a partial retirement. He had told me earlier that all of his friends who had retired passed away right after they retired. He didn’t want to be another statistic. His plan was only a partial retirement. He planned on coaching part-time for a private school. He thanked all of us as we gave him our parting gifts. I felt I was losing a good friend and mentor. Time moves on regardless, we said our goodbyes, and I wondered who our new principal would be.

Our academic teacher who had retired from the military as a captain in the United States Air Force would be the acting principal until a new principal was selected. I had hoped he would be selected for the position and was stunned to find out that a Horticulture Teacher I had trained for her current position was selected to be our new principal instead. Our acting principal had informed me she was not only a Horticulture Instructor, but was also a Special Education licensed teacher, a Master Degreed Education Administrator, and a GED Administrator. I did not know this when I trained her for the Horticulture Instructor position a couplie of years prior. Jesse never mentioned her back ground. We met her a few weeks later, after her appointment to be our School Principal was announced, and after our meeting she asked me to stay behind. She wanted to speak with me. Now I was concerned. Prison Stories to be Continued