This one's from the archives. Ancient history, in my lifetime. It was ten years ago, in 8th grade. I had my very first camera: a Kodak disposable. I took it to school, just for fun.

This was in Georgia History class (I grew up in Georgia). The picture was Ben's idea. We felt the the same as any other schoolkids: like inmates in a prison.



The teacher for that class was Mr. Bowen, a muscular, bald man in his 50's. We liked to call him Mr. Clean, since he looked exactly like the titular mascot for those cleaning products. He was one of the "cool" teachers, and most everybody liked him.

Four years later, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail for child molestation, though the case didn't involve students or the school in any way. I wanted to go back and ask him, "How could this happen? You? Why?" But there's no reason for these things. What's done is done. He seemed like such a nice guy...

[Joel B]

Love the photo!! Although I don't know why, I now remember the horrors of middle school-AAAAAAAHHHH!!! -Tried to repress them for years. In high school our band director ran off with a pom pom girl. I can see why on his end but not hers, she got stuck with a middle aged geek with a bad perm!!!