On Tuesday, July 16, 2013, a little over seven months after that horrible day, I was standing face-to-face with my son in the hallway outside his room. I asked him, "did you take your medicine?" He replied that he did. I noticed that he was visibly shaking, so I said, “are you nervous about this?" Again he replied that he was. I put my hands on his shoulders, and he made eye contact with me. I then told him, "we are going to get through this thing together, just like we always have. Remember that every choice we've made during this so far has worked out perfectly, and it's going to be that way again today. I know that it’s very difficult for you to go back to that place, but here’s what’s different. This time when you go back to that place, know that the world knows you were right in this, and that you did nothing wrong. You don’t have to feel nervous or ashamed. It’s the people who did this to you who need to feel nervous and ashamed. When you walk into that building, walk in there like you own that place."
A couple hours later, my wife and I were sitting in the court room, with our younger children seated to the right of us, and our son's educational/civil attorney sitting to our left. Our son was sitting at the table in front of us, next to his criminal attorney. He was wearing a white dress shirt and black pants, a dramatic change from the justice system issued orange he was forced to wear when he was in the same room, sitting at the same table, in front of the same judge on December 13, 2012. My wife and I were also sitting in the same seats as we had been on December 13, a day on which we saw him for the first time in over 48 hours, with a look in his eyes that we will always remember with a mix of sadness, despair and horror.
At approximately 9:30 a.m. on July 16, 2013, the judge said, “I've read the report, it looks good. I'm dismissing this. Good job." And with that, my son showed the signs of a young man who had just been released from a granite burden. My wife quietly said "thank you", and I repeated the same. The judge responded, "you're welcome."
And our son’s informal probation officially came to an end.
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