Weekly Report

Well, this is no way to grow a blog! Dear readers, I am still making the adjustment to my new job. I've gone from a job where leaving at 4 was "staying late" to a career where getting home at 7 means I still have several hours of work to do. BIG CHANGE. This weekend, I was so exhausted that I spent most of the day Saturday in bed surrounded by my kiddies.

Speaking of the kiddies, this has also been a big change for them. Keep them in your prayers- it has been hard explaining to them why I can't pick them up anymore or take them to school most days because I have to go to work early. Strategically, I took this job because I wanted to be able to do more for them. I hold on to that knowledge when I question this commitment. I pray that once the dust settles, I can find a balance that works for everyone.

Speaking of balance, I have come to the realization that I need help. I am currently putting ads on Craigslist and asking around for a good daily babysitter, and a part-time cook and housekeeper. When I'm home, I want to be mommy. Not stressed about preparing dinner or trying to mop the kitchen floor. I used to consider these things pretentious. Now I consider them the cost of doing business.

The good news- I really like this job. My coworkers seem like smart, down to earth people and the work (so far) is interesting. My goal is to become a great attorney. I believe that I have found the right firm to achieve it.

Excellence is deliberate and life is about balance. Those are the themes of this blog and I hope to be able to write more often once my schedule stabilizes (and I don't have to spend my evening hours writing briefs and doing research).

Have a great week!

In his own words

Dear Reader,
I am watching the President give the State of the Union as I type this.  He just said something that should have brought every parent to their feet.

It's family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.

Thanks for telling the truth Mr. President. Parents first.  The last part of the quote about success is crucial for all of us to embrace in the current culture of shallow stupidity that allows shows like, "Jersey Shore" and "Housewives of (ATL, NY, Beverly Hills etc.)" to distract us from real thought.

To read a transcript of tonight's speech, click here.

A Goldfish Story

Much has been written about the love between a boy and his dog. This story is about the genuine bond between a boy and his fish.

A refrigerator portrait of Fighter and Woody. This was drawn just days before their tragic demise.

My oldest son loves fish the way most five year old boys love super heroes.  After viewing Finding Nemo for the first time at age four, he became obsessed with the ocean, the lake near our (then) home and any living creatures that make their home in water.  It seemed like the natural progression on his path toward a career in marine biology to purchase his first goldfish for his fifth birthday.

It was a glorious occasion.  Picture our entire family peering into a 50 gallon tank with about 1000 goldfish while my son pointed out the exact fish he wanted and demanded that the pet store worker catch it. He never waivered, despite her efforts to convince him to select one of the slow movers she was able to easily scoop into the net.  After several failed attempts, when finally caught, my son's fish jumped out of the net and flopped around on the counter to avoid capture. In that moment, his name was set, "Let's call him, 'Fighter' mommy, because he fought to be free!" And so our journey with "Fighter" began.

Fighter started out in a bowl, but we soon realized that a small tank with a filter would be a better choice.  Each day my son gazed at Fighter for long intervals and wondered aloud about what he might be thinking or what his life would be like in a pond. My three year old also had questions of his own, like how many toys can I stuff in his tank when mommy's not looking?

Through it all, Fighter swam on and played his role as our pet goldfish flawlessly.  Unlike many goldfish, Fighter was a unique silver color with black markings. Whenever my oldest son approached his tank, he swam happily around with the zeal of  a trained dolphin at Sea World.  Each morning, my son reminded us to feed him and marveled at his appetite. Over time, Fighter grew and we decided to upgrade his living quarters again.  We purchased a 10 gallon tank for Christmas 2010 and decided to bring him home a little tank buddy.

Fighter's first few days in his new home were a joy to watch.  He swam back and forth constantly and zipped around the fluorescent colored plastic plants at top speed.  My son was thrilled! Unfortunately, his new tank mate brought more than the "variety" we had hoped for to our pet collection.  From almost the beginning, "Woody" the goldfish just didn't seem to quite fit in. He didn't swim much, didn't leave the bottom of the tank and never quite had any spunk. Probably because he was carrying a deadly disease and was already sick.

About a week after moving into the new tank with Woody, Fighter started swimming less and hanging out on the bottom more.  Then he started gasping for air at the top of the tank in a vertical position for most of the day.  I didn't think much of it because I noticed that he still swam back and forth normally at night. Woody just hid behind a plant all day and we labeled him "the shy one."  The end was near, but we didn't know it.

On Wednesday,  my son awoke to discover that Woody was no longer at the bottom of the tank.  He had died during the night and been sucked onto the filter. My first thought was whether I still had my receipt to go get a replacement.  Woody was a typical orange goldfish that could easily be substituted by any pet store. While I pondered that thought, my husband flushed Woody to his final resting place and my oldest son wailed. Too late to replace Woody.   I looked at Fighter and knew the countdown for his demise had begun because he was clearly not well.

Fighter held on for two more days- living up to his name with each frail breath.  After searching the Internet for answers, we purchased a fish antibiotic and added it to the tank water with a prayer.  We finally decided to cover his tank because watching him suffer was too distressing for my son (and for me too-ugh).  Every time I thought we had finally lost him, he mustered up the strength to wiggle just enough to avoid the net transport to the bathroom. Finally, my husband couldn't take it anymore and he flushed him on Friday during his lunch break.  Time of death is unknown because he hadn't quite gotten there when he reached his final flush.  After hearing that part of the story, I closed the lid of the toilet and flushed it about three times as soon as the kids and I returned home from school.  The loss of a fish is traumatizing enough without seeing him floating in the toilet after you get the news. (My son still won't use that toilet because he witnessed Woody's flushing)

My son took the news as expected- hard.  He is processing the loss of Fighter and Woody and asking a lot of questions about death and sickness.We did our own version of  a memorial service/ celebration of life on Sunday. Cake plus ice cream and singing silly songs about our pet fish. It seemed to help.

Now that a few days have passed, the requests for future pets have begun.  My youngest son has already put in his vote for a dog. (!)  Life goes on, and I'm sure our pet family will expand again. But none of us will ever forget the love we witnessed between a boy and his first fish.

Talk to you soon!

Excellence is Deliberate.

From the moment I gave birth to my first son, I have purposely infused his worldview with a steady diet of great expectations: "You can be President!"  "You can learn multiple foreign languages!"  "You can aim for the toilet and not for the wall!"  All the while I have struggled to execute these great expectations in the area of fulfilling my own potential.

About two years ago, I heard a message in church about raising Godly children.  To paraphrase, the pastor said simply, "You raise who you are, not what you say."  In other words, our children learn more about how to live their lives from the way we model behavior than from the character lessons we attempt to instill intellectually.  So true. In many aspects I am my mother. In the way I raise my children, in the way I think about the world around me, and even in the way I physically carry myself including my speaking voice.  Certainly, in other significant ways I am my own woman, but the core of who I am started with who my parents showed me I could be.  As the parent of two exceptional little boys, that thought is both exciting and terrifying.  God gave me two blank slates and one of my deepest fears is that I will somehow "mess them up" and ruin their potential because of my failings as a mother.

In 2011 (and beyond) I am raising the bar. Stepping up my game. Starting with the (wo)man in the mirror... and every other cliche that signifies a commitment to excellence.  The truth is, excellence is deliberate.  A life worth noting never happens by accident. Think about that. Let it sink in and repeat it to yourself.  EXCELLENCE IS DELIBERATE. 

That commitment to excellence is what this blog is all about;  A chronicle of my journey to strive for excellence in my faith, my family, my career and my community.  If you have made it this far through this post, I know that you are committed to the same thing in your own life, on your own terms.  It is my desire that you will take this journey with me and invite others along the way.

Old School...

New School...

So why now?  This is the first year in at least the last five years that I have no plans or (likely) possibility of a move.  I am finally able to put down roots in a community and make long(er) term plans for my family life, career and community involvement. That is HUGE!

Phase one of my plan, stabilize our finances and transition from a job mentality to career building mindset.  Let the financial management classes and career networking begin!

Happy New Year dear readers!  Let's make it a great one together.

Kitchen Cred: Five recipes I am trying to master

This morning I made a traditional breakfast for my family of blueberry pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. I must admit, cooking a meal that is well received always boosts my confidence in my credentials as a wife and mother. As I watched my five year old eat his second helping of pancakes, I came up with a list of five recipes that I would like to perfect to secure my place in the minds of my husband and children as a true master of home cooking.

1) Pancakes.  Still working on the recipe- my goal is to figure out what IHOP does and copy that.  My pancakes still tend to be too heavy and doughy for my taste.  I want them to be light, slightly sweet and delicious.  I might as well work on waffles while I'm at it.

2) Turkey and the fixins.  I have only prepared one turkey in my life.  It was dry and only slightly flavorful.  This one will require practice during the off season (times other than Thanksgiving) to perfect.  I also need to settle on a recipe for Greens, Macaroni and Cheese, and potato salad.  The cool thing about side dishes is that every family has their own tastes, so I just have to perfect them for the taste buds of my household. 

3) Chocolate Chip cookies.  I feel pretty confident with my current recipe and it already wins rave reviews from my family members. My next goal is to memorize it and be able to throw it together at will.

4) Pound cake/ birthday cake.  Cake has never been my strong suit in any form.  My mom makes the best pound cake, but I have never been able to duplicate her recipe.  I will continue to practice.  I'd also like to be able to make a delicious yellow or chocolate flavored cake for birthdays without relying on Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker.

5)  Baked pork chops or chicken breasts.  Every time I make a baked piece of boneless meat, there is at least a 50% chance that I will overcook it until it's dry.  When a pork chop is baked right, it's delicious and succulent.  When it's cooked wrong, it's like seasoned rawhide.  This one is just a matter of technique- I am confident that I will figure it out.

Let me know if you have any recipes you are currently trying to perfect.  What recipes do you remember most fondly from your mother's kitchen?  I love my mom's Oven fried chicken, pound cake and macaroni and cheese.  I also love the way she makes fried eggs:)

Ten pounds to Lose.

Today I wore a suit to work that I haven't been able to fit into in over three years.  That probably sounds like good news until I tell you that the last time I wore this suit I was pregnant with my youngest son. In fact, between you and me, it is still missing the button that popped off toward the end of my first trimester:)  This non-maternity suit was purchased during my "camouflage" phase to serve as a clever disguise until I broke out in my Motherhood Maternity gear during trimester two.

That said, it should be obvious that without pregnancy as a scapegoat, my ability to wear this suit is not a good thing. Let the running begin.  I started last week and am proud to say that I have already pushed through the first  few days of achy muscles and fatigue.  My goal is to get back to running five miles 4-5 times a week.  Right now I am winded after the one mile lap around my neighborhood. My, what a difference a few months of no exercise and junk food can make. I realize that perhaps this isn't the best time of year to embark on a weight loss quest;Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are all formidable foes to anyone trying to stick to a healthy diet.  (Curse you Halloween- the cheap candy sales that followed your holiday are what got me into this mess in the first place... !)

I've got ten pounds to lose, one run at a time. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.  Until then, I'll be revisiting my old "pre" maternity wardrobe that I hope one day to wear again for its original purpose.

Game Changer?

Yesterday, in the midst of a conversation with my five year old son about his school friends, I asked him to bring me his class picture so that I could connect faces with names.  After pointing to a few people, he looked at me and asked which kid I thought was the cutest.  I immediately pointed to his picture (of course) and had my three year old respond to the same question to confirm my assessment. My son looked up at me and said, "I'm not the cutest. I don't like the way I look."  As the hair stood up on the back of my neck, I asked him what he didn't like about his looks and he looked at me and said, "my skin, my eyes, ... everything."  I knew where the conversation was headed, but decided to make him go all the way there.  "What's wrong with your skin?" I asked.  ""You have the same brown skin as mommy. Don't you like our color?" His response, "Yes..errrr ... no. I want to be lighter."  I wanted to scream, cry and throw up in that instant.

Over the next few minutes, I probed gently and listened as my precious, intelligent, cute as a button, five year old black son told me that he is tired of being different.  In his words, "I am tired of only having 3 brown people in my class. Everyone else is white."   I had noted this fact very early on in the school year and been grateful that he had one other black boy in his class.  (I have never met the third little girl and truthfully, her racial makeup is not immediately apparent from the school picture.)   There is one other black boy in all of the school's four kindergarten classes.  He also told me repeatedly that he wanted to have more "brown people" to play with at school.

This conversation was deeply painful for me because I agonized for months over where to place my son for kindergarten, in part for this very reason.  I home schooled him for about a year when he was four and only gave up on that idea when it became apparent that I had to return to work for financial reasons.  One of my greatest concerns as the parent of two black males is how to balance their educational opportunities between exposure to a significant level of diversity and access to the best academic environment.  Generally I have found that the two tend to be somewhat mutually exclusive.  The most academically renowned private and charter schools generally tend to have very low diversity.  Equally troubling is that even the "best" public schools typically have jaw dropping achievement gaps when you factor in the performance of their black student population as compared to the whole.  We chose my son's charter school  because the performance among black students on end of grade testing was on par with their white counterparts in most areas. To me that demonstrated a climate of high expectations for ALL students and was an indicator that my son would be held to (and receive support in achieving) a higher academic standard. 

Dear Reader, I must admit that my son's confession shook me.  I wonder now more than ever- are my husband and I doing the right thing in terms of his education? How can we affirm his "blackness" in a way that allows him to enter a school with zero black authority figures and a 95% white student population with confidence and a sense of belonging? Should I try to find a school with more diversity and sacrifice some of the academic rigor? Should I revisit the home school option and believe God that He will work out the financial details? Should we keep attending an all black church so that he can be exposed to his peers in that environment? How do other black parents deal with this balancing act?


The scary thing about parenthood is that time only moves in one direction and you don't get a second chance to raise your children.  Sometimes I look at my son and pray that I don't "mess him up" because I see such great potential in his innocent eyes.

Is this a gamechanger?  What would you do?  How do you achieve a balance if your children have encountered this issue?

Looking forward to reading some comments on this one...

Thanksgiving Weekend

All good things must (usually) come to an end and so goes Thanksgiving weekend.  Four days of fried turkey, red velvet cake, banana pudding, and no work in the morning.  Ahhhh....I haven't posted in over a week and I have so much to share.  I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving 2010. I had the wonderful pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with dear friends who treated our family like royalty for two days and blessed us with delicious food and heartfelt hospitality.  Awesome.  We put up the Christmas Tree and stockings today and our home is already filled with holiday cheer.

Sorry I've been gone for so long. This time off has given me a great deal to think about and much more to say. Hope to share deeper thoughts very soon.

The Card Says it All.

Yesterday my 5 year old son greeted me with this card when I came home from work. It instantly became my favorite work of art.  We will laugh about this when he wins the National Spelling Bee;)

A Call to Arms!! Black Parents, It's Time to Grab a Mirror and Stop Waiting for Superman.

Say what you want to about the Tea Party -- You can question their motives, criticize their candidates and poke holes in their agenda-- But one thing you can't do is ignore their effectiveness.  They saw something they didn't like and mobilized to change it.  It's time to get organized black parents.  
This post is a call to arms.
Seriously.
I read a study today that first saddened, then enraged, then inspired me.  I hope it will do the same for you. The study was published by The Council of the Great City Schools, a consortium of urban public school systems from around the country. The subject: academic underachievement among black males.   If you are the parent of a young black male, YOU MUST READ the recently published Call for Change study. If you are not the parent of a young black male but know someone who is, YOU MUST READ this study and pass it along to someone else.  Oh, and if you are the parent or know the parent of a young black female, you are not off the hook.  YOU MUST READ this study because what it says about our daughters isn't any more promising. Put simply, the word CRISIS is now an understatement.
  
Some context...
Yes, we've all heard the hoopla in recent weeks surrounding the new Bill Gates backed Waiting for Superman documentary.  You know the one that everyone from Oprah, to President Obama, has been touting as a "call to action" for our country?  The one that laments the fact that U.S. students are now ranked a lowly 25th in math among 30 of the world's developed countries.  The one that points out the shocking statistic that by fourth grade, 68% of public school students scored below a proficient reading level in 2009. The one that blames the public school bureaucracy for pretty much everything.  Well, if you're a black parent and you thought things were bad, perhaps you should sit down. It gets MUCH worse.

First let's look in the MIRROR:

• In 2009, only 11% of black boys in 4th grade performed at or above PROFICIENT levels in reading. (Students attended public schools in cities with populations of 250,000 or more)
• In my hometown of Cleveland, OH, only 3% --That's right--THREE measly PERCENT of 4th grade black males scored at or above proficient levels. UGHHHHHHHH!

Think it's just a financial issue? WRONG...Read on:

• In 2009, black male 4th graders NOT eligible for free or reduced priced lunch (based on income) had reading and mathematics scores similar to or lower than white males who WERE eligible for free or reduced priced lunch (based on income).  About 21% in each group performed at or above proficient levels. 
• By 8th grade,  the achievement gap between this same group widened to six points in favor of white males.     

Can't blame economic disadvantage for that.

That's pretty bad, but here's the real slap in the face. Brace yourself and read on:

•  In 2009, black males WITHOUT disabilities performed worse than white males WITH disabilities! Only 13% of non-disabled black male 4th graders compared to 17% of disabled white male 4th graders performed at or above proficient levels in reading.

These stats are just the tip of a very big, immensely depressing, iceberg of negative data on the state of academic underachievement among black boys.  The study also looks at many other enlightening data points including some demographic insight into what's left of the black family unit,  high school and post-secondary achievement and earning potential as adults.  It's all related and it's not pretty.

I read this study today, all 106 pages of it. And I was ready.  With each dismal statistic, my will to be part of the solution grew stronger.   But when I read the "Plan of Action and Recommendations" conclusion, I realized (with anger) that the study authors in their "scholarly wisdom" had once again let me and every other black parent off the hook. Not one of the recommendations asks black parents to do ANYTHING differently (much like the Wait for Superman, blame the system approach). The word, "parent", isn't even mentioned.  That is sickening. Our babies are failing at epidemic rates, and we have no obligation to change the outcome? Ridiculous.

Let's Do Something About It.
Black parents, we need to pick up the mirror and face the fact that the blame for our children's failure starts and ends with us. Not the school. Not white racism. Not cultural bias. US!  We need to take ownership of success of our next generation like our ancestors did and our counterparts in other races still do. Realize that the schools can't and shouldn't have to do it all.  

I am fired up and ready to start a movement of black parents ready to return our children to excellence.  Our black boys are too precious to leave in the hands of anyone else. If you're ready to take some responsibility, please jump in.

Dear Reader, I crave your thoughts and prayers on this issue.  It has been near to my heart since the birth of my first son and for some time I have felt that God has a purpose for me that includes helping black boys to achieve. I am still seeking God for exactly what this purpose looks like, but I know that it starts with raising our two sons to be high achieving, Godly, men of character.

Stay tuned, this is a call to arms!!




P.S.  Don't forget to read the study for yourself to fully understand the populations of students examined- there are some significant nuances that I didn't get into here.  Also, the first nine pages are an Executive Summary that lays out the parameters of the data examined and includes every data point separated by bullets.  The rest of the study is mostly graphs illustrating the data.

Say What?

The first time I saw this commercial I turned the channel and immediately informed my children that this kind of behavior is completely unacceptable.  This child has the nerve to call his parents lame!  I went to the Toyota channel on youtube  to find out how to complain and saw that most of the comments posted there had the same sentiment.  I also saw that this ad is only one of several offensive commercials featuring this character.  In each commercial he obnoxiously refers to his parents as "dorks" or "lame" and sarcastically ridicules them. How dare Toyota portray a child showing such disrespect for his parents in a commercial for a product aimed at families!! Not cute.

I also submitted a formal complaint on Toyota's main website in the customer help/contact us section.  Click this link if you would like to submit your own complaint. It will take about five minutes to set up an account and then you can leave your complaint.  I selected "website" as my area of concern and also pointed out that I am a current owner.  I'll get back to you if Toyota bothers to respond.

Today I Dream

In my experience, there are three essential steps to initiate change:  1) Dream that it can happen (allow your mind to conceive that it could happen).  2) Formulate the plan (confront the reality of how it can happen).  3)  Execute the plan (take action to make it happen).  Although I could write at length about all three steps, today I feel like dreaming.

I love dreams because they are not limited by my current circumstances or the boundaries of reality. In my freest moments, I allow my mind to consider possibilities that practicality ultimately overrides. What if I had another five children and homeschooled them all to Harvard? What if I started a school for black boys that combined high academic standards with christian character education to produce a generation of Godly leaders? What if we could find a way to generate enough income so that our family could spend several years abroad and my kids could truly become fluent in multiple languages? What if I became a bestselling author and got to walk the red carpet on Oscar night when my novel became a celebrated film?  What if I actually ran and finished a full marathon? The beauty of a dream is that the only scrutiny it must withstand is the limits of my own imagination. It belongs to me.  I can choose to share it with others or cherish it privately in moments when my sense of purpose is uncertain. Today I sat down and wrote out an updated playlist of the current dreams that constantly loop in my brain when I need an escape.   Here they are in no particular order:

• Start a butterfly garden
• Start a real garden (with food....)
• Learn to play guitar
• Play piano again and develop my skills to the level that they were in high school
• Write a song and record it with my own voice 
• Become debt free
• Write a novel and publish it
• Write a screenplay based on said novel and see it produced into a feature film
• Memorize several biblical passages in the old and new testament and teach them to my kids
• Earn enough as a freelance writer to work from home and build my schedule around our family
• Run a marathon (starting with 10k, and 1/2 marathon )
• Live abroad long enough for my sons to become fluent in all six official languages of the U.N.
• Become fluent in Mandarin and Spanish
• Go on a vacation with my husband alone
• Become debt free
• Take our children on a whale watch to see orca whales in their natural habitat
• Take our children on an African safari
• Visit all 50 states and each continent at least once by the time my oldest child graduates from high school
• Have at least one daughter:)  (I would love twin girls)
• Become debt free (This one repeats itself because realizing this dream is the gateway to realizing so many of the others)
• Introduce my sons to Barack Obama
• Introduce my mom to Barack Obama
• Introduce myself to Michelle Obama 
• Meet: Maya Angelou, Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Condoleezza Rice, Robin Roberts, India Arie, Marva Collins, Ce Ce Winans, and James Dobson.
• Send homemade cookies and a note of appreciation to all of the people I care about at least once
• Go to an Olympic Games
• Start a children's clothing line for boys
• Start a school for black boys like Urban Prep in Chicago
• Find a place within the pro-life movement
• Become an amateur photographer
• Become an expert in something.

   That's the short list.  My goal is to check in with this list after the new year and give an update on any progress.

I am not my hair - the kiddy version

I am all about anything that honors black hair and acceptance of our natural beauty.  I just discovered this video today and thought it was cute.  It already has over 400,000 views on youtube. I would love to watch it with my nieces and see their reaction. Tomorrow I will show it to my sons and see if they have anything to say about it.

The REAL Dancing With the Stars

I saw this video on a kindred blog called blackandmarriedwithkids.com and immediately called my husband over to watch it with me. What a treasure. I love how this church chose to tastefully celebrate the passionate side of marriage at every stage of life. Our marriage is more than our children. Easy to say, but in this busy world, it can be hard to put into practice. When I went to youtube to download this video, I saw that it has already had over 242,000 views since it was posted in August! See the video below.

Father of the Year, James Jones.

Back in the day when parents still took their role in the family seriously, and having a father in the home was not seen as a noteworthy accomplishment, the idea of a black father going into warrior mode (when needed) to protect his children was seen as a necessary part of his job description. Not so today. Today's expectations have plummeted so far within society in general and black folk in particular, that most people gladly congratulate the black father for just showing up. Excuses abound. And note to the media-watching President Obama kiss his daughters a couple of times a year doesn't even begin to balance out the constant barrage of stories portraying the black father as a deadbeat, abuser or flat out loser. However, this morning I saw the story of a black father who, while wrong in his approach, got caught doing something right.

They were poking me with pencils, calling me outside my name and condoms were being thrown on the bus.  Chatari Jones

On September 2, James Jones learned from his precious 12 year old daughter, Chatari, that she had been bullied on the school bus by several boys. Chatari has cerebal palsy and she has already missed a year of school due to health concerns. Mr. Jones was understandably upset and he decided to accompany his daughter on the bus the following day to speak to the driver. While waiting at the bus stop the next day to speak to the driver, Mr. Jones became furious  when he saw the chaos on the bus as it pulled up twenty minutes late.. Mr. Jones stormed onto the bus in warrior mode and directed a profanity laced tirade toward his daughter's tormenters. He was later arrested and charged with disorderly conduct which might bring jail time.
Mr. Jones and Chatari appeared on this morning's Today Show along with his wife, Deborah, and the family attorney, Natalie Jackson.
Father and daughter both spoke through tears as they recounted the pain this situation has caused their family. Mr. Jones said it best,  

I am just an average dad protecting his daughter and that's it.  James Jones

Chatari had to be hospitalized after the bus incident and hasn't returned to school since. As a parent, I don't condone Mr. Jones' actions, but as a parent, I understand.  Every child deserves a parent that is willing to go to war literally and figuratively for their protection. Everyone (including Mr. Jones) knows that the situation should have been handled through the proper bureaucratic channels. But given the circumstances, and the complete lack of order on the bus, Mr. Jones' misguided approach inspires more admiration than condemnation from this blogger.
See the video here.