He Never Learned to Read Horatio Alger

The child that was shot and killed was named Derek Lopez. He was 14 years old. That's his mom.

It took three days to find this out. The family says the police and the Medical Examiner still won't tell them anything.

The cop's name is Alvarado. He is on paid leave pending an investigation.

The Express News has written on this everyday, a little bit, with somewhat of a derisive tone, in my opinion. The readers comments I've seen make me sick. It seems like this town is full of hate for this kid. Why?

The story yesterday described a child I am very familiar with. He was a loving son in a tight-nit family, and enjoyed all the things normal kids do. Except he always had problems in school with behavior, and I suspect academics as well. He was expelled from fouth grade. He was supended recently and placed in "alternative" school, which is the modern version of reform school for possessing a pill; a violation of zero tolerance policy.

He was expelled for tagging a building, and the night he was killed he was fighting with another boy at the school. The officer chased him, lost him, and finally found him in someone's back yard hiding in a storage shed. Derek made a dash of it, and Alvadrado shot him in the chest. The EN explains blythly that hitting the proud Alvarado in the face with the shed door was the reason he was shot, as if everyone would kill a person if they got the ol Three Stooges' door gag.

A UTSA professor in researching local schools found that 2/3 of children in alternative schools are in the 8th and 9th grades. After that, more than 70% drop out of school.

The problem, many agree, including me, is that the schools do not address learning problems in primary school, rarely intervene with learning assistance through special services; socially promote kids who can't read and do math, and then treat them as discipline problems when they act out. Kid's with mental and emotional problems find the same outcomes. The schools are basically criminal enterprises and anyone with a conscience who knows anything about Texas schools knows this too. This pattern of denying services under the Federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the Texas Education Code, and; therefore, the civil rights of mostly poor, at risk, minority children is pervasive state wide. But in the case of NISD, who has the money to spend on everything but the needs of poor kids within the district with behaviors that stem from mental, emotional, or learning problems treat them like criminals.

I asked a retired police detective about his view on Alvarado's actions with regard to law enforcement procedures in the Lopez case. "He's shitting bricks," was his response.

He added,"this is a case of 'P.O.P' - pissed off police."