A year later, student vandals still making amends
 Ronny Head, left, and Jon Betancourt were still working around school this spring to show their remorse for their vandalism spree last spring. Staff photo
Letter to the Editor
BE Times 700 Saco Rd. Standish, ME 04084 Letter to the Editor: My name is Ronny Head and I’m 18 years old. I am one of the individuals that vandalized the high school. I am very sorry and I apologize to everyone I’ve affected by this. I did 2 months in jail for what I’ve done, it opened my eyes up and at that point I recalled what I’ve done and couldn’t fathom the fact that I really did something like that. Once I got out of jail this program Restorative Justice was willing to work with me and help me out so I could talk to the school and figure out what I could do to help pay back for what I did. We had a meeting with the teachers/ staff and a student that was part of the Voc program. We all came up with a plan where I’d come to help the janitor for an 8 hour day to clean the school, talk to 3 classes about what I’ve done and to give advise to students so they don’t go down the path I went down. I cleaned the school for an 8 hour day and it made me feel really good to pay back what I did. I cleaned the school lockers , the ones on the freshmen wing upstairs and downstairs, I also cleaned the walls and refrigerator and the whole teachers room upstairs in the freshmen wing also. At the end of the day I went to the gym and helped clean the walls all the way around the gym and helped polish and wax the floors. About a week or two later I went to Alternative Ed at Frank Jewett. I talked to 3 classes of students about what I’ve done in my life, how it affected me and how I wouldn’t wish or want anyone to go down the path I went down in life. Talked about if I could go back that I would in a heartbeat because schools everything in life and how I’ve made mistakes but now I’m doing better. Got a job and done community service to help pay back to my community for what I’ve done. I feel like a much better person now and I am sincerely sorry for what I’ve done. Ronny Head |
To the Editor:
My name is Jonathan Betancourt, and I am one of the three people who vandalized Bonny Eagle High School last June. To this day, I don’t really understand why I lashed out at my high school, because I love Bonny Eagle High School. I think I was actually lashing out at my high school I got transferred to in Gray when I was moved there in my freshman year. I didn’t like the Gray high school, but I had liked Bonny Eagle. This doesn’t make sense even to me, but I think that’s what happened. The other part of what happened the night we vandalized the school is that I had joined up with friends of mine that I know are not good company for me, and we were drinking that night. It was a recipe for a disaster, and a disaster is what we caused. I wish I could turn back the clock and undo the hurt and damage I caused to the Bonny Eagle community, but since I can’t, I chose to work with the Restorative Justice program. I did several things in Restorative Justice. We began by shadowing the janitor and cleaning the Teacher’s Room thoroughly – pulling out the furniture; etc. We cleaned up the vending machine area, cleaning the machines and mopped the floor and washed down the walls. We cleaned all the lockers on the Freshman wing. We used the floor buffer to polish the floors and the gym, so that they were shiny, and we washed the gym walls. It was an eight-hour job and our work looked really good when we were done. I felt a little better about things after that Another thing I did for Restorative Justice was to participate in a circle, which means we all sat down and talked about what we did and why we did it. The circle included not only those of us who vandalized the school, but also some of the people who were affected by my actions: janitors who had to clean up after us; faculty, and students who had an important test scheduled, that they had prepared for all year, and couldn’t make it up because the school was closed for cleanup. I hadn’t really thought til then how my actions affected so many other people. I wasn’t even angry with those people; I had nothing against them and I had not meant to hurt them. I came to realize that my actions in general affect a lot more people than just me. Sincerely, Jon Betancourt |