the significance from an educational standpoint of a connection between the student and the teacher?”
“Almost all the research says the exact same thing on that,” Aaron replies. “That when a student feels connected to the school their graduation rate is phenomenally higher, and that those that don’t feel connected are at a much higher risk of dropping out.”
Maggie becomes one of these pilot kids. And after the strategy is implemented, it apparently works, because Maggie begins to contact him a lot throughout the month of January, not just after class but via phone calls and text messages. As desired, she becomes awfully connected.
Aaron says, “I did not tell her it was okay, but I did not tell her it was not okay either.”
Hoy asks why would he do that? Text with a student, as much as he did, and talk to her on the phone, for so many hours, many of them on the later side of normal.
Aaron had the best intentions. He really wanted to help her.
Playing devil’s advocate, Hoy says, “Okay, but what about these calls?”
Aaron describes how Maggie Wilken grew needy. It was not his wish to be on the phone with her but he thought she might spiral out of control. She was a tornado. He hoped to slow her descent.
Hoy asks about what they discussed for all those hours. How much was talking her down and how much was, What is your favorite color?
Aaron says he doesn’t remember the content of most of them, just one of them. The one on the early morning of March 8, just after midnight. It was the night of his surprise party at the Spitfire Bar & Grill. He couldn’t remember if she had called him or if she had texted him, and then he had called her back. But the content involved her parents, their drinking and driving.
Hoy asks about the eight calls that lasted longer than an hour, three of which lasted longer than two hours, two of which were in the direction of Aaron to Maggie. One call was 240 minutes. Aaron says that was when she had an emergency. He says he doesn’t want to use the word emergency, but basically it was a big explosive issue, likely having to do with her parents and their alcohol use, and she needed him to talk her through it.
One time, Aaron says, there was a big blowout with her father, and she said she wanted to leave home. This was the time she caught her brother and her father smoking marijuana together. She smelled it on them.
“What were you trying to do during these calls?”
“I—I don’t think I had a—it’s pretty delicate how you handle anything like this. I didn’t like to tell her this is—here’s what you need to do. You need to go do this. I did sometimes express options to her. I believe when I was talking about her brother and her dad smoking marijuana, one of the options that my wife told me, just tell her to call the cops. So I talked to her about that option. She was not interested in that option, but we—and I—I mostly listened. I was trying to make sure that she was safe, and she always seemed to indicate that she wasn’t concerned for her safety necessarily. But I mostly listened.”
In sum, Maggie had problems big enough that she needed tons of attention, hours of time on the phone with her teacher and not her best friend.
He describes how this had an impact on his family. All those calls. He was present, of course. He was the same great dad and husband, but he admits he was not as attentive as he should have been in the home. Toward the end of February he began to feel overwhelmed. He wanted to lessen the contact without dropping the girl cold. He started to say things like, Maybe we can talk about this at a different time. If it’s not an emergency, you know? He ignored a text or a call, here and there, to give her a hint. He cared, but he was not going to be a father to her. Or anything else.
Also, there is another thing.
Byers objects, as Aaron is about to generate some hearsay, but then Hoy asks the question in a different way: “Did you at some point get an inkling that Maggie Wilken may be viewing this relationship by phone differently than you were?”
“Yes,” says Aaron.
He explains how Mr. Murphy came to