Archive for the ‘The Oregon Trail’ tag
Morning Star: “Buck” Rogers and The Oregon Trail
The attorneys for Kenny Putnam would like the jury to think that Morning Star did not do enough to help Kenny Putnam in school. Mr. Putnam testified that he had a tutor by the name of Buck Rogers. He laughed when he said the name as if to say Buck was a joke. He said that Mr. Rogers did not do very much to help him, if anything, and as best he could remember, all Mr. Rogers did was to let him play a computer game called The Oregon Trail.
He has been a teacher for many years. He also worked in Ashland, Oregon with the Shakespeare organization in that city. In the 80s, he came back to Spokane and Gonzaga University to get his PhD.
He became a tutor in District 81. This work took him to Morning Star Boys Ranch where he took over the tutorial educational responsibilities at the ranch.
He has vivid memories of Kenny Putnam. He detailed all of the efforts that he and other staff at the ranch engaged in to help Kenny. It was difficult to help Kenny because he had such difficulty remaining in control. He spoke of efforts to work with Bob Waite (sp) at Sacajawea Junior High School where they had a special program for boys with difficulties like those Kenny was suffering from. He spoke of how difficult it was for Kenny to adjust to a school environment and how frustrating it was trying to come up with ways to help him.
He spoke at length about how distraught Kenney would be after he spent weekend visitations at the home of his mother and his aunt. He said that when Kenny came back from a home visit, he would be “pretty wound up.”
His testimony about the sadness, rejection, and anger Kenny felt, displayed after visits with his mother is repeated in the testimony of other witnesses. The distinct impression one has is that Kenny was living an ongoing deep pain at having been so brutally rejected by his mother and father when he was just a baby, a little boy, and that he deeply wanted to experience love from his mother.
As far as the computer game is concerned, The Oregon Trail, Mr. Rogers said the game, even though an educational game, was a “popsicle” for the boys he tutored, for Kenny. After boys completed their school work for the afternoon, they would be allowed to use the computers and to play The Oregon Trail computer game.
Buck Rogers was certainly not the person Kenny Putnam attempted to describe in his testimony. He was a man, who at the time, did everything he was hired and trained to do for Kenny and yet he did more. It was obvious that he cared for Kenny and tried, along with others, to find ways to help Kenny grow and adjust to himself.
Buck Rogers radiated a goodness, an essential goodness. As I listened to his testimony yesterday, and as I reread my notes of his testimony and reflected, it seemed to me (it seems to me) the plaintiff and his attorneys (or is it the attorneys and their plaintiff client) are attempting to paint a picture of general evil at Morning Star Boys Ranch. A picture that all of the people at Morning Star Boys Ranch shared a dark secret of an evil and neglectful spirit. It seems as if they are trying to say that there is some sort of authority out there and that the authority is not good.
From the testimony of the witnesses for the defense, from the obvious personal characteristics the witnesses emanated from their beings, the picture emerges of a people all working together in goodwill to do what they could do as human beings to help the boys who came to Morning Star Boys Ranch – To help the boys become better human beings. The picture is of people who, to a man or woman, were dedicated to helping others.