The Color of Hatred

The Color of Hatred

Sam Malliston worked as a janitor at East Center High School, in Jennavue, Kentucky. He loved to work there because the job paid the rent and bills, it was a service to society, and it also made him realize that life is a lot uglier than people say it is. Sam Malliston was amazed by the students’ ability in East Center High to be so unwelcoming, mean, and flat out monsters to each other. He thought by the end of his fifteen year old tenure as janitor at the school, he’d had seen it all. Bullying, fighting, swearing, and rudeness were a large part of this school for low and middle income kids. The kids at the school were extremely mean and fought a lot. Sam thought that he had seen it all being part of this god forsaken school, but something happened one day which really made him question everything he knew.

One day, when coming to work, Sam Malliston was cleaning the bathrooms and floors of the second floor of East Center High School. The school had three floors and was filled to the brim with germs, bullies, and idiots who roamed the school during the day. As Sam finished cleaning the bathroom stalls, he exited the men’s bathroom and saw a fight, again. The fight was between two people, a short kid with glasses and tousled brown hair and a tall kid with no glasses. They were fighting until the tall kid punched the short kid in the face and sent the short kid to the emergency room where he was in the E.R. for forty minutes.

The tousled hair kid was in the E.R. with doctors surrounding the unconscious child who lay on the operating table, eyes closed and body limp. He was quite sick and may not make it, but his doctors tell the other doctors in the room that he has a chance. The punch to his face made him very sick and hurt, but there was hope. After an hour of medicine, anesthesia, and praying, there were no more signs of life and the kid withered away. It was stunning and extremely sad that the kid was dead, but something to be expected of when you’re part of a crappy school like East Center High. The school was terrible in academics, did poorly on safety measure tests, and was lackadaisical in its ability to fund itself and generate revenue. East Center High was a sodden school, with teacher problems, student problems, and a nonchalant principal who wasn’t interested in anyone’s welfare but his own. The school was problematic for many reasons, but carelessness and selfishness were the two top problems for the school’s extremely mediocre and disappointing performance. 

The name of the student, Jackson Brown, had been killed in a fight on the second floor of East Center High and had two parents who were grieving over their loss. They couldn’t believe that their only child, fifteen at the time of the fight, and completely innocent at the time of the fight, had died in such a brutal, unforgiving, and disheartening way. Jackson was studious, humble, loving, and above all else, honest. He was very kind to other people and found others to be interesting, equal to him, and varied in qualities. Jackson Brown was extremely forgiving, understanding, and a meek person, qualities his parents had instilled in him from childhood so that others could be like him, too. Jackson was a smart, angelic, and friendly soul, and his parents missed him every day.

His bully and fighter, Austin Delazot, was tall, popular and very handsome according to his peers. Austin Delazot was an extremely mean, dastardly, and horrible example of a student to others. Austin was very vile when it came to dealing with people, and would suck up to people in power and try to crush those who were lower than him. He bullied anyone shorter than him and uplifted those who were more popular than him. His prime job in his school was to instill fear and hate in other’s lives so that they wouldn’t be able to talk back to him if things got really messy for him and them. His job was to create a situation where they couldn’t fight back no matter what he did to them. Austin Delazot was a very scary, mean, and intimidating person. His parents’ powerful position at East Center City Council made dealing with him kind of pointless. His parents were extremely rich, boastful, and arrogant beyond belief, and put these qualities into Austin who became like his parents. He was known for his looks, his charisma, and his popularity, but nothing could replace the soul that was Jackson Brown and his endearing kindness. 

The students didn’t realize how much they loved and “needed” Jackson until they learned of his death. There was no more Jackson, which meant no more random hello's or offers to help with homework or even a simple act of kindness like lending a pencil. The school’s kindest student was killed in a fight. There was no more Jackson Brown. The school decided to hold a vigil for him, in Jennavue’s City Center, a one hundred square yard area of stone for city gatherings. The school said a prayer or two and ended the vigil with a minute of quiet. The school was saddened by Jackson’s kindness, empathy, and beautiful heart which made him so well-liked by his peers. The students at his high school lost the kindness that lit up their dark world. It was now up to them whether or not they could change themselves and their attitude, too.

After four years, the school made great strides in bullying, social inequality, and academic performance. Fewer students engaged in pointless bullying, students also learned to view each other as equals, and students started to value education more. It took a while, but the school became much safer, better, and kinder. Jackson Brown's death wasn't in vain, after all.