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My name is Glenda Hall. I'm the grandmother of Dwayne
"DJ" Batiste. My name's DJ Batiste
and I was born in Lacombe, Louisiana.
I was raised by my grandmother. I was born to a 14 year old mom and a 16 year old dad so,
they were young. They really weren't able to make too many decisions.
First he started doing little selfish things, you know,
didn't want to share. I was very defiant,
though. I loved getting in trouble because getting in trouble got
you attention. I was the type of student where I loved attention so
I did whatever it took to get attention. He started growing up and
going to Head Start. They would call me,
at work, "You know, DJ is
acting out." And I would punish like taking things away.
I have even spanked a little bit, you know,
I didn't know. I was trying to make things work and
it kept getting worse, you know, and I didn't have a clue
of how to handle this child. You know, I was like Lord,
what have I done? I got kicked out of preschool. I can remember
my grandma coming to get me, and she asked me,
"Boy, how you get kicked out of preschool?"
Teachers calling, "DJ's doing this, DJ's doing that"
and I was like, "DJ, why are you doing these little conniving things?
Why are you doing this?" He was like, "I don't know."
He still would start getting in trouble. He would go to school.
He would do no homework.
Although my son would make him do his homework, he wouldn't turn it in.
He would just sit there and do
nothing, or act out, or be a clown.
But little did I know then that was a start of a road of destruction.
Although, he act out
and do a lot of wrong things, but I know in his heart
that he loved me, and he didn't want to do all these wrong
things.
On the day of graduation, let me tell you, I was so glad
to hear that my grandson was graduating. I called everybody in the neighborhood.
DJ is graduating. I feel like the experiences that I went through in my life
was meant to happen so I can come back and help kids,
help teachers understand. I know I can help kids
along with teachers, so anything that's dealing with Conscious Discipline,
I'm all for. When he went up to receive that diploma, baby,
I cried, I cried
and still I feel like I'm in this dream, you know,
I was like, Lord, it is so good.