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In the sultry heat of Louisiana, where the bayous whisper
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secrets and the air hangs heavy with the scent of magnolias,
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a darkness lurked beneath the surface. Dereck Todd Lee was
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a man whose charm masked a sinister reality. He was
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a monster. Lee, a seemingly ordinary man with a disarming smile,
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led a double life that would unravel in a series
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of murders in the capital city of Baton Rouge and
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the surrounding areas. As the first reports of disappearances and
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murders began to surface, South Louisiana was thrust into a nightmare,
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igniting a frantic search for answers. The true horror was
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just beginning, and the hunt for a serial killer eventually
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known by just three letters, would reveal not only the
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depths of Dereck Todd Lee's depravity, but also the resilience
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of those most affected by his evil acts, the families
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and the survivors. This is DTL. There's something about serial
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killers that really gets people interested. And maybe it's a
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mix of fear and the fact that the targets of
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these killers always seem so unaware that they're going to
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be the ones preyed upon. I'm not sure exactly what
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it is, but it gets our attention. I really dove
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into my own thoughts on the bat U serial killings
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of Derek Todd Lee, and I thought that I would
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give you an LSU female freshman's perspective during that time,
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because I was that freshman. It was two thousand and
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two and we had really entered the new world of
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post nine to eleven. Terrorism was something that we now
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were all so painfully aware of, and people around the
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US were stunned at the level of violence that had
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been recently inflicted upon New York, which really AKA was
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all of us. The terrorists had an agenda, and their
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hatred for Americans was obvious. Now. I was a senior
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in high school when those towers were slammed by those planes,
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and I will never forget that feeling of helplessness. I
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didn't know what was happening, I didn't understand why it
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was happening, and I didn't know what to do, and
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really it was like, was there something even for me
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to do? I remember running out of b building of
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the high school. I ran down to my silver Honda
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Civic and I then remember jumping in and punching every
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preset radio station on my dash, but no matter what
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I pressed, I heard President Bush saying we are under attack,
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and I genuinely did not know if bombs were going
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to start dropping from the sky. I was so scared.
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And I bring this up because that was my first
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real taste of terror. What it felt like to be
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right there in the middle of minding my own business
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and then to suddenly have violence and death just catapulted
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upon me was something that my seventeen year old brain
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was having a really hard time understanding. And even though
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I was thousands of miles away from the towers that day,
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I felt the pain and I felt the fear. I
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promise you I watched people jump to their deaths from
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those buildings, and it wasn't lost upon me what I
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was seeing. It was simply unimaginable, and all I could
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really do was fall back and helplessly just ask why
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what did these people ever do to deserve this? Well,
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some months would pass and then I, as well as
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everyone in the Baton Rouge surrounding area, would be faced
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with a more up close and personal form of terror.
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Women were now going missing and ultimately they were being
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found dead women like me. A majority of them were
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white women. They were good women, hard working and intelligent.
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Every day you wondered if this attacker would strike again,
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and if it would POSSI be me that was the target. Well,
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I graduated high school in May of two thousand and two,
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and this would really begin my college experience, and it
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would start on the amazing campus of LSU, which is
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exactly where this story is going to begin. LSU is
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the heart of Baton Rouge and it's just known for
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its Southern charm. Mike the Tiger roams his large enclosure
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with this personal waterfall and the sounds of students flying
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by on their bikes and chatting it up as they
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walk to class. That's the norm. That's what you hear
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on the daily. But even Mike, the Big Mike the
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Tiger knows that beauty and safety they don't always go
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hand in hand. The beauty and the charm of campus
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may lull people into a sense of security as you
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walk around the grounds of higher education. But even Mike,
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he's even had his own brush with rime. If you
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didn't know this, Mike was once kidnapped from campus by
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some students. Now that's a whole nother story that I
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won't get into, but legend has it that he was
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towed around by these students in a trailer while the
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students went bar hopping. So to think an apex predator
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was out on the loose and chilling in a trailer
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is scary. And then you add drunk college kids as
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his handlers, and that should have been just an epic
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recipe for disaster. But luckily it ended well. Mike the
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tiger was recovered and returned back to his enclosure. But
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the campus in two thousand and two, y'all, that's well.
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After that time, the massive, stately oak trees that fill
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campus are seen everywhere, and the chirps of birds searching
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for an easy meal that's a constant. While there are
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now gates that will stop you from freely driving through
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the heart of campus, in two thousand and two, you
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could drive anywhere. Saturday Nights and Death Valley were experiences
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that we all lived for, and we shouted calling Baton
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Rouge from the tops of our lungs while we watched
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our fighting tigers. Sure we may have ended that season
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eight and five, but that's okay. Because we still felt
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like we were a force to be reckoned with, and
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we proudly chanted the letters of our universe. But the
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reality was that behind all of those daily walks to
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classes on the hot, muggy mornings, and the smiles and
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the cheering for our tigers on Saturday nights, there was
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hunting happening all around us. A person yet unknown was
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watching and listening and fixating on a woman of choice,
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a woman that he would attack, dominate physically, and then
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ultimately kill, all for the excitement of it. For now,
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no the headlines were consumed with Kmart becoming the largest
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retailer in American history to file for bankruptcy. Elizabeth Smart
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she had been kidnapped from her family's Salt Lake City home,
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and whether she was alive or not, that kept us
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all on the edge of our seats nationwide. But now
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a new sort of headline would take over the news
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and in total, thirty six women would be murdered. Now,
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what was even scarier about this It was determined that
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not one, not two, but three serial killers were loose
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and batue all at one time. Everyone was a target,
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but no one knew who would be next. So for
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the sake of storytelling, I'm going to tell you that
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two of those serial killers were caught, Sean Vincent Gillis
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and Jeffrey Gilliery. But this series is going to focus
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on Derreck Toddley. So let's go back to nineteen sixty eight,
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seemingly a world away from how we live today. Hey Jude,
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by the Beatles. It topped up Billboard Hot one hundred
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for nine consecutive weeks, which tied the record at the time,
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and the morning of November fifth was a cool, breezy
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day in Saint francis Ville, Louisiana, when Florence Lee began
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the labour pains required to bring new life into the world.
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Speaking of the world. As Florence was working through the
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breaths and the sweats and the pushing required during birth,
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the US was also in a rebirth of sorts. Richard
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Nixon was elected the President of the United States, yet
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the Vietnam War was raging on halfway around the world.
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For now, though Florence was fighting her own fight with
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the promise of new life. In the end, Dereck todd
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Lee would eventually make his entrance into the world and
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be placed into his mama's arms, the proud son of
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Samuel Ruth and Florence Lee. What should have been the
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start of a life of promise and greatness would soon
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fizzle with less than an epic thud. Shortly after his birth,
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his father up and left his mom. Now, truth be told,
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they all weren't that broken up over it. Because Derek's dad, Samuel,
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he suffered from mental illness and that would eventually end
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him up in a mental institution. But it's one thing
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to be mentally ill, but it's a whole another ballgame
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when you're dangerous to others as well. And this was
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exactly the case, and this would be proven whenever he
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was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of his
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ex wife Florence, though she moved on and through time
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she would eventually marry him man named Coleman Barrow. Now
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what's funny here is that I obviously can only tell
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you information from reports and from articles. What was interesting
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to me while I was researching this was that there
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are sharp discrepancies out there, and I just found this
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really interesting. I decided, now I'm gonna tell you both
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of them, rather than just pick one. I'm gonna tell
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you both, and I'm gonna let you decide. One account
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describes him as a responsible man that honorably raised Derek
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and his sisters as if they were his own children,
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and that he brought a focus into the home of
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teaching the Bible and that education was paramount in start.
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Contrast to that, another account from a university that put
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together a timeline of Derek's life, they had more of
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a negative light that shined on Derek's stepfather. See, his
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mother was described as domineering and that she had to
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have things her way, and the university account shows that
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she clearly met her match in terms of negative energy
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when she married Derek's stepfather. So in terms of being
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a model for adult behavior, the stepfather really missed the
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mark compared to the general consensus on what child upbringing
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should be. So maybe Bible lessons were taught and education
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was promoted. I wasn't there. But the male figure now
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in Derek's life, according to the university, was hard nosed
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in terms of punishment for misbehavior and beating Derek was
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the typical experience after acting up. No lectures or general
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parenting were on the option list in the household so
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my gut tells me that it's probably a mix of
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both accounts, because people probably are going to always do
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the best that they can do with the tools that
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they have when they're raising children, whatever it may be.
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There is a stark contrast if you look at different stories.
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So from the age of three to roughly thirteen, Derek's
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life was marked with struggle, even though sometimes it was
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self induced. So as you can imagine, the nineteen seventies
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weren't the best times for kids with development challenges in school.
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I do want to take a second to address this
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because I want you to understand I'm not saying this
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as an excuse, but as facts of life at the
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time and the role that this could have played in
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long term outcomes for Derek. So in the nineteen seventies,
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kids with disabilities or mental delays were looked at as
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non contributors to society as far as education was concerned.
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And I don't mean this meanly, I'm being just direct
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and how things likely went at school for him on
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the daily because Derek was labeled as delayed and he
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was placed in special education classes when he started school.
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So back then, life skills were thought of as more
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important than actual academics, like teaching kids with delays how
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to microwave meals and why hygiene matters. Well. There was
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a huge civil rights movement that would begin at this
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time for people with disabilities in terms of educational experience
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and the Idea Act, which is Education for all handicapped children.
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The name Did Change of nineteen seventy five started the
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process of implementing specialized education and plans, but that would
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take years to implement and to quote unquote standardize across
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all students. So Derek, in the meantime was in that
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group of kids segregated from the regular school population. He
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was placed in a minimally stimulating environment and then basically
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stigmatized by other students. So now kids get what are
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called IEPs, individualized education plans, which are meant to give
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them a uniquely modified experience. That this was not the
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case back then. No extra time on tests, no varying
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punishments for varying mental capacities and such. So I'm telling
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you this because Derek's IQ was estimated to be in
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the low seventies. For perspective, While this isn't the medical
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or professional way of explaining this, I'm just gonna, in
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brief explain that an IQ in this sixty to seventy
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range is approximately the scholastic equivalent to the third grade.
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So don't, for a second, though, think that I'm telling
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you he acted like a child in an adult body. No, no, no.
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He was well aware of the difference between right and wrong,
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but complex intelligence in terms of educational thinking was lacking.
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There were aspects of school, though, that he really did enjoy.
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He really enjoyed participating in the school band. He may
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have struggled academically, but he loved music. He had a
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younger sister, and while she may have been younger than him,
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she was advanced academically, which left him feeling outshined for
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lack of a better term, and he was reportedly bullied
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and called quote unquote retarded by classmates while at school.
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So why do I share this, Well, he was miserable
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at home with his mother and his stepfather, and then
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he went to school where he was also miserable. I
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think we can all agree that this is an obvious
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negative for a kid psychologically during a great period of
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growth in their life. So his foundation was basically broken.
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As a former teacher, I was told something one time,
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and I want to share it with you because it