I Lost A Prefect

This happened for a few months already but I just knew the full detail yesterday afternoon...

I have a group of 55 prefect students under me in school. The number of boy prefects are significantly less than the girls. (Add your sexist commentary here). I found out that girls are more proactive and the boys are lazier. Still, they all needed to be prodded with a hot glowing stick (read a lot of yelling) to have the job done.

Anyway, I did lost a boy. He is 14 and from the last class of his batch. I chose him not because of his intellect, but his ability to follow order. (Come to think of it, 'following MY order' is the very tenet to be in my crew. I run my outfit like the mafia). He was likable enough, sometimes spouting unnecessary commentary when nobody is asking, but rarely rude. To tall for his age and not really good looking to stop the flow of traffic.

He lived with his uncle and aunt, as his own parents are serving time in jail for some unknown crime (unknown because I don't make it a crusade to ask too much to fill my pretty head). The relatives sent him to stay at the hostel in school, and they admitted to me that the boy was a handful much earlier because of the state of his family; too much freedom and less supervision = the making of a monster. Fortunately for the boy and his guardians, we are able to curb any negative vibes from him, and he stays and study with the rest of the students quite normally.

Until a couple of months ago....  

During a weekend where the students were able to go back to their respective homes, his mother showed up at his uncle's house. She expressed the desire to meet her long lost son, and maybe take him out for dinner for awhile. The boy's uncle and aunt were hesitant at first, yet they obliged when the woman pleaded and promised to return the boy back after the meal. The boy left with his mother and that was the last time his uncle and aunt saw him.

His uncle told me that the mother took the boy to meet his father and then the entire family traveled quickly to an undisclosed address in the capital city, a couple of hundred km away. Yes, the convict parents kidnapped their own son from his legal guardians. And one of the atrocities his parents did earlier was SELLING their own children. (Adoption is rather normal everywhere in the country, and most of these adoptions are unofficial, without legal document exchange and is all about trust. But selling children @ human trafficking is another ball in the park. heck, It belongs in another stadium, preferably in prison). The boy initially had another 3 younger brothers. Now he is the only one left.

The school was free from any legal fuss because the abduction(?) happened when the boy was under his guardians' care. But I lost a man (boy) and I asked the vice principal of students affair what we can do. He said we cannot do anything as this is a custody battle, where the school has no say.

The boy hasn't attend a school yet (I expected him not attend at anytime anywhere in the future, having irresponsible parents like that). And he was happy. He told his friends via phone text messages about that state of being. I told his friends that I send my 'good luck to you' wish, sarcastic like and hope he would not end up like his fabulous parents.

I need to find a replacement... and this week alone 18 students lined up to be my new prefects.

Life goes on.