Page 104

By Jack Joseph Smith

105 It is for certain that there was a crippled kid involved, Now, we know at Saint Bernards, that the court dosen't have the means at its disposdal to place all these children in the proper inviothents It's a shame that a deformed child has to be sent to a reform school, because there is no one else who will take him’ We understand this, dea @ sympathize with the position of the courts But of course, we have our own, that we must also protect, Now according to this, Johnson, Frost spoke out against the two trustees up on the third floor hall, because they were forcing this crippled child back into the swabbing lines Evidently the crippled child was in great pain and close to epilepsys Johnson informed me that he and Frost had helped the crippled child during a previous seizures; Actualty your hompor, the fight took place in the later hours, It seems that the boys:have strict orders from the guards to change their shirts after work, Frost was approaching the dressing room located in the basement, when bh the two trdstecs he had spoke against and another blocked his way of enterances He had no choices It was facing the guards or confronting thems Don't you seey your honyor, he had no choices He had to fight all three of them your honjor, when!the average age difference between Frost and the trustees is three yearss By the time Johnson had come to his rescue, I understand the whole scene had become quite bloody, We understand that the court only makes decisions about the immediate direction of the wayward youths it is doing its best to helps But this could be a blemish, even though we know, the court is not directly responsible’. for such irresponsibility, Well Father, what do you expect me to do at this point? His parents would like the court to mow that it their intention to send Michael to Valley Forge “ilitary Schools this, certainly, under the circumstances, would

Original Scan

Page 104

AI Interpretation

GPT

The Jesuit argues that Michael stepped in for a crippled boy being abused, then reconstructs the fight as a forced confrontation with older trustees rather than reckless aggression.

What matters is the insistence that Michael had no real choice, first when the crippled boy was being pushed back into pain and later when the trustees blocked the basement entrance. The defense does not deny blood or violence; it relocates responsibility upward, toward a system that placed boys in that situation.


Claude

The crippled-child version of the swabbing-line fight is recounted through Johnson the negro boy, and the aide positions a Valley Forge Military School commitment as the face-saving alternative to an eighteen-month sentence.