Bad Poetry: Ballad of an Unjust Judge

This song, which I wrote many years ago, needs some explaining...I grew up in the bad old days before school choice became the law. Almost all children were required to attend public schools, most of which were bad schools and some of which were physically dangerous places. 

After David Peters had survived a year of abuse, including physical abuse, by an increasingly incompetent tenured teacher, his parents felt that his situation was bad enough to justify desperate measures. They had been thinking about moving to various remote places where the family's prospects weren't good, when they connected with Paul Lindstrom, who was operating a correspondence school program out of his church in Prospect Heights, Illinois. (To be fair, Lindstrom had hired real teachers who were in the process of building a worthwhile curriculum for homeschoolers, but they hadn't built one yet.) Lindstrom falsely claimed that the employment of certified teachers made his program legal for homeschooling in all States. It's important to note that, if they had not trusted the word of a Christian minister on this point, they would not have started homeschooling that year. And on this point Paul Lindstrom's word was an outright lie. He said his course was legal "in all fifty States." In fact it was neither legal nor up to standards even in Illinois. 

While Bonnie and George Peters avoided publicity as long as they could, a family in a similar situation in Martinsville publicized their use of Lindstrom's correspondence course in homeschooling in 1980. In 1981, the two families were summoned to court to face challenges to their fitness to homeschool their children. It is possible that other families, also homeschooling, were not prosecuted because these two families were particularly good examples of how well homeschooling could work. David Peters was a particularly bright, articulate, and charismatic teenager; middle school teachers had noted that, when video recording technology was made available at school, he showed real talent for public speaking and had a telegenic face. His homeschooling and tutoring activity was also a good example of homeschool students' social life. 

Though the homeschooling families were being prosecuted by the state bureaucracy, Virginia's legislature was in fact working to change the school attendance laws. Homeschooling was legalized in Virginia during the 1982 legislative session.

Meanwhile, in December 1981, Scott County had a rogue judge who was unsympathetic to homeschooling, and David was released on probation for truancy, barred from simply going back to public school, and sentenced to an indefinite term in reform school at the sole discretion of a court-appointed tutor. His parents were also put on probation for prison terms. Concern that a nice little lady like (not yet "Grandma") Bonnie Peters would be sent to prison ran high enough that, between Holy Innocents Day and the reopening of the schools in January, supporters had arranged for David and his mother to take an underground tour of the Deep South--of non-contiguous States that had no extradition agreements with Virginia. George Peters remained in Virginia to face the physical danger of proceeding with the case. Upon filing an appeal he was assured that Judge Richard Smith's order for his arrest would not be carried out. 

A few weeks later Judge Smith resigned from his position. His official reason was recorded as "back trouble." Much speculation and chortling went on about who might have exacted physical revenge for an unjustifiably harsh sentence, though for all anyone knew his back pain might have been caused by an accident, or a sagging mattress. Or stimulant drugs; Prozac wasn't available in 1982, but cocaine was.

David Peters died by accident in June 1982 and was buried in Mississippi. All charges were dropped, the family's names were cleared, and in 1984 the Peters family opened the Gate City Christian School in a local church's basement. (Throughout the case, an extended family dispute had been noticeable; the principal at the public school was also a Peters.) 

I was a teenager. I was a singer. I'd studied the history of satirical broadside ballads about public events. (They were regarded as comedy, not history; they anonymized people and blurred stories.) So I wrote one:

There was a Judge called Richard who dwelt in a certain town.

They called him Judge, but judgment with him was never found.

He smiled upon the liars and he sent away the thieves,

Having filled the jails with honest men who should have been sent home free.

One morning this Judge Richard was opening up his Bar,

And there he saw three young men who before him did appear,

And by the labels in their coats he knew what he'd decide,

But, for the sake of appearances, he ordered they be tried.

"I am a little schoolboy," the first young man did say,

"Though I've not seen a schoolroom in full many a lengthy day.

I stole a child's bicycle and broke into a store.

That's all; I have not had the time to have done any more."

"Go back to school," said Richard the Judge, "and free you'll surely be."

This youth went out and kicked a child whose age was only three,

Stomped into school, cursed teacher well, and stomped back out again

While Richard the Judge was questioning the next of the three young men.

He said, "Last Saturday night, down in the village with my peers,

I suffered a misfortune known as one too many beers.

I quarrelled with my brother, shoved him through the windowpane,

And ran a farm truck off the road, in the cold and dark and rain."

"You'll have to pay the glazier's bill," so Richard the Judge decreed,

"And pay some money to me, for I helped you in your need.

As for the truck, who cares?" he said. "Go; see my face no more,"

And he slapped the rascal on the back while showing him the door.

"No criminal I," the third youth said, "nor am I any fool.

The only reason I am here is that I don't go to school.

I read the Bible, and I write as good a hand as your own,

As my old father teaches me, in our cabin all alone."

"Your cabin is too draughty for to do your lessons in!

Though you live there, to read a book there is a fearful sin!

Your father to the jail, and you likewise, will surely go,

Unless you are in school each day, beginning this day morrow!"

The youth went to his cabin, then, and opened up the Book,

And never a word saying to obey Judge Richard from it took,

But only read, "An unjust judge is worse than a common liar,

And they shall surely have a place in a lake that burns with fire."

Then his old father took the Bible, and therein he read,

"Give due respect unto the law; let no one shame his head."

But different lands have different laws, and each may find his own.

So the son and father packed their bags, and next day they were gone.

When Richard the Judge heard word of this, he ranted and did cry,

For since he was a child, no one dared ever him defy.

He railed and pounded on the bench, and hammered with his hand,

And shouted, "Find these two men, for in prison they must stand."

Now come all you good people who just live and let folks live,

And mark the judgment on this judge the hand of God did give;

For when he pounded on the bench and hammered with his hand,

Judge Richard felt a beating on his back he could not stand.

Then slowly, slowly he went home, and all the people looked

And saw that in his body, as in spirit, he was crooked.

And he went to a far country where none might ever find him,

And great was the rejoicing his dishonor left behind him.