Fatherlove - Keeping Fathers Connected

2001 Father of the Year Essay Contest
DOMINIQUE JETTON
SECOND PLACE WINNER
FIFTH GRADE
School: Rainier View Elementary
City: Seattle

My quest is going through a struggle. I never really knew my father and the reason why I did not know him that much is before I was born he did drugs. So one day he went to the drug house and the police broke in and he went to jail because he had drugs on him. He stayed in there for five years. When he got out I thought he was one of those good fathers. You know the ones that spend time with you and talk to you when you just don’t feel right. I hate to say it but I was wrong. All he did was sit around and beat on my mom and take her money. One night he came in not feeling good, but guess what this when my sister Chantel comes in. She was still in my mom’s stomach. This is where I call the police. Mom was going to tell him the good news then it happened.

He hit her in the stomach when my sister was still in there. So I called 911. He stayed in jail for five years. Before he got ouit I had to struggle with not having a father. There was no one to buy the food. I had to become a thug and sell drugs and steal from Safeway to keep food in the house so we would not be starving. When he got out my little sister was four.

This time he just took my mom’s money, not beat on her. But he tried to beat on my sister, so I tried to kill him. He got hurt but did not die. He came back from the hospital and I thought he had changed, but he didn’t. He just kept on being himself. He still took my mom’s money no matter what, but did not beat her. He used to tell me (that) being a woman beater was the worst thing you could do, but that’s what he was.

He said I would never pass the third grade. He always tried to make me feel dumb. He never talked to me when I felt bad. He just said "Get over it."

My mom told me she loved him. But I said why would you love a man that beats you? You had to put him in jail twice. She said it was my fault. I said he was beating on you because he couldn’t beat up on a man and men were punking him.

The third time I called the police on him they asked me if I wanted to push charges. I said yes. This was his third strike. He was in there for life.

And that’s my quest.