I did inhale.

My foolish friends and I were already in deep water with our eighth grade teacher. She was very religious. In fact, she’d been arrested at an abortion clinic protest. She tolerated rock music even less. I had become a rocker. Ozzy Osbourne, KISS, and my all time favorite Motley Crew. My pals and I spent all recess playing air guitar with music blaring from our boom box. We were the Motley Crew of St. Pat’s. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy.

I guess this was my rebellious age. It may have simply been the fact that I transitioned from the kid no one knew to the kid everyone knew. I was cool. And at that time so wasn’t rock.

But, when KISS released the song “Heaven’s on Fire” it set our teacher on fire. Devil worshippers in her catholic school, not on her watch! She claimed that the song was all about hell. And too prove that KISS were devil worshipping mongers she invited a high priest to speak to the class about rock music and its negative meaning and influences. They even played a record backwards. It sounded like a record being played backwards. I didn’t hear any secret message or devil sound coming from the player, but they tried.

She often made examples of me and my friends. Admittedly, it was a tough sell considering we were doing well in class. I was in advanced classes and heading to a private college prep school upon graduation. So the whole devil title didn’t fit.

She kept a close eye on us relying on her absolute feeling that we were lost kids and that she would prove it. At the slightest misstep we were sent to the principal’s office.

As luck would have it, Mr. Raymond was now the principal. No more valentines’ day cards, but he had a lot of faith in me. He believed I was talented with great potential. He had befriended my parents and cared deeply about all of us. Personally, he didn’t see the harm in our choice of music. He preferred we appreciate other music, but as far as he was concerned we weren’t devil worshippers. He recalled his own youth. We’d spend a few minutes catching up, advise us to try darn hard to stay out of the eighth grade teacher’s hair and then he’d send us back to class.

But, I guess the devil inside me wanted out because somehow, someway, a funny looking cigarette made its way into my life.

Personally, I think the rush in my body and mind had more to do with smoke entering my lungs for the first time and less to do with the contents of the cigarette.

You’d think she’d smoked funny cigarette’s all her life because the minute we crossed her path she knew something was different. Maybe it was just that obvious.

This trip to the principal’s office would be my last. My friends and I had been accused of smoking marijuana. Of course, we denied it. You would have done the same. Yes, yes you would have.

August Rush movie full

My folks were blown away. They couldn’t believe it. All the sacrifices they had made to be here America and their son was being accused of smoking Marijuana. The disappointment and astonishment was devastating to me. They were angry. And I think they didn’t know what to believe or who to believe. In the end, they chose to believe me.

They spoke to Mr. Raymond and expressed their deepest concerns. This teacher had been out to get us and this was simply a new tactic. My sense is that they were probably scared to even address this or stand up for me. They had a lot to lose we were still illegal’s and not one person knew. But, one thing they did know was that they had not traveled thousands of miles so that some teacher could hurt their son in anyway.

It got heated and pretty serious. As it became more serious I became more concerned. I had made a mistake and then it followed with another mistake…I lied to my parents.

The teacher was nuts, no way would I do something like that. She was an angry old lady trying to prove a point about rock music. She had a thing for my friends and me. We were devil worshipers, remember?

Things were getting out of control. My family was furious and they wanted some action taken towards the teacher. It got pretty bad.

I have never spent time in a physical prison, but I imagine that it feels very much like the emotional prison you build for yourself when you lie.  It was horrible. I felt terrible. I was so disappointed and disgusted with myself. I had let my parents down. In many ways I let myself down.

My parents had made the choice to engage an attorney. They would risk it all to protect me from this teacher’s vicious lie. That night, I broke down. In many ways it was huge relief. I cried. I apologized.

Finally, no more emotional prison I was free! In the end it all worked out. The dust settled. We graduated and our teacher retired.

I learned so much from this experience. One big lesson that especially stands out is the following, if you’re going to get busted for smoking marijuana, make sure it’s marijuana, not oregano. My buddy’s older brother thought it would be a hoot to give us oregano.

It was hilarious, not!