Warriors of Mercy

Quillona Forte (left in picture) and Rochelle DePriest (right) have changed lives at DeLaSalle.

Q (as she is known to the students and staff) has been a counselor at DeLaSalle for twenty years; Rochelle has been a counselor at our Hilltop and Kobets' (high school) site for nine years, and she is a founding counselor of our recent mental health team, the Team of Care.

Q and Rochelle are both deeply passionate about improving the lives of our students.

And, I might add, they took a big gamble on one of those lives today. I believe that their belief and hope for that former student will pay off in a possibly mysterious way.

Let me explain. I think you will understand.

A young man with an explosive anger began attending DeLaSalle two years ago. He was born and grew up in Haiti, and then moved with his family to New York City. His family decided to relocate in Kansas City five years ago, and sent him ahead to live with his grandmother. He was kicked out of several schools for his outbursts, and ended up at DeLaSalle.

He did terribly at first. He fell in with a rough crowd. Apparently, he was involved in a violent act with an accomplice. As far as we can tell, the accomplice did most of the violence, if not all of it. But our former student was involved in the terrible incident, and maybe did more than that. We do not know for certain.

But Rochelle and Q reported to me today that it was only after this incident more than a year ago that he began to change his behavior at school. Gradually, he became responsible and more mature. His outbursts decreased.

Then he was arrested for armed criminal assault. He spent 9 months in jail. His court hearing was today, and Rochelle and Q were there. They said he had "thrown himself on the mercy of the judge". He did not ask for, or work out, "a plea". He told the judge that he deserved whatever sentence he received. He hoped for mercy, but had no assurance he would get it.

He faced at least 15 years in prison, maybe more. But before the judge sentenced him, she asked Rochelle and Q why they were there at this sentencing.

Q said she had worked with this young man at DeLaSalle and that he had changed. She had corresponded with him weekly over the nine months he had been incarcerated. She said that she believed he was a different person now, and that she believed he would not ever do anything again like he had already done. She said that he was in the process of being truly rehabilitated.

Rochelle said that she would be willing to work with the former student after he was released from prison. Neither of these staff suggested that additional time in prison was still not necessary for justice to be served. A person had been hurt and property had been taken in a violent fashion. Neither they, nor DeLaSalle, would ever disregard the need for justice to be served.

The judge deliberated, and then told the court that she was willing to take a chance on the young man. Instead of fifteen years in prison, he would have three, she said. What he had done, she said, was wrong and required justice. But mercy was also a factor, she observed, and she was willing to exercise it, she emphasized, because of DeLaSalle.

She said that she knew the work of DeLaSalle, and was impressed that two veteran counselors had taken the time to continue working with this individual while he was in jail. She said the promised involvement of DeLaSalle was "better for the community" than having this young man spend fifteen years in prison, and come out a possibly hardened criminal.

Rochelle and Q are true "Warriors of Mercy". Mercy is often unexpected and undeserved. As Portia in The Merchant of Venice noted:

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown..."