From Prison Walls to School Halls: A Father’s Journey to Redemption.

About six or eight months after I got incarcerated on August 27, 2002, the Crown prosecutor offered me a deal for four years, which meant I’d plead to manslaughter instead of going to trial on second-degree murder and risk getting a life sentence. The timing of the offer meant I could be out by 2004, in time to bring my first born daughter Tatiana to her first day of school. This milestone is important to most children, and I wanted to be there.

So, on the day I went to Scarborough Court to plead, the lawyers had to make a joint submission of the statement of facts. When it was read out in court, the whole incident was incorrect, down to the location of the altercation. I spoke up and told the judge a summary of my take on the situation. The judge then told me that by the account I gave him, I had a case for self-defense, and the rest was history.

Due to bad legal advice and my inexperience with the legal system, I missed that first day of school for Tatiana and many others after that. It’s now 2024, on the eve of the new school year. My little four-year-old girl is about to start school, and I’m relishing it. Yes, taking my oldest son, Morocco, and his brother, Masai, to their respective first days of kindergarten was special for all the same reasons. But you see, nor can I deny the extra checkbox of her.

Missed moments marked by steel and stone,

But now, a new chance to see her grown.

From courtroom battles to schoolyard gates,

I honour the past, but this moment awaits.

A child's first day of school is a significant core memory, serving as a pivotal moment in their emotional and cognitive development. This experience is often etched deeply into their memory due to its emotional intensity and novelty. Research in neuroscience shows that emotionally charged events, particularly those involving new and important experiences, activate the amygdala, a brain region responsible for processing emotions, which enhances the consolidation of these memories in the hippocampus. Studies have found that such emotionally significant events are stored as vivid long-term memories, forming the basis for a child's understanding of social dynamics, self-confidence, and independence. For many children, the first day of school represents a major life transition — a shift from the familiar comforts of home to the wider social world, often marked by a mix of excitement, anxiety, and curiosity. These powerful emotional responses make the day a lasting memory that can shape a child’s social behavior and emotional resilience for years to come.