Evidence 3

I created a case study on Malcom and his fighting habits. Reading up on Malcom before he got here at Ocean Tides, he was a child that would not get to class and stay in trouble. I experience personally his fighting habits when I got there. I was able to hold conversations with him throughout times to build a relationship with him. Throughout the process I learn that children are not always looking to start trouble. There are always more things to it. It can be deeper then what we see on the outside.

 

Anonymous Case Study

Malcolm: fighting and violence

Before I got to Ocean Tides the staff warned me about Malcolm’s behavior. Malcolm is 14 years old and is at Ocean Tides for possession of a firearm. He has been in the school for six months already. He was the wildest student in the school. He is an attention seeker and likes to start problems. He likes to find fights and argue. He is a nice and respectful student but he is easily triggered. He has bad communication skills so if there is an argument going on he immediately begins yelling and arguing.

Before juvenile detention, Malcolm was a truant. He barely went to school and was outside hanging with bad influencers. He stayed in trouble with the law consistently and finally was incarcerated for his firearm possession. While he was incarcerated, he started many yard fights and riots with other inmates. His history of violence in all three places made him the perfect candidate for Ocean Tides and working with me to manage his anger.

Before I get to Ocean Tides, they have class during the day. During the class, he started to act up and poor behavior towards his teachers and other students. In the afternoon he would disobey staff and argue with his fellow classmates. He often chose students who would engage in outgoing behavior. He often picked on younger students and was a bit of a bully. He loved to put students off task.

I took Malcolm under my wing to build a relationship with him and hopefully mentor him to act differently.

When I first met Malcolm I introduced myself to him and joked around with him. I would ask him some questions like where he was from and trying to know him on a personal level. This built trust between him and me. I then start opening up to him about my life and my background. This allowed me into his world more when I opened up to him. I met him halfway.

Midway through my time at the internship, I started to notice his triggers about why he would get angry. He often started yelling about losing and people not having the same opinion as him. One time during a basketball game, his team was down points and he started to get in his teammates faces. I took him aside and gave him some basketball pointers but also told him to teach his teammates instead of yelling. I told him he needed to understand not all games are wins and loses but building together. The next game he didn’t automatically yell until later in the game. He first told his teammates what to do. This was a step in the right direction.

I often spoke to him about the best ways to get his point across when disagreeing with his friends. I spoke to him about saying why his position on an argument about who is a better player, Lebron or Durant, is based on statisitics and how yelling louder is not making him win.

I am going to continue to work with him the rest of my time at the internship and develop his coping strategies with his anger during play time and eating. This is about ongoing management.