A Fighting Stand

The intent of A fighting Stand is to offer an effective response to the rash of violence in our classrooms. Columbine High-which left a shocked nation dumbfounded-is the most notorious case of a school day turned into horror. Author, Richard James DeSocio, believes that we must take a greater interest in the lives of our children. The story focuses on a troubled youth, and his relationship with the most important adults in his life, his parents. The central roles of this story are shared by a high school student named Chad, and his recently-divorced mother, Carol.

She is a college-educated woman who learns that life isn't the way she dreamt it to be and must reconcile her traditional values with the ways of our new society. Disillusioned with marriage, her decision to divorce was a hard one, especially, having come from a close-knit family where her parents tied a 50-year knot. When her ex-husband was transferred to Texas, she was given the task of raising a son alone.

Her son was a lanky boy who preferred reading classic fiction to physical activities such as team sports. He often lapsed into an imaginary world of storybook characters. At school, he became the target of a bully named Artie Meyers, and his gang. Artie believed he owned a girl named Cheryl who had a crush on Chad. Outraged after being humiliated by a beating in plain sight of his schoolmates, Chad stole his mother's diamond in order to buy a gun to shoot Artie in front of the student body.

Friends of Chad, including Cheryl, recognized he was headed for disaster and intervened on his behalf. Direction also came from YMCA martial art's instructor who took a special interest in Chad after his mother went beseeching for help. George Merritt showed how karate could build self-confidence, as well as muscle. He encouraged his student to challenge Artie to a professional-style boxing match as a way to find respect for himself and earn respect from his adversaries. The outcome is something akin to Karate Kid with a triumphant Rocky ending.