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[My former classmate Jessica McCord has been all over the newspapers
and TV lately. People are still surprised when I tell them I went to
the same high school. Then, they ask what she was like, as though she
was stabbing puppies by her locker or something. --Wade]





Copyright 2003 Birmingham Post Co. http://www.postherald.com

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WADE WEEKLY
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Wade Kwon's weekly column
from the Birmingham Post-Herald,
Birmingham, Alabama

February 19, 2003

Classmate's conviction brings simpler times to mind
By Wade Kwon
Birmingham Post-Herald


Freshman year of high school, you're all in the same boat. New
schedule to remember, new teachers to endure, new worlds to conquer.
I remember 18 years ago she was just like the rest of us: nervous,
cocky, ready for anything.

But when you're a wee freshman, the world still holds hope, it still
nurtures possibilities.

That world is over for my classmate, Jessica McCord, convicted
Saturday of capital murder. She faces life in prison without parole.

We started out together, the 40 or so of us, in the fall of 1985 at
Resource Learning Center in Homewood. It was the school for the
gifted -- though as my friend Clark often observed back then, not
necessarily gifted with common sense.

Within a month, we knew everyone in our class and the 120 other
students and 12 teachers there. You couldn't hide for long in our
small school.

Jessica Callis, then, was part of the parking lot clique. They would
go hide out in the parking lot between classes, for a smoke, for a
laugh, to get away for awhile.

They were outcasts. Of course, we were all outcasts and misfits
(gifted often being the polite label for "nerd"). They just happened
to crave nicotine.

Our cliques were simply our buddies, not the divisive tribes found at
other schools. After all, we'd be in that same boat for four years.

But I didn't know Jessica as well as many of my other classmates.
Maybe it's because she left after sophomore year on academic
probation. The program had a strict policy: Keep up your grades, or
it's goodbye special school.

Still, I remember her laugh and her outgoing personality. She had
good friends, and a good run at the school.

After the Class of '89 parted ways, Jessica fell victim to the rumor
mill, as did several of our out-of-pocket classmates. A few of us ran
into her from time to time, and even knew her first husband, Alan
Bates, before they had married. But not me.

We moved on, and the school moved to a new home. Members of the
parking lot clique went on to become a doctor, a teacher, an engineer
and a computer expert. Along the way, the usual marriages and births
and divorces and such.

We learned about Jessica's path through press reports, court
documents and testimony, like everyone else. She had two daughters
with Alan, then a divorce and a bitter custody battle. She had
another child out of wedlock, then married Jeff McCord and had a
fourth child. She played a cruel hide-and-seek game with her
ex-husband over his visitation rights, in violation of court orders.
And in the end, she participated in the murders of Alan and his wife
Terra one year ago.

Her husband faces trial on the same charge in April.

While in jail, she gave birth to her fifth child.

Her five children, without their parents around, will bear the scars
of her wicked ways -- those are their lifetime sentences.

It wasn't so long ago when we wandered the hallways of RLC as foolish
little freshmen. To guide us on our journey, the teachers promoted
one principle from the first day: freedom with responsibility.

I take those words to heart, as I try to remember that Jessica was
once just like the rest of us.









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RELATED WORKS
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2/18/03 - AL.com: McCord jury votes life sentence
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B2C122883

2/18/03 - Post-Herald: No talks yet on second McCord trial
Post-Herald: Rage hurts children before it proves fatal
http://www.postherald.com/me021803.shtml

6/18/01 - Teens adrift without support from parents, teachers
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wadeweekly/message/79