49. The Trouble With Evan

Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Time: 9:30 a.m.
Reason: Today in my journalism ethics class we watched a piece that aired on CBC's Fifth Estate called The Trouble With Evan. The episode was meant to be about an 11 year old boy who got into trouble and his parents who were taking classes to try to learn how to raise him better. It turned out to be a horrible story of verbal abuse along with lots of other problems and obviously the trouble was not at all with Evan but with his parents (who each had very abusive up bringings as well.) It was a heart-wrenching story through and through and I was on the verge of tears throughout the whole thing. The part where I actually cried was a scene where Evan's Mom and Stepdad were yelling at him about a dime that he had stolen from a change jar in their room. It was recorded by cameras that the family had agreed to have set up in their home and we are told that the fight went on for about an hour and a half! It was actually much less a fight and more of Evan being yelled at and silently taking the accusations. Only a few times did he quietly say, "I didn't take it." When Evan still wouldn't admit to stealing the money even after being yelled at repeatedly, his Mom went to recount what was in the change jar (she had counted it that morning and written the number down) and found that she had miscounted. She went back to Evan and had him stand on a chair while she kneeled below him and apologized. This is the part where I cried and I'm not really sure why it got to me more than all of the other awful things that had happened. I'll have to think about that. If you have a chance please watch this piece. I haven't been able to find it online yet but if I do I'll post it. It has emotionally exhausted me for the entire day.