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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Schoolyard fights may not be the most wholesome activity for students to engage in, but in their own odd way they’re as much a part of the educational experience for many children as mathematics and reading.
Even Beaver Cleaver found himself involved in a school bus fist fight.
Juston Treat, now 25, remembers the fight he was embroiled in as a 12-year-old sixth-grader at East Middle School. Unlike the Beav, however, who had to write a letter of apology to the bus driver to make matters right, Treat ended up with a felony conviction.
“According to the law, I didn’t fight fair,” he explained in a recent interview at Coffee Studio on Patterson. “It was supposed to be punch-for-punch, and I exceeded on the punching, which brought it into a felony. I guess punch-for-punch makes it maybe a misdemeanor, or they just kind of throw it out of court. But it’s the excessive force, and it raised it to a felony because I (chipped his tooth) and broke his nose, so once you end up breaking a bone, it goes into different degrees of felonies.”
It’s been 13 years since that fight, and Treat has long since moved on from the consequences of it. He’s a soft-spoken, almost shy young man with curly brown hair and a friendly smile. He sports some tattoos on his arm but otherwise doesn’t fit the traditional stereotype of ex-felon.
The fight may have lasted minutes, but the ensuing scandal took years to die down. The parents of his victim took him to court, where the case dragged on for several months until he was slapped with a juvenile felony conviction.
“I was too young to pay restitution, so I had to do community service, which took about a year and a half,” he recalled. “And then I was in probation for another year and a half, and then a week in detention as well. I had to go and actually serve time (in a lock-down facility) on the weekends so I could still go to school. That was a pretty big ordeal.”
His parents were understandably in shock. At the time they were in the process of separating, and Treat had to convince them that the fight had nothing to do with their separation. “They couldn’t believe that, you know, just a street fight, and then it becomes where, you know, you’re on probation and you’ve got a criminal record at 12.”
Treat remembers returning to the courtroom again and again, discussing plea bargains with the district attorney’s office, appearing before the judge and giving his side of the story.
“I was so scared,” he admitted. “You really have no clue until you’re there. I was never in trouble (before then) or anything.”
Media reports sensationalized the incident, although Treat himself was never interviewed.
“I made the front page,” he said with a wry laugh. “I was supposed to be a street fighter taking out innocent victims on the schoolyard. That’s how they labeled me.”
Treat said that the press coverage and his reputation as a “troublemaker” affected his experience at East Middle School so much that he had to transfer to Mount Garfield. He said that he was never asked to speak to a counselor and instead found himself frequently sent to the principal’s office or home whenever he stepped “out of line” or even if he was looking “irritated.”
“Every chance they had (they would punish me),” he said. “There were just days that, maybe I had to go home for four days, and you know, my parents were working, and they were like, ‘What’s going on?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know, they sent me home again.’ That happened for a little while and then finally, I decided to switch (schools).”
Treat did eventually graduate high school and move on with his life. His record, however, still carried the stigma of the fourth-degree felon. Since it was a juvenile felony and was eligible to be expunged from his record, he went through the process of having that done but to this day encounters the occasional database check that reveals that long-ago conviction.
“I wanted to be hired on with Primerica,” a large financial institution that provides financial planning and investment services. Treat had met with George Rau, a Primeria adviser based in Grand Junction, and was keen to join Rau’s team. Treat was candid about his juvenile felony conviction, but Primerica ultimately decided not to hire him because of it.
“I wanted to do that part-time, so when (the felony) came back to bite me again, I went and did all the paperwork and stood in front of the judge again. I used an attorney from a local law firm, and when they tried to pull out the criminal record from my juvenile case, nobody could find anything.”
Although the case was indeed expunged from his record, a “technical glitch” does result in the rare instance where the conviction shows up on some databases. Treat said that he has all the official documents indicating that the case has been sealed, but as Rau pointed out, strict ethics rules that govern the financial services industry can prevent the company from hiring former felons. For his part, Rau would love to hire on Treat and considers him a “fine young man,” but company rules dictate otherwise.
“Most people kind of just shrug it off because it happened so many years ago,” Treat said. “I’ve still been able to get jobs and everything. (The Primerica job) is just the only one that I was totally denied from having.”
Still, he hasn’t given up hope that he can someday work as a financial adviser. Treat said that he enjoys the process of helping friends and family with their financial plans and has already approached other local financial services companies about employment. For now, though, he continues his job working in the oil fields for Pure Energy. It’s a tough profession, one that requires long hours that takes time away from his new wife, a dental hygienist and his high school sweetheart, whom he married in November. He still finds it amusing and ironic that, while his juvenile record prevents him from working as a financial adviser, he is cleared to work with explosives in his current position.
“They did the background check and everything,” he said. “And that’s what I tried to explain to (Primerica), you know. It’s like, I’m already dealing with explosives. I don’t understand why I can’t refinance people’s mortgages or pursue anything to that extent.”
One thing that Treat is not, however, is bitter. He refuses to make excuses for himself and his past behavior but won’t dwell on what might have been. Instead, he’d rather continue to pursue his dream of working in finance or perhaps even become an architect. The memory of the schoolyard fight is fading, as is its effect on his life.
“I think this ordeal is maybe a blessing in disguise,” he confessed with a smile. “I met (my wife) after I transferred schools. But you know, being a child, you think you’re pretty much indestructible. You learn from your mistakes, and it could come back to haunt you later. Hopefully you bounce back. That’s where your wisdom comes from. You can’t spend too much of your life angry. Go out and enjoy something else.”
Even Beaver Cleaver found himself involved in a school bus fist fight.
Juston Treat, now 25, remembers the fight he was embroiled in as a 12-year-old sixth-grader at East Middle School. Unlike the Beav, however, who had to write a letter of apology to the bus driver to make matters right, Treat ended up with a felony conviction.
“According to the law, I didn’t fight fair,” he explained in a recent interview at Coffee Studio on Patterson. “It was supposed to be punch-for-punch, and I exceeded on the punching, which brought it into a felony. I guess punch-for-punch makes it maybe a misdemeanor, or they just kind of throw it out of court. But it’s the excessive force, and it raised it to a felony because I (chipped his tooth) and broke his nose, so once you end up breaking a bone, it goes into different degrees of felonies.”
It’s been 13 years since that fight, and Treat has long since moved on from the consequences of it. He’s a soft-spoken, almost shy young man with curly brown hair and a friendly smile. He sports some tattoos on his arm but otherwise doesn’t fit the traditional stereotype of ex-felon.
The fight may have lasted minutes, but the ensuing scandal took years to die down. The parents of his victim took him to court, where the case dragged on for several months until he was slapped with a juvenile felony conviction.
“I was too young to pay restitution, so I had to do community service, which took about a year and a half,” he recalled. “And then I was in probation for another year and a half, and then a week in detention as well. I had to go and actually serve time (in a lock-down facility) on the weekends so I could still go to school. That was a pretty big ordeal.”
His parents were understandably in shock. At the time they were in the process of separating, and Treat had to convince them that the fight had nothing to do with their separation. “They couldn’t believe that, you know, just a street fight, and then it becomes where, you know, you’re on probation and you’ve got a criminal record at 12.”
Treat remembers returning to the courtroom again and again, discussing plea bargains with the district attorney’s office, appearing before the judge and giving his side of the story.
“I was so scared,” he admitted. “You really have no clue until you’re there. I was never in trouble (before then) or anything.”
Media reports sensationalized the incident, although Treat himself was never interviewed.
“I made the front page,” he said with a wry laugh. “I was supposed to be a street fighter taking out innocent victims on the schoolyard. That’s how they labeled me.”
Treat said that the press coverage and his reputation as a “troublemaker” affected his experience at East Middle School so much that he had to transfer to Mount Garfield. He said that he was never asked to speak to a counselor and instead found himself frequently sent to the principal’s office or home whenever he stepped “out of line” or even if he was looking “irritated.”
“Every chance they had (they would punish me),” he said. “There were just days that, maybe I had to go home for four days, and you know, my parents were working, and they were like, ‘What’s going on?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know, they sent me home again.’ That happened for a little while and then finally, I decided to switch (schools).”
Treat did eventually graduate high school and move on with his life. His record, however, still carried the stigma of the fourth-degree felon. Since it was a juvenile felony and was eligible to be expunged from his record, he went through the process of having that done but to this day encounters the occasional database check that reveals that long-ago conviction.
“I wanted to be hired on with Primerica,” a large financial institution that provides financial planning and investment services. Treat had met with George Rau, a Primeria adviser based in Grand Junction, and was keen to join Rau’s team. Treat was candid about his juvenile felony conviction, but Primerica ultimately decided not to hire him because of it.
“I wanted to do that part-time, so when (the felony) came back to bite me again, I went and did all the paperwork and stood in front of the judge again. I used an attorney from a local law firm, and when they tried to pull out the criminal record from my juvenile case, nobody could find anything.”
Although the case was indeed expunged from his record, a “technical glitch” does result in the rare instance where the conviction shows up on some databases. Treat said that he has all the official documents indicating that the case has been sealed, but as Rau pointed out, strict ethics rules that govern the financial services industry can prevent the company from hiring former felons. For his part, Rau would love to hire on Treat and considers him a “fine young man,” but company rules dictate otherwise.
“Most people kind of just shrug it off because it happened so many years ago,” Treat said. “I’ve still been able to get jobs and everything. (The Primerica job) is just the only one that I was totally denied from having.”
Still, he hasn’t given up hope that he can someday work as a financial adviser. Treat said that he enjoys the process of helping friends and family with their financial plans and has already approached other local financial services companies about employment. For now, though, he continues his job working in the oil fields for Pure Energy. It’s a tough profession, one that requires long hours that takes time away from his new wife, a dental hygienist and his high school sweetheart, whom he married in November. He still finds it amusing and ironic that, while his juvenile record prevents him from working as a financial adviser, he is cleared to work with explosives in his current position.
“They did the background check and everything,” he said. “And that’s what I tried to explain to (Primerica), you know. It’s like, I’m already dealing with explosives. I don’t understand why I can’t refinance people’s mortgages or pursue anything to that extent.”
One thing that Treat is not, however, is bitter. He refuses to make excuses for himself and his past behavior but won’t dwell on what might have been. Instead, he’d rather continue to pursue his dream of working in finance or perhaps even become an architect. The memory of the schoolyard fight is fading, as is its effect on his life.
“I think this ordeal is maybe a blessing in disguise,” he confessed with a smile. “I met (my wife) after I transferred schools. But you know, being a child, you think you’re pretty much indestructible. You learn from your mistakes, and it could come back to haunt you later. Hopefully you bounce back. That’s where your wisdom comes from. You can’t spend too much of your life angry. Go out and enjoy something else.”
