An Ohio principal allowed a homeless student to stay in school, and it cost him his job. He has no regrets.
After 31 years in education, one choice cost an Ohio principal his job – it’s a decision he says he does not regret.
As principal of Lakota East High School in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, Rob Burnside sought different ways to engage with his students. Years ago, he would wear goofy-looking pants on Fridays just to get kids to talk to him.
“First time I met him is when I seen him in the hallway and I was like, ‘What’s up, Mr. Burnside?'” student Landerius Hayes told “CBS Mornings.” “He just dropped everything, smiled at me, and he was like, ‘What’s up, DeDe?'”
Hayes, who is also known as DeDe, was just another kid who said “hi” in the hallway. But that all changed in his junior year.
Unbeknownst to Burnside, Hayes was struggling outside of the classroom. He was homeless.
“My mom, I couldn’t live with her because it wasn’t really safe to live with her,” he said. “And my dad, he had some issues going on.”
He said there were times he would sleep in the car with the heat on because it would be too cold in the mobile home where his father lived.
During his junior year, that private struggle became public when a letter arrived saying that Hayes’ mother had a new address, and because it was outside of the school district, he had to withdraw from Burnside’s school.
Most principals would have processed the paperwork and moved on. But Burnside started asking questions instead. The district’s answer was no – Hayes could not attend school.
“He can’t be here. He doesn’t have a parent who has an address. The parent resides elsewhere. He needs to go where the parent is,” Burnside recalled.
Burnside said he went home and told his wife, Angel, about the situation.
“The first words out of her mouth were, ‘Well, he can come stay with us, if he needs to,'” he said.
It wasn’t the first time. The Burnsides had already adopted two children.
With Hayes’ mother’s blessing, the Burnsides made the offer.
“We said, you know, ‘God, if this is your will for this young man to be in our home,’ you know, ‘make it clear,'” Burnside said. “Like five minutes later, my phone buzzes, and I look at it, and it’s a message from him: ‘Hey, Mr. Burnside.’ And I grab it, and I look at my wife and say, ‘I think we just got our answer,’ and he’s been in our house since then.”
Now Hayes had a home, but he’d been withdrawn from school. Burnside let him continue to attend. That decision cost him his job.
“I was told that the district did not believe that I could go back in the building and be an effective leader, and I was given the option of stepping down or going through the process of being terminated,” he said.
Burnside said he was given a letter putting him on leave, and ultimately, he made the decision that was “better for my family.”
Hayes recalled telling Burnside that he could go live with his mom so that he wouldn’t lose his job.
“And the words that came out of his mouth: ‘No. You’re gonna stay with me,'” he said.
“I remember my exact words, ‘DeDe, you’re part of this family,’ you know, ‘we’re not gonna turn our back on you,’ and, you know, and we hugged,” Burnside added.
After the Burnsides became Hayes’ legal guardians, he could go back to school. It also meant that the teenager was safe.
“When I think about it now, it’s like I don’t know how I’m here. Yeah. I just don’t know,” he said, tearing up. “At first, I was in a cold car, barely eating, barely in a school, just trying to be a good person. And now, it’s just, I’m eating now. I’m in the house, being a kid. Now, every time when I think about it, it’s just, wow, how did I do it?”
For Burnside, he said the price for the decision is still being paid – he can’t get a principal job in the area. He has no regrets.
“Because what value can we put on the life of a young person?” he added.
This past May, Hayes graduated from a different high school. In the stands were the people he now calls Pops and Ma – Rob and Angel Burnside. He is working toward becoming an aviation mechanic.
