High noon's sun nudges the window shades at Brighton High School as Fuller rises from behind the teacher's desk, where he leads a support group for African-American males. Leaning over a table where a handful of seniors sit, he laughs at the discomfort and confusion of his own childhood. He describes his 11th birthday party, when his uncles teased him about which of the little girls at his party was his girlfriend. After that, Fuller says, he started talking to as many girls as possible so he would be prepared to answer his uncles' question the next time.
Conversation takes off.
Twenty-three boys puzzling through why they treat girls the way they sometimes do and, with Fuller's guidance, beginning to look at what it says about them when they act disrespectfully toward another human being. No easy answers plucked from the air. Just an open exchange, where normally there is silence and confusion. Fuller's group started with 19 males and grew to 23 after some of the boys asked if they could bring their friends. What he didn't expect was how attached he would get to the class.