“Do you think what happened to him was fair?” There was a long pause before she looked up straight into my eyes. Her one word held all her hurt and betrayal inside, but at the same time you could hear her strength. She fully believed in the one word she said. “Yes.”
Color guard director Michael Christian was arrested Thursday, March 8, leaving behind the color guard to deal with not only his absence but also the reason behind it.
He is currently being held on five counts of theft, for a total of $22,695 allegedly stolen from out-of-state companies from whom he ordered band merchandise and then avoided payment, along with accusations of providing false information on employment applications to four schools, including Rider.
The members of the guard have experienced many different emotions throughout the ordeal: shock, pain, anger, and finally grief.
“The practice after he left, we all just started crying,” color guard member Jane* said. “It’s all really emotional. In your head you think there’s no way this could happen, but then you have to separate what’s in your head from reality.”
Reports of Christian’s arrest detonated like a bomb on the team. Just like everyone else in Wichita Falls, they found out about it via the Times Record News story.
“The most upsetting part probably would be that he didn’t say anything ahead of time,” Jane said. “He could have given us a heads up. It was obvious that he knew about this from the get go.”
According to some of the members of the color guard, Christian had been “real emotional” in the weeks before his arrest and at times exhibited a quick temper along with threatening to cut girls from their positions if they made a mistake.
When the team members learned about the accusations against their instructor, many wondered if he had been stealing from them as well. One of the parents has asked a private investigator to look into how much, if any, money was taken from the guard without them receiving anything in return. Because the investigations are still underway, the girls have not been asked to return any equipment that was purchased within the time frame that Christian was employed, nor have they been offered any restitution for money believed to have been stolen.
“When I saw all the amounts of money that he apparently had stolen and I read the word ‘theft’ my whole head was spinning,” Jane said. “If he was stealing from MSU’s guard what makes us any different?”
This idea initiated a new wave of hurt feelings.
“You have that sense of disgust and a little bit of betrayal,” Jane said. “You have that thought in the back of your head that maybe he was playing you the whole time, like maybe he truly didn’t love you guys. Maybe he didn’t really care, but at the same time you hurt because you really did love that coach.”
Rider band director Loy Studer sought the assistance of Henrietta’s guard coach, who the girls refer to as Ms. G, so that the team would have an instructor to prepare them for their two remaining winter guard competitions and championship following Christian’s arrest.
“We debated on taking his name off the back of our shirts,” Jane said. “We thought about it, but despite all he’s done, which I’m sure he’s not proud of and we’re not proud of, we still love him. We still appreciate what he did for us and how he got us up to where we were before he went to jail, but we decided we were just going to keep it there. We understand things in life happen, that you don’t always make the right decisions. We’re human. We still love him. We still miss him.”
To many members of the color guard, discovering the charges against Christian was a learning experience about taking responsibility for your actions.
“He would tell us what’s right and what’s wrong, and give us advice on things, but he needs to take his own advice,” Jane said. “If you do something bad, you’ve got to reap what you sow.”
Christian no longer has the ability to decide his own fate; instead he will face a jury that will decide it for him.
“We’ve all decided to move on,” Jane said. “We’ve worked hard this year, and we can’t stop now. This is just going to make us stronger.”