Henderson had three kids in the house, and between juggling multiple jobs and nursing school, she didn’t have an extra minute to spare. So, whether a teacher called about a missed assignment or, worse, the housing manager or police called about delinquent behavior, Henderson was often pushed to her limits.
“It was very tough,” Henderson said over the phone from Tampa this week.
Gators sophomore defensive back Dijon Johnson shared the home with Henderson, his mother, and a brother and sister. They didn’t live in the best part of town, and temptation stood at every street corner.
Johnson was not immune to saying yes to things he should have said no to. He hung around kids who traveled one-way roads to a dead end, blew off his homework, and kept his mom up at night.
“Where he comes from, kind of a rough upbringing,” Henderson said. “He had to go to an alternative school.”
Johnson spent eighth grade at the Dorothy Thomas Exceptional Center, described on its official Facebook page as a “K-12 school that offers a therapeutic, educational setting for students in need of emotional and behavioral support.”
Johnson made the grade at the school, but when it was time for high school, Henderson sought to transition him back into standard public school and maybe a brighter future. He transferred to Wharton High School and did not play football his freshman season.
If there was one part of his turbulent childhood that Johnson connected with the strongest, it was the game he started playing when he was 5. He would spend hours in the yard playing football with Antonio Pore, his only brother on his mom’s side of the family.
Sometimes, football seemed the only thing Johnson had an interest in.
“He was going really, really hard, and he was just loving it, but the thing was, he was settling in school because he loved football so much,” Henderson said. “I was like, ‘Well, what about homework?’ I had to hide the pads and hide the football and say, ‘If you’re not doing your school work, you’re not going to practice.’ “
Henderson wanted an easier path for her kids.
She got pregnant with Dijon while a student at Wharton, dropped out and later earned her GED. Dijon’s father, also named Dijon Johnson, remained a part of his son’s…
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