Hall Pass - School Daze

DeAndre D’Angelo, a scam artist with a talent for forged documents and a taste for red sports cars finds the perfect persona to escape his checkered past. He's the Camaro driving, show tune singing, high school student who is actually 31 years old. What if you could relive your youth and do it all over again the right way? Thank you, Michael Backman, for sharing your story with Snap! Check out Michael's music. https://tremichaelsworld.com/ Produced by Jeff Maysh and Nancy López, edited by Anna Sussman, original score by Dirk Schwarzhoff, illustration by Alex Williamson. Season 16 - Episode 47 Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:08Glynn Washington?

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• 0:53Glynn Washington?

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• 2:19Glynn Washington?

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• 2:34Glynn Washington?

  High school. On my way to algebra, late as usual, completely lost in the class, but know I've got a week to figure it out. Before the big test, just gonna ease in, head down, sit in the back, and hope Mr. Vander Mullen doesn't call on me. I sprint, open the door, slide over to my seat, and notice everybody's putting their stuff under their desks. Mr. Vander Mullen's standing in front grinning, "About to hand out. Everyone, please put your things away. The test is about to begin." The, the, the, the, the, the test begin?

• 3:16Glynn Washington?

  No, no, no, the test, the, the test is next week, right? Next week? Oh, no, no, no, no. Mr. Vander Mullen looks at me and smiles. No!

• 3:33Glynn Washington?

  I leap out of bed, panicked, and I'm not in algebra class. Mr. Vander Mullen ain't here. I'm a grown man, because high school is over. Been over for years, and the relief, the joy I feel is so pure. No algebra test, no SATs. I failed all that a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah, but, but what if? Do some crazy turn of events? Do some glitch in the matrix? Ended up back there with Mr. Vander Mullen?

• 4:17Glynn Washington?

  But today, Snap Judgment proudly presents the final episode of our School Day series, Hall Pass. My name's Glynn Washington. Algebra is still the stereous word in the English language. And you're listening to Snap Judgment. Snap.

• 4:48Glynn Washington?

  Now, have you ever wanted to turn back the clock and have another go at life? Go back to that specific time and place where you could have made a different choice, turn things around, and you snap out of it because it's not like you can actually be young again and get a do-over. That's not how this works, right?

• 5:11Glynn Washington?

  Right?

• 5:13Glynn Washington?

  Step judgment.

• 5:27Glynn Washington?

  Michael Backman was cruising down a highway in Washington State, behind the wheel of his new red Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  I got pulled over. Police officer had said, you know, this car is a stolen car, or it's reported stolen. So, you know, what's up with that? And I was kind of like, what? It's reported stolen. I got arrested. They took me to the Watcomb County Jail, and it was there that one of the officers said, yeah, if your dad hadn't called and told us, we wouldn't have known.

• 6:00Glynn Washington?

  That's when Michael learned how the cops knew the car was stolen. His own dad had turned him in.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  That really hurt. It was like a major betrayal that I felt. I mean, I don't know what I showed on the outside, but on the inside, I was furious. I was steaming. I was so mad, and I just couldn't believe he would do that.

• 6:24Glynn Washington?

  After a few days in jail, Michael was released. He was in his early twenties, not living at home with his parents, precisely because he kept getting into this kind of trouble.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Which was kind of the pattern. Like, you know, I got a car, and as soon as I got the car, that equated to freedom, and then I was gone.

• 6:42Glynn Washington?

  At that point, Michael's dad was certain his son was part of a stolen car ring.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  It really wasn't a stolen car ring like that. It wasn't like I picked a lock and took off and hotwired someone's car or something. It was a little more deceitful than that.

• 7:00Glynn Washington?

  Michael would show up at a car dealership, presenting himself as

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Someone who's not.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Of course, I didn't have a job, but I would make a paycheck stub that said I did. I didn't have a down payment, but I would write a check as if there was money to do that. Me and the car would be gone by the time they figured out that, oh, he used a fake ID. Oh, it's so-called paycheck stub was like, you know, falsified.

• 7:24Speaker 02

  Then the cycle would start. Michael would get caught, arrested, locked up for a few days, and then let go.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  You know, I didn't learn. I got caught multiple times. Wasn't like once or twice. It was like multiple times over multiple times over multiple times.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  The next time Michael talked with his dad was nearly two years later, when his dad called him out of the blue.

• 7:47Speaker 01

  And I answered, hey, you know, I'm still alive. And he had stated, hey, you know, holidays are coming. Your mom would really like to see you. So if there's any way that you can, you know, come home and see your mom, you know, she'd appreciate it and I would appreciate appreciate it too. I think I said, I'll try. And then I think there was an awkward silence and I hung up.

• 8:17Speaker 02

  By then, Michael had a couple of warrants out for his arrest.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  For, you know, not doing the probations, one in Clark County and one in Washington County.

• 8:27Speaker 02

  So there was no way he was going home to his parents. He knew they would be disappointed.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  Like, I didn't like that that was what I had become. I was like, I don't, I don't want to be that person anymore. I've got to, I have to do something different. And I was looking for an escape. I was looking for an escape from the life that I created. I had been thinking about what can I do? I tried to get a job when I first got out of corrections. And there really wasn't any jobs that, you know, were going to hire me because I had crimes like theft and crimes of dishonesty.

• 9:07Speaker 02

  And that's when an opportunity presented itself, although he didn't know it quite yet.

• 9:13Speaker 01

  I was living with a friend in Portland. And my friend's cousin, younger cousin, was going to school. And my friend had said, hey, could you please make sure he goes to class? Like, just if you can get him to his first class, like, just walk with him to his first class and make sure he doesn't, like, you know, ditch it, ditch out and go out the back doors. So I did. I took him to school. The school, Grant High School, happened to be Michael's alma mater. He'd graduated from there 12 years back. He knew exactly how to get there. And once I got my friend, his name was Deandre, once I got him to his classroom, and I saw him go in there and sit down, I told him, I'll be back at 2:30 to pick you up.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  And he was like, OK. The bell is rung, everybody, you know, everyone's running to their classes and this and that. And as I came down the hallway, the principal, vice principal, said, hey, you, get to class. And I was kind of like, uh. And then he followed me. And so I'm like, this is awkward. So I pretended like I was going into a classroom. I actually stepped into a classroom. And then I apologized for disrupting the class, and I came back out, and then I left out of the school. At 2:30, I came back to pick Deandre up from class, and the same vice principal is walking

• 10:44Speaker 01

  up and down the hallways. And he said something to the effect of, he goes, you just love being in the hallway, you just don't want to go to class, do you? And then the next day, it was almost a repeat, because I took Deandre to school again. And the same vice principal is walking up and down. And I said, I know, I know, get to class, get to class. And he was like, yeah, smart mouth, get to class. Somewhere in my brain, I thought, you know what? I could go to class. And only this time, I could do it right. Like, I could actually, you know, pay attention, and I could actually learn something, and actually earn, you know, grades that would get me to college. When he was a teenager at Grant High

• 11:29Speaker 02

  High school, he wasn't that kind of student.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  I was kind of the kid that sat in the back if he could and tried not to tried not to get noticed. I was never comfortable in my own skin. So I was adopted by a white family at a time when I think it was in the newspaper even that my mom and dad were maybe among the first in the Portland metro area, if not Oregon, to adopt a black child. I didn't fit in with white kids, I didn't fit in with black kids. I kind of didn't really fit in anywhere.

• 12:13Speaker 01

  But school wasn't my thing, academics weren't my thing. I was kind of disinterested in pretty much everything other than choir.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  I think choir is actually what got me through high school. So I would miss first and second period, third period, but I'd make it to fourth and fifth period because that was the choir periods. When you're standing on stage, you just you kind of become the song, you become the emotion of the song, you kind of like just allow yourself to really dive into that. And that was the only time I really felt good.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  Michael graduated from Grant High School in 1986, but with a low GPA and no college prospects.

• 12:59Speaker 01

  So if I can go back and redo that like last year, like just go back and redo your senior year and just get like all A's, then you'll be good to go as far as going to college and you can get a scholarship and go to a really good school and and like turn your life around. And it just kind of became like a can you do it kind of thing, almost like a challenge in a way, but it was like, can can you really do this? Could you really go to Grant and do your redo your senior year?

• 13:27Speaker 02

  He thought about his parents, the way they tried to nudge him onto the right path. He knew his dad had turned him in so that Michael would stop making bad decisions.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  The thing I was trying to do was to try and

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Somehow get back into their good graces. And I thought, you know, if I just can go to school, go to college, then they'll be proud.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Of course, there are other ways to make your parents proud. Michael could have kept trying to find a job. He could have signed up for community college. But this big plot seemed to be about finding some sort of redemption.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  In hindsight, that's how it feels like what was really going on is just this trying to find, trying to find my way back. And so I just kind of sat on my brain all that whole weekend like, well, if you were gonna go back to school, what would you have to do? So I created a transcript that said I went to Beverly Hills High School and that I had like a 3.9 something GPA.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  He typed in the name he'd come up with.

• 14:31Speaker 01

  Deandre D'Angelo was the name that I used.

• 14:34Speaker 02

  Which is the same first name as his friend's teenage cousin, Deandre.

• 14:40Speaker 01

  It was his idea, actually. He suggested it. And I think he said something like, it'd be cool, well, we can be like double D's or something like that. I think I went to, at that time, they called it Kinko's. And I just sort of started copying and pasting. And next thing I know, I kind of like made a transcript. Went and got an engraved embosser stamp and put that on there and then put it in an envelope.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  I know by creating a transcript and this and that, this is really no different than creating like a paycheck stub or doing something to that effect. I think in my mind, I felt like the ends would justify the means. Oh, well, if you're using it for ultimately for a good thing, then is it really a bad thing, you know, expecting a different result because you're doing it for a different reason? And I don't know why I thought that was a good idea.

• 15:36Speaker 02

  Michael, or Deandre D'Angelo from here on out, walked into the school office, transcript in hand.

• 15:45Speaker 01

  And they were like, "Yeah, take this form home and have your parents fill it out. And you can bring it back." And surprisingly, they didn't need to meet anybody. They didn't need to like meet my folks. They were like, they took it. I went to see one of the counselors. The counselor helped me pick classes. And the next thing I know, I was in school.

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Getting in was easy. Actually showing up the first day was terrifying. So I got up that morning and I felt sick, physically sick. And I was like, "I'm not going. I can't do this. I can't do this." DeAndre was like, "Come on, man. Come on, let's go, let's go."

• 16:25Speaker 02

  The other DeAndre, the actual high school student DeAndre.

• 16:30Speaker 01

  I think I changed clothes like three times. Because like I wore one thing, I was like, "Nah, I can't wear this. This makes me look..." So I took it off and I put on something else and then I put on something else.

• 16:40Speaker 02

  He settled for blue jeans, a white t-shirt and white Nikes, a black backpack and a Beverly Hills High class ring on his finger, purchased online for $69.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  We got to school, pulled up, parked.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  And DeAndre wasn't driving just any car.

• 16:58Speaker 01

  I had a... I want to make sure I say, I think it was a 1999 red Chevrolet Camaro. It would have been brand new at the time.

• 17:09Speaker 02

  Michael had acquired it about four months back.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  I had gotten it the way I always got cars, using fake information.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  I took a deep breath and was like, "Okay, here goes nothing." And walked up the steps and into the school.

• 17:37Speaker 02

  It was one thing for Michael to try to turn back time and redo his senior year of high school, but to do it at his former high school.

• 17:46Speaker 01

  I saw at least three teachers that I remember being there from when I was at Grant the first time. And one of them was like my first period teacher. I was like, oh, wow. I'm, they're gonna know. They're gonna know. This is not good. Okay. Figure out where the exits are in case you have to run out of school and get out of here. I remember thinking that, um, but when I went into class and sat down,

• 18:19Speaker 01

  nobody said a word. No one looked at me like, "Who are you?" Or, "You seem like you might be older than the rest of us." Or, none of that happened. But I would say the first week of school, it was really difficult. Because each day, I thought, it's just a matter of time.

• 18:52Glynn Washington?

  When we return, how long can DeAndre D'Angelo walk the halls of his former high school before someone recognizes him? Stay tuned.

• 19:15Glynn Washington?

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• 20:01Glynn Washington?

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• 20:14Glynn Washington?

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  professional assembly if you prefer a hands-off experience. And Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com/snap, and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout. That's article.com/snap for $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. Welcome back to Snap Judgment: School Days, the Hall Pass episode. When last we left, 31-year-old Michael Backman, he created a false high school transcript,

• 21:39Glynn Washington?

  come up with a new name, and walked up the steps of his very own alma mater, pretending to be a 17-year-old transfer student from Beverly Hills. Just one tiny problem: On day one, he recognizes his first-period teacher from his first time at Grant High, but will she recognize him? Snap Judgment.

• 22:05Speaker 02

  No one recognised him the second week either. As DeAndre D'Angelo went from his Global Studies class to his English and Spanish classes, his nerves settled. In fact, he took to sitting in the front of the class.

• 22:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, this time I was sitting in the front, or close to it. Participating, engaging in discussion. I really felt empowered to... I really felt empowered to be more than what I was the first time. I was determined to not be that student that I was before. And so, I think that for teachers, when they see a student that wants to participate, they like that because like a lot of students like to sit there and hide. I just felt encouraged to speak up. I felt encouraged to participate and to engage others. After a while, it didn't feel risky.

• 23:02Speaker 01

  It felt good to... It felt good, like someone actually asked me my opinion. They actually wanted me to... They actually wanted to hear what I have to say. And so I took that and I think I ran with that.

• 23:16Speaker 02

  DeAndre quickly fell in with the other DeAndre's group of friends, like CJ and Steve, the basketball guys who didn't ask many questions and thought the new kid with the red car was pretty cool.

• 23:28Speaker 01

  And that car became very, very popular at school. You know, it's a mag. Everybody would come to the car and we'd all... They'd all sit there and they'd want to play the music real loud. And people would be like, "Oh yeah, he's so cool, DeAndre D'Angelo, he's so cool." You know, I felt good because it was kind of like when I would sing a song, I'd become that character and the people liked the character. But they didn't like me, they just liked the person I had made up.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  To anyone who asked, his rich parents were going through a divorce, so he was staying with a rich aunt in Portland.

• 24:05Speaker 01

  I'd be like, "Yeah, I live with them, but you know, I'm related to Diana Ross." And then folks would be like, "Oh, that's really awesome."

• 24:15Speaker 01

  I loved Motown and Michael Jackson and Diana Ross in the 80s were huge.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  A few other classmates had said, hey, you should be on student council. And I was like, oh, I couldn't be on student council. I don't know if I know enough about student council to do that. And one of the teachers, a teacher that taught government class, was like, yeah, I think you'd be great on student council. And so I went to a couple of the meetings.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  Before he knew it, DeAndre had tapped into an activist spirit he didn't know he had.

• 24:51Speaker 01

  And I was advocating that all students ought to be able to leave campus for lunch, especially for those who had like the two periods off.

• 24:59Speaker 02

  He got the campus bookstore to start a book lending program.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  It's our bookstore, so if a person needs to borrow the book, not necessarily purchase it for the year, but borrow it, you should have a lending program.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  He campaigned for students not to have to pay for their own ID cards.

• 25:17Speaker 01

  Because we're required to have it, so why do we have to pay for it? The whole time, I would have said, you know, I'm trying to not be detected, not be noticed. And yet I did everything under the sun to be noticed.

• 25:31Speaker 02

  One day on a whim, DeAndre went up to the choir room.

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Maybe just out of nostalgia, I heard them up there practicing and kind of sat through a concert choir.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  DeAndre felt that familiar urge to be on stage.

• 25:49Speaker 01

  I asked the director, Ms. Jarboe. I asked her if there was any room to join the choir. And she was like, yeah, you could audition for us right now if you want to. And I was like, oh. And it come to find out, she meant you had to sing in front of the whole choir. And so I did. When I think of home, I think of a place where there's love overflowing.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  And that's how I got into choir.

• 26:26Speaker 01

  A month in, I was, I was feeling really good. I was, I was in choir, I was doing well in the classes. Everything was going well. I felt like I was a positive influence on others for the first time ever. I was happy for the first time in a long time. But then, on the other hand, I was still doing stuff that I shouldn't have been. So I was living a double life.

• 26:56Speaker 02

  Michael had a side gig. He'd been doing it for years.

• 26:59Speaker 01

  I was making fake IDs for people or making documents so they could go down. At that time, you could go to Oregon DMV with like a birth certificate and get a real ID. So they weren't actually fake IDs, but they were based off of fraudulent paperwork.

• 27:17Speaker 02

  Michael, as Michael, had a friend or a contact. This guy who would field such requests.

• 27:22Speaker 01

  Like someone would say, hey, I'll give you $200 if you'll make me a birth certificate so I can get an ID.

• 27:27Speaker 02

  This friend would then go to Michael, who would turn around a fake birth certificate in exchange for a cut of the money.

• 27:33Speaker 01

  I didn't want to. I felt like I had to.

• 27:37Speaker 02

  And this offered him anonymity. He rarely met the people he made documents for.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  I told myself, you know, it's not like we're hurting anybody. It's not like I'm selling drugs. I know that went through my head a lot. I know I justified it that way at that time. You know, when I look back on it, I just, you know, I know that that, that answer falls really, really flat. So it was difficult. It was difficult because I had that fight going on. Like, I know this is wrong and I'm trying to do right, but I have to do wrong in order to do right.

• 28:15Speaker 02

  One day, Michael ran into an old childhood friend.

• 28:18Speaker 01

  She was one of my very best friends. She lived like three blocks away from, from where we did. And she had said, you need to call your mom.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  That's all she said, and she just kind of like walked away. And so that's what prompted me to call.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  My mom seemed different. She seemed only to care about, you know, are you eating? Are you okay? Are you healthy? Do you, you know, you're not homeless, are you? You know, you have a place to live. She was very careful not to ask like, so what are you doing? You know, or anything like that. And probably because she didn't want me to lie to her. So she didn't ask any question that I would have to turn around and lie to her about. I mean, I asked questions of her, like, how are you? How's, you know, how's dad? How's, you know, how's everybody? You know, and she'd say things like, well, you know, they all miss you. And I was like, gosh, you know, I realized just how much I had separated myself from them.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  I just, I just felt sad. I felt really bad. The things I was doing pushed everybody away. And that was what I was doing, just pushing everybody away. I tried not to show that on the phone, but it was pretty emotional for me. I think that's part of the reason why the conversation was kind of short.

• 29:40Speaker 01

  You know, I thought of all the things I had gained with this DeAndre D'Angelo and did not recognize just everything that I had lost.

• 29:51Speaker 01

  And it was completely of my own making.

• 29:55Speaker 02

  But the next day, DeAndre D'Angelo, the popular kid with the red Camaro and the beautiful singing voice, who also happened to be related to Diana Ross, was back at Grant High. Now, at two months in, he had straight A's and a 3.8 GPA. He says he didn't cheat on his schoolwork.

• 30:14Speaker 01

  No, no. So because like DeAndre Bradley and CJ and Steven and a few others, because we did hang out all the time, you know, there was the inevitable time when you had to do your homework. And then they would always ask me, well, what does this mean? What does that mean? I go, I don't know. So we would just kind of explore the chapter together. So we were doing homework kind of as a group. And they played basketball, so they had to do their homework or they couldn't play. And I didn't want to be responsible for four or five guys like not doing their homework. Like I didn't want, I didn't go there to harm anybody. I didn't go to the school to harm anybody.

• 30:59Speaker 01

  I actually went there to get good grades so I could go to college. That's what was in my head.

• 31:05Speaker 02

  Of all the guys, CJ in particular, became a pretty good friend.

• 31:09Speaker 01

  CJ was really cool. He had a great sense of humor, like a Kevin Hart-type sense of humor. Super funny, super talented.

• 31:18Speaker 02

  They would hang out after school, shooting hoops, playing video games, always at the other Deandre's house.

• 31:25Speaker 01

  And so, there was one time where CJ kinda point-blank was like, "Do you live here? Cause you're always here." Like, I mean, like, you know, it doesn't matter if it's a weekday, if it's a weekend, holiday, like, you're always here, you know? And he said, "So, do you live here? I mean, you can tell me if you do, I don't care, you know? Like, but it just seems weird that you're like always there." And at the time, it was like, you know, if I wanna continue lying to him, then I'm gonna have to find somewhere else to be. And when he said, "I don't care," I just was curious.

• 32:09Speaker 01

  When he said that, there is something about the way he said it, and there was something about where I felt that was coming from, that it was like, gosh, you know, you're kinda like a friend of mine, like you're... I mean, obviously, he thought he was friends with Deandre D'Angelo, right? But inside myself, I felt like, gosh, you know, you kinda deserve to know. And, you know, cause he's been a good friend. And so, I just took a chance. And I think I told him everything. I think I told him, you know, "I'm not seventeen." I think I told him everything. He kinda laughed, and he was like, "Bro, that's cool, that is so cool." And I did not expect that from him. He looked over and he said, "Look," he said, "You want me to keep that to myself?"

• 32:54Speaker 01

  And I was like, "Would you?" And he said, "Yeah, yeah, he says between us."

• 33:00Speaker 01

  He never told anybody. It was a huge relief. It was like, I can actually be myself. It was a huge relief.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  But over the next couple of days after that, he didn't ask so much why. That wasn't really one of the questions he asked, but he did want to know how I felt. He was really curious, like, so do you feel like you're, you know, part of the class? Do you feel like you're one of us? Do you, you know?

• 33:37Speaker 01

  Is it cool? Like, you know, and I told him the truth. I said, yeah. I really do. I walk like them, I talk like them, I dress like them, and I felt like I was one of them because they were so welcoming and welcomed me into their group. They treated me like I was one of the guys.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  But I knew all along, like, you're not 17, dude. So you can't hang out like that. You can't hang out like that, you know? It's one thing to play video games or basketball with some of those guys. It's another thing to be at a party with, you know, girls and that sort of thing. You have to draw the line somewhere.

• 34:23Speaker 02

  And, he says, that's where Michael drew the line for DeAndre D'Angelo when it came to romantic relationships with students at Grant High.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  I was not going to date anyone in high school. I did not go to, like, school parties and I didn't do those types of things. So I didn't put myself in a position to where I would have a romantic relationship or date anybody. That was just not why I was there.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  I knew how old I was and I knew how old everyone around me was. And I know that, you know, my thinking is messed up, you know, being there as an adult, but I knew I was an adult. And so there is no way that I was gonna have that type of interaction with a minor.

• 35:12Speaker 02

  As if life for Deandre couldn't get any better, he was tapped to lead the school choir in Portland's annual Christmas concert.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  They call it the Grotto. It's a huge holiday event. And Grant is a staple. They have been doing this for decades.

• 35:29Speaker 01

  And it's super important to the Grant community and to the church. It's an honour. It was a really big honour.

• 35:36Speaker 02

  Back when he was a teenager in choir, he'd been on the same stage for the Grotto.

• 35:41Speaker 01

  I was in the choir in the back.

• 35:44Speaker 02

  And now he took centre stage.

• 35:47Speaker 01

  You know, Miss Jarboe is off to the side conducting. And, you know, we've got our pianist there playing. The choir is all around me.

• 35:56Speaker 02

  The spotlight was on him.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  I think three television cameras there as well. In a room of probably several hundred people watching, I kind of stepped forward from the choir to the microphone.

• 36:11Speaker 02

  He began singing "Oh, Holy Night".

• 36:14Speaker 01

  I was kind of just kind of lost in the moment. And it was just, just kind of overwhelming. It was like I was overwhelmed.

• 36:23Speaker 02

  He could hear the choir behind him.

• 36:25Speaker 01

  I wasn't nervous to sing. I've never, never been nervous to sing in front of people. But I was certainly in awe of the moment. I was feeling like a euphoria.

• 36:44Speaker 02

  When the performance was done, the room erupted in applause. Even the cameramen were clapping.

• 36:52Speaker 01

  I really believed that I had reached a place that Michael Backman didn't have to exist anymore.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  I felt like I really reached this place where I've got the respect of my peers, if you will. I had a respect of the teachers. I had the respect of the community to some extent. And I felt like, you know what? We don't need Michael Backman anymore. You know, Michael could just go away.

• 37:23Speaker 01

  I felt that not only could DeAndre take over, you know, 8:30 to 3 o'clock, but after 3 o'clock, and weekends too. It felt like things were coming to that point. And then two weeks later, you know, after we did the grotto, everything fell apart.

• 38:00Glynn Washington?

  When we return, it's time for DeAndre D'Angelo or Michael Backman to face reality. Stay tuned.

• 38:16Glynn Washington?

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• 39:00Glynn Washington?

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• 39:42Glynn Washington?

  Quince has those starting at just 60 bucks. 100% Mongolian cashmere. They've got the 14 karat gold. They've got the Italian leather. What classic quality that they're going to reach for long after the holidays. Because Quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middleman. Their prices are 50 to 80% less than similar brands. Now, go ahead. See if you cannot tell someone how good you look. Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks you where you heard about them, let them know it was Snap Judgment.

• 40:27Glynn Washington?

  It's the best way to support the show.

• 40:36Glynn Washington?

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the Hall Pass episode. My name is Glynn Washington, and when last we left, Michael Backman was on top of the world. He just won over his high school teachers. He'd won over his peers. He just led the school choir in the biggest performance of the year. He convinced everyone that he was the upstanding, overachieving student he'd set out to be. But what may be his downfall is that Michael Backman even convinces himself that he's DeAndre D'Angelo.

• 41:12Speaker 01

  I was in class. Everything was kind of fine. There wasn't anything strange that went on. It was just a regular day. And they, they had said, oh yeah, Principal Simpson wants to see you. I didn't feel strange going down to his office. I just was like, oh, okay.

• 41:29Speaker 02

  As a member of student government, DeAndre was used to the principal calling him into his office.

• 41:35Speaker 01

  And I went down to his office and he had some small talk. And then he said, hey, I want your help in identifying somebody. I'm curious if you know them or not.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  And he pulled out a 1986 yearbook and opened it up. And he pointed at my picture and says, "Do you know him?" I was looking at myself with, you know, the way I looked as a senior in high school. Curly hair, kind of a shy smile, kind of looking off to the side a little bit. And I said, "Yeah," I said, "that's me." And he said, "Yeah, I know." And he said, "Unfortunately," he said, "you know, I had to call the school police." He goes, "And so I want to give you a moment to compose yourself if you need it."

• 42:37Speaker 01

  And I was just crushed. They didn't handcuff me or anything like that. But they did take me out of the building and I got to get in the police car. And we went off to the county jail. You know, at that point, in my brain, I thought, "Why did you think that this was a good idea? You had to know this was not gonna work." "What do you mean, a grown man went back to high school? You know, what kind of weirdo does that? You know, what kind of person does that?" And that was me, you know, I'm that person.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  To this day, Michael doesn't know who tipped off the school. His best guess? A fellow alumni who was in choir with him in 1986 and saw the Grotto performance on TV or even in person.

• 43:27Speaker 01

  And by getting caught like the emperor with no clothes, you finally realize you have no clothes. And you have to face that.

• 43:36Speaker 02

  The next time Michael talked to his parents was when he called them from Washington County Jail. It was time to come clean.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  So, you know, I've really messed up. And, you know, I'd like for you to hear it from me because you're probably gonna see it on TV. I kind of blurted it all out. It went well, actually, I mean, as well as it could, given the circumstances. They were appreciative that they knew something was coming. And surprisingly to me, they were very sympathetic. And they came to visit me.

• 44:10Speaker 02

  Of course, the story of thirty-one-year-old Michael Backman pretending to be a high school student at his very own alma mater made it to the news. So did the red Camaro.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  I know I remember it was kind of ironic because the car still kind of took center stage as the news cameras showed the tow truck take the car away. So they took me away and they took the car away too.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  The story was so tantalizing that even Connie Chung from 2020 came to town.

• 44:43Speaker 03

  Good evening. We welcome you to 2020 Monday.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  I was in the Washington County Jail watching that interview on TV.

• 44:51Speaker 04

  It's one of the most unbelievable deceptions we've come across.

• 44:55Speaker 02

  Connie Chung had interviewed Michael, and she'd interviewed his dad, Bill Backman.

• 45:00Speaker 05

  We tried to give him the best possible home we could, the most support we could give any child, whether he's biological or adopted.

• 45:08Speaker 02

  From the TV room in Washington County Jail, Michael understood why his dad had agreed to talk.

• 45:15Speaker 01

  My folks were worried that I was in some big trouble. And so I think they felt that talking to Connie Chung, that perhaps they could tell a different story. They wanted whoever might watch, you know, that 2020 episode to know that this is a real person who's troubled, who has a family that, you know, is standing by them, as tough as that is. I was a very selfish, self-centered, deceptive person at that time. And, you know,

• 45:57Speaker 01

  my parents were loving, so it's not because I had like a broken home or a terrible home or anything like that.

• 46:03Speaker 02

  But there was one thing that happened when Michael was a kid that always stuck with him.

• 46:09Speaker 01

  So I had a sister, and I don't, she wasn't a blood sister, but we were both adopted at the same time. And when she was about seven or eight, and I would have been about seven or eight at that time too.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  They sent her back. I didn't realize that she had issues that, you know, my folks were not equipped to deal with. And I didn't see the fact that they sent her back. They undid the adoption because she needed care that they weren't able to provide. And I figured like, you know, it's just a matter of time before I get sent back too. I think I carried that like to the extreme. Like, I think I did things wondering like, how far can I push before they tell me, okay, you're not going to be able to live with us anymore. We're not going to be your parents anymore. We're gonna send you back, you know, to the adoption agency.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  So in my mind, I was like, there's no point in trying really hard to behave. There's no point in trying really hard to please because you're just gonna get sent back anyhow.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Michael watched on as his dad came to his defense on national television. Why are you willing to give him another chance?

• 47:27Speaker 05

  You don't give up. Because there's a chance. What if he's not lying this time? And it makes a difference.

• 47:36Speaker 01

  I felt like the biggest idiot ever. And I could use a different word, but I'll stick with idiot. And all of the guys, like, you know, you're in, it's jail, right? So there's inmates with you, right? And they're all watching it too. So you ever have your life laid bare? Good lord. Interestingly enough, though, every one of those folks in there was like, you just need to get your stuff together, don't you? You just need to get it together. You know, instead of what folks could have been saying. They all just kind of were like, whoa.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  Your parents, like, they really care about you.

• 48:23Speaker 02

  The 2020 segment wasn't over yet. Here's Connie Chung sitting in front of a group of seven students from Grant High School.

• 48:30Speaker 01

  I think one of the questions that they were asking each of them is, how did this affect you? And so, you know, I feel like he was just lying to us. I feel like, you know, he was just a fraud. I feel like he was just a con man. I feel like, you know, I thought he was my friend.

• 48:49Speaker 06

  It's like, okay, you know, I thought you were my friend, you know? And it turns out that every single thing you said to every single person was a lie.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  At that point, I was like, you know what? As soon as the commercial came on, I went into the room. And I didn't end up actually watching the rest of that 2020 interview. I didn't want to be tearful in front of people. But it really hurt. I realized just how, how much my actions affected them. And these are like, high school students. These aren't, you know, grown people. Not that it's okay to hurt grown folks. But these are high school students who are just learning how to trust and learning how to, you know, do that kind of thing. And here I was, like, just this con man, sitting here amongst these guys.

• 49:39Speaker 01

  And really, that was a really tough interview to watch.

• 49:47Speaker 01

  So I was able to be out on bond until the case was resolved. So when I was released from the Washington County Jail.

• 49:56Speaker 02

  Michael's parents asked him to come home, and this time, he did.

• 50:00Speaker 01

  And my folks were very, very supportive, in a way that I didn't deserve, and in a way that I never expected. They helped me get a lawyer. They stood by me while the case was proceeding. They said a few words in court. And that was the beginning of maybe us reunifying, if that's a word. But that was the beginning of us kind of coming back together. I always, I'll tell you, the quickest and easiest way from point A to point B is a straight line. And for whatever reason, I had to do figure eights and all kinds of things to get from A to B.

• 50:45Speaker 01

  And it took a long time in life for me to realize that no matter where I go, I take myself with me.

• 50:54Speaker 01

  I had to confront the fact that I'm not DeAndre D'Angelo. I'm Michael.

• 51:32Glynn Washington?

  A very, very big thank you to Michael Backman for sharing your story with the Snap, Snap Nation. You're probably wondering, did Michael make it on to the right path?

• 51:44Speaker 01

  So now I work. I work for a living. I have a job, a really good one. And I work for a local nonprofit. I am like what they call a peer navigator. We call it justice involved, which is basically people with a criminal record who've had to, you know, been to jail, been to prison. I literally take people to doctor's appointments. I help people get rental assistance. I kind of walk that road with them. It helps keep me grounded and honest because I'm walking with people who are also working on being grounded and honest. I think the experiences that I had and the lessons that I've learned, I've been able

• 52:27Speaker 01

  to share those with others. And Michael Backman is enjoying living in his own skin and is enjoying life, probably for the first time ever. And then I also have always loved music. It's always been there in my life. And I'm working on an album and have some pretty cool songs.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  Interestingly enough, people always say, oh, so you call yourself Trey Michael? Musically, I do. Trey as in the treble clef. Michael. It's just kind of a play on words. I've got my website. I put my music on there. There's a plug, right?

• 53:31Glynn Washington?

  There it is, snappers. If you want to hear Michael's music, check out our show notes. The original score for that piece was by Dirk Schwartzoff. It was edited by Anna Sussman. It was produced by Jeff Mase and Nancy Lopez.

• 54:05Glynn Washington?

  Good news. This is just episode three of Snap's School Days series. School Days is on podcast platforms everywhere right now. The mystical, magical Snap All-Seeing Eye is affixed to KQED in San Francisco. No Snap Studios content or DNA. May be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. Goes double for Sam Altman, Zuckerberg, Gemini, Musk, Bing. Snap is brought to you by the team that will not go back to high school under any circumstances. Except, of course, the uber producer, Mr. Mark Ristich. He really likes the food. On Team Snap, the union represented producers, artists, editors, and engineers.

• 54:49Glynn Washington?

  Are members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO Local 51. Now, there's Nancy Lopez, Patrice Miller, Anna Sussman, Wenzel Gorial, John Faseel, Sheamus Shealy, Taylor DeCott, Flo Wiley, Bo Walsh, Marissa Dodge, and Regina Badiaga.

• 55:12Glynn Washington?

  And this is not the news. No way is this news. In fact, you could get on the TikTok and study all the hip new slang, only to have the kid shout "boomer" at you anywhere. And you would still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is PRX.