he said, "david ruffin. do you know him?" i said, "i knew david ruffin when he was sober." and the song came up from there, you know? >> hinojosa: bettye, you talk about, you know, your life, and people talk about your life as this story of kind of redemption and triumph after the struggle. do you see it the same way? you know, when you stand back and look at your life, is it really this story of triumph, and what is the message then of bettye lavette's... not her music, but of her life, for the rest of us? >> it is redemption. i feel absolutely redeemed. and i had the opportunity, fortunately enough, to see all the people that i wanted to see me and have them see how i held on. i won't go on to name them all, but i've been put in three very big situations where there were people there who i grew up with, who have just been very, very big all of my struggle. and they had a chance to see me in a size six, and they weren't, with a very strong voice, and their's wasn't. and that was redeeming. >> hinojosa: wow. so you're kind of looking and saying... >> yeah, and then, you kno

tomorrow when you come back, you'll deal with officer ruffin. he's got too much other conflicts going on, so, we'll see. to be continued. we'll see. (phone rings) >> sharpstown high school. this is mindy. how may i assist you? >> we're gonna have kids drop out. there's no way around it. but hopefully, they go somewhere else and we know where they went to. that's the goal. this is the room where we keep the files for the students who are leaving, or who have left sharpstown. when a student leaves, i get a folder, and my job is to find proof that the student, where they are, get an acceptable code for the state so that they don't become a dropout. >> why is it important for you to have the numbers in order? >> the state requires it, our whole rating system for being acceptable as a school depends on it, which means our money. it's all about money, it's all about being an acceptable school. >> unfortunately, the education system has sort of created this culture of wanting to make itself look good-- and i think that's all well and good, but any time

. >> now, when i go to jail for attacking ruffin, you know why. >> what happened? hit me up for no reason. i was just playing with this girl, whatever, talking about, "calm down, don't grab me, don't grab me, get off me, son." he trying to jerk away from me and i said, "yo, get off me. quit touching me." then he tried to choke me out for no reason. just know, when i hit him in his (bleep) face, and i go to jail, you know why. >> lawerance, lawerance, lawerance... lawerance, just, he just has such anger issues. typically, something happens every other day. if he's here for two days, something's going to happen one of those two days. >> just know he touch me anytime before i leave this bitch, i'm going to punch him in his face. i'm not playing. do you see this face? i'm not playing. >> i didn't ask you that. stop, stop. >> what you mean stop? what he's supposed to just do... >> no, he shouldn't... hey! if it was about ego and stuff, it would be, "get him out of here." but it's not about that. you just can't take it personally, because most of the anger is about their