A couple of weeks ago, one of my students (we'll call her S) told me that she was hungry. Well, it was a day that school was late b/c of weather, so no breakfast was served. Not a good thing when your school has 92% of it's population on free lunch. I asked S if she had breakfast and she said no. I asked her why not, and she told me that they barely had any food in the house.
I was concerned and immediately talked to personnel in the school that help with this kind of thing.
The next day S's mother called. She was upset b/c her daughter had been talking about their home situation. She informed me that they did have some food, that it wasn't much, but that it was enough to get by. She said that she didn't want the school to help out in any way. So I dropped it.
Well, today the same personnel that I turned this issue into called me. She said that DCS had been called on them, b/c of neglect. They did investigate the matter further and found out that the mother often doesn't feed these children. That they were only allowed to take a shower/bath once every two weeks. She said that we were going to be sending home a backpack of food every weekend. Poor thing. I talked to S about her home situation, the poor girl never talks. She did say that her mother had left for a week or two and that Dad had said they could bring home food. (S is learning disabled but is still the smartest one in her family)
I hope that S is safe tonight. I hope that she is getting fed and isn't afraid. I hate that my students live this kind of life. All I can do is try my best to talk to them, and help them out. But, my heart goes out for them. Life can be so sad, and so hard.
2 comments:
Marla (sorry, found your blog :)), that story breaks my heart! This semester we are focusing on cultural differences, and we will be working in lowere SES classrooms for our field. Anyway, you sound like an amazing teacher...hopefully I will be as good as you some day!! ;)
Those children are so lucky to have you! You're amazing!
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