(no subject)
I last week, I noticed that one of my students was absent for a while.
I felt guilty that I didn't notice sooner, but I was away at clearpool, and it just slipped my mind. Maybe he's sick...etc.
Turns out his cousin, who was 14, was shot. Once in the leg. Four times in the chest.
This is the second time since August someone in his family under the age of 16 has been killed from multiple gunshot wounds.
His family, understandably, doesn't want him leaving his house. Ironically enough, he was the first member of his family on the scene, friends who saw it txted him about it...he got to the ambulance in time to see it leave -- and was kicked out of the hospital when he got there because he was too young. They let him in to see the body once other family members got there. He's 14.
I'm concerned for his education, but I'd feel extremely guilty if I encouraged him to go to school, and that got him killed. His mom said sometimes people are watching the house, and so she won't let him leave. In September, I wrote that off as paranoid, now not so much.
Via myspace, I was able to get other students to convince him to come back to school, at least to talk to the counselor. He did for a day, but he's gone again.
I'm sending out info to all appropriate agencies. I'm trying to find out what can be done to get him a safety transfer out of his set of projects.
I'm also scared that if he did die, we wouldn't find out right away. That happened this year, but the kid was homeschooled, and didn't have much of a connection to the school though officially he was enrolled with us. His mom dropped off his textbooks in October, and let us know the student passed away in August/early September.
So yeah, I've been working on this for the past week or so, and a few other difficult school things, but it doesnt' feel "overwhelming" most times, so I forget to mention it.
I'm going to try to be better about that. Anyway, light a candle, send a thought that T. gets to school safe.
There are some kids that are easy to give up on, and there are others that just have Something to them. They have that ...thing, that spark, that something that says they could DO something BIG with their life. He's a quiet kid, but he's strong. He has a slow smile that is rare to see but when it rumbles around his face it's amazing. And when he gets something....it clicks deeply in him. He's got tons of writing problems, and reading problems...but there is SOMETHING that tells me he could be one of the ones that makes it. And we just lose so many of those. When I think of the kids that I had that feeling about...and I saw them slipping and couldn't catch them...it just hurts so badly. I've learned that when you are at the critical point you have to give everything...and then at some point you have to let go. I just can't let go yet. Right now, there are still untapped resources. I have to fight like hell for this kid. And...I haven't yet known that I've "won" any of the ones that I've fought for...but I'm not ready to stop trying yet. I guess that is when i'll know that it is time to stop teaching. But, it seems to me that's a long ways off.