Tell me what you really think.
and we were talking about parenting.
and i joked about voting people off the village.
some people need to be shot.
Great writing. what came of it?
The father went to jail. Terri had that year's New Year Baby, and kept it. Her brothers were farmed out to foster care, and she went to live with a friend. None of the brothers lives around here now. The mother went from boyfriend to boyfriend, mooching, till she finally left town and I don't know where she is now. I see Terri once in a while. She got her GED, went to tech school, and sells real estate. Happy ending for the deserving.
Do I remember Terri (I figure names have been changed)?
You've always been a great writer. Instead of the second MA, why not do an MFA in Creative Writing?
WF
(who, sadly, probably let Terri under his radar as well)
She was in your class.
Your story gave me chills. Wonderful writing.
Visiting via Michele tonight.
Thats horrible...
Seems wrong to say have a nice weekend after reading that
As usual your writing hits right to the core. I remember going to school with several "Terris" but I honestly hope that they weren't going through the same torment and abuse as the Teri you recall so vividly here. . .
hand me a tissue, will you?
-G
You live by my motto...You can't save the world, but you will certainly die trying. I hope both my kids have teachers as special as you.
Great post.
Oh my God. You have no idea how deeply this affected me, especially the part about the books. You're right. You're incredibly right.
I came here from Michelles only to discover I already have you bookmarked. I love your blog.
Here via Michele, but you know I'd show up anyway. Actually read this post yesterday, but didn't know what to say. I'm glad I read the comments to find out that Terri's doing okay.
Bureaucracy makes it tougher and tougher to be a teacher with a heart.
Amazing post -and you are so right. I was miserable as a teenager (though not for the reasons that Terri was, I was just your basic misfit). I read the Beany Malone books and Rosamund DuJardins because those characters loved high school. Would you mind if I posted it on LM_NET, a school librarians list serve? I'll give you credit of course. I think it would provoke some interesting discussion.
Sure, help yourself.
I would be very interested to see which books are on Terri's "list".
Did you ever encounter Terris who escaped into sci fi/fantasty, or was it all more conventional writing?
Thanks - and thanks for sharing
My heart ached as I read this. When I was in 6th grade, my best fried was raped by two men in her apartment. The burglars tied up her twin brother and made him watch and they beat her aunt to death.
We never saw her again. Rumor was that she got pregnant after the rapes, and that her druggie mom made her keep it.
I have made it my mission to watch out for my daughter and son's classmates, to watch for those signs as well as tell my kids to listen to their friends.
May God be with all of the Terris and Mindys in the world.
I, too, am curious about the books on Terri's list... do you have that somewhere?
Do you think if you got a paper with those comments about fantasy & homelife today you would miss it? What would you do?
Cause I could have been your student (graduated HS in 198
and I think back on those days and it did seem much less common to see girls molested back then. It seems like there are soooo many more, but maybe that's just cause I'm more aware of them now.
And I was from a weird homelife too (just weird, luckily never quite as bad as Terri). And I wonder if teachers are more aware now, if we as a society are more aware, of these kinds of warning signs?
Dad gum it. That was 1988 if you put an 8 next to a ) then you get the smiley face sunglass guy. I hate it when that happens.
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