I get asked a lot how school is going this year. As in, how is it for the youth these days?
I’m never sure exactly how to answer, mostly because I’d like to say it’s “better” than the last three years.
Whatever that means.
All I can do is give examples of what work is like right now.
We have had a flood of new students this month, mostly overflow from a nearby school that is full. This is the result of a lot of families moving in search of better lives but students with disrupted ones. They are mostly “doubled up”, meaning someone took them in because they can’t afford their own place.
Friday, one student beat the crap out of another. Both are on my caseload and have mental health concerns. No one deserves to be beat up but neither was completely innocent in the situation.
A mom messaged me that she is too afraid to walk her son to the bus in the morning because two men had followed her back to her apartment and she has no one in her complex she can turn to for support. I introduced her to pepper spray.
A few weeks ago, my counterpart at another school lost a 17 year old student to suicide via drug overdose on their birthday. The parents identified the body but didn’t claim her because they can’t afford to bury her.
The thought of this still makes me cry.
I have more than a few families where the children are all living with different friends and relatives while their parents try and find stable housing. It doesn’t take much more than losing a job to see an eviction and then even if you find a new job, the money needed to get into another apartment is prohibitive, if anyone will rent to you with an eviction or poor credit score.
And for the second time this month, buses had to be rerouted after school because of an active shooter somewhere in our part of town.
It’s heavy, ya’ll. Our families are not seeing a lot of wins. We know that the economy is doing better overall but the lives of many of the poor are not. Poverty is a trap that leaves many behind.
It is hard to look at the bright side or focus on the positive but I try.
Our third onsite mental health therapist moved into a portable at school, our students now have more access to mental health services.
The kids made some yummy California rolls in the afterschool cooking club I supervise.
I helped students who qualify to get free ASB cards get their paperwork in so they can stay after school for clubs like this.
Today I sent off the registrations of 83 students to the Students of Color Career Conference at our local college. We only took 15 last year.
I hosted a pancake flipping booth at a school family event, a student returned from last year to set a record of 300 flips. Other students set personal records of 220 and 150. A dad, mom and student competed against each other. Dad won. It is no small feat to flip a pancake over and over.
My counterpart raised over $5000 from the community to help bury her student. She had contacted a local non-profit about burial support but they said they only help veterans. However, they had an emergency board meeting that night and raised $1500 to contribute to helping bury that student. The family had a service in Bellingham this last week.
I still tear up about this, too. Sometimes, when there is so much you can’t control, you have to decide what you do have control over and do that.
Our youth need us more than ever.
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Are you a special ed teacher? I worked for 9 years as the special ed secretary for our local school district (a near western suburb of Minneapolis). It is a district with a mixed demographic including more well off families, some blue collar neighborhoods, and also kids (voluntarily) bussed in from the “challenging” section of Minneapolis. The budgets kept getting cut, caseloads increased, etc. I learned so much about the challenges parents with special needs face, and what saints their teachers are. Thank you to you for being there for these kids.
I am thankful I left the classroom a while back, now I do student support. Kind of like a social worker/resource navigator. It is the same here, they cut 25 million from the budget last year and it will be another 8 million this year. Staff are tired, students are stressed out, and everyone is trying to do their best. I don’t know how teachers are doing it at all, I worry we are going to see fewer and fewer every year.
Again…thank you for what you are doing for kids. I am sure it is discouraging much of the time, but you never know what might have a positive impact on one student.