Abuso

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Last week I was helping one of my high school girls with her religion homework, and the question was, “Why do you want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps?” I got her to realize that basically the question was asking that Jesus did good things so why does she want to do good things like Jesus? She immediately responded, “SO MY MOM WON’T KILL ME,” kind of jokingly, but she changed her answer to “so my mom won’t hit me,” and I knew that was true for her, as well as for so many of the kids here.

Also, right before Easter I kicked a boy out of my English class after too many absences and a long history of disrupting my class. I will never forget how hard this 13 year old boy sobbed as he begged me to let him back in. I will also never forget how hard his mom SMACKED him right in front of me when she found out that he had gotten kicked out.

After all my experience here with families and abuse, sometimes I am still taken aback at the reality of the situation here and I have no idea what I can do or say. Most likely, there is nothing I can do or say…. For now, I can just continue to open my eyes to reality.

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