|
Of course, a drawback to this was that I was really making any money at all. Credit card bills had mounted from trips to Canada, and were growing with the once or twice monthly car rentals. Setback Number Two: Rumors. In February, one of my students came in to my classroom to talk, and was very distressed. Jackie said her older brother had been in a car wreck, was flown to the Mayo Clinic, and had little chance of surviving. A lot of people at school worried for her, but after a week it was discovered that she'd made the entire story up. The following week she showed up in my class with a wide scar on her left wrist, and I knew this cry for help was more serious than I'd imagined. I set up a meeting with her counselor, her parents, and the principal, and her parents were flabbergasted at the stories she was telling at school. The scar on her wrist was dismissed as a cat scratch, though Jackie had told me it was from a neighbor's cat, while at the meeting her mom said it was her own. The story was at the same time, too consistent yet inconsistent. I knew the truth. Over the next few months, I never admonished Jackie for the lie she'd told, and with that became about the only adult with whom she could trust to talk. |