Checking In
I’m speaking for my girlfriend who is a special education teacher. One of her students’ parents lives in their car, so obviously the student does as well. My girlfriend has to talk to Child Protective Services almost weekly to make sure that everything is okay. It’s very sad, but the parents really are trying their best, and CPS can’t do anything because the girl isn’t necessarily neglected.
Her parents just can’t afford a home, and there doesn’t seem to be anything that anyone can do to help them. Then, there are the multitude of students who have been mistreated by their parents in a myriad of ways and have to explain it to their teachers. It’s extremely depressing and sad, and drives a lot of their behavioral issues down the road.
Furthermore, teachers hear kids use lots of swear words and talk about graphic and inappropriate things that they would not know about at their ages if they weren’t hearing certain things in the home. Many of her students are non-verbal and can only relay what they hear. They use all kinds of bad language and slurs, everything you can possibly imagine.
So I can only imagine what is going on in the kids’ lives to introduce them to these manners of speaking. I don’t know how my girlfriend does that job and lives with these situations on a daily basis, but I certainly admire her for it. No way I could deal with those things every day.