Read the Room
When classes had gone online, I had a student of mine logged on who told me that her mom’s boyfriend hit her mommy, she was sleeping in the bathroom and wouldn’t get up. The student said she was scared and had her toddler sister with her under her bed. Nothing could have prepared me for this moment. I stayed really calm and told her I was going to help. The other kids started joining, but I told her to stay on no matter what I said to everyone else.
I grabbed my phone and started texting my boss and every other person in our school. Another teacher who I was close with ran into my classroom. She was a champ and started reading to the kids. We called the authorities and sent them to our address on file. However, they were not at the address listed in our contact information.
Another parent got on and told me to mute the girl, as she wasn’t supposed to have a sibling on the Zoom call. The toddler was crying. More people in my classroom were trying to help. I told everyone except for the girl to log off. She was in kindergarten, couldn’t really read yet, and started begging me not to end the call while trying to calm her sister.
This other mother was being difficult telling me how long I was officially supposed to Zoom and all this other garbage. I wanted to scream at her. Finally, the principal stepped into the screen and told her, in a really nasty tone, “Read the room, ma’am! Get off!” Everyone but the first kid and one other student logged off. The other student was a really kind boy.
I told him I needed him to go while the girl kept asking over and over, “Not me, right? I want to stay on. I’m scared.” The other student started comforting her, and we were all frantic. We started asking her where she was, if she could get to a phone, what the house looked like, all that stuff. An officer showed up at our school.
We called DHR. Meanwhile, we heard a man yelling at the student to quiet the baby. I felt complete horror, dismay, and helplessness. We were in a small town. After talking to the student and asking her mother’s name, the officer who came to our school realized he knew the family and might have an idea where they were. He sprinted out while we kept trying to comfort the girl, but she was upset.
Like an idiot, I had set my Zoom for 45 minutes, and time was coming to an end. I told her I was going to send another link, but it cut off. Every teacher and administrator was now in my class. We all felt helpless. A couple of minutes later, we got word the authorities had found her! I fell on my knees and started to cry. The boyfriend had, in fact, beat the mother. He was taken into custody. The mother was in the throes of addiction, so the little girl and her sister went to live with the grandparents in another state.
Story credit: Reddit / pretendthisisironic