This Is A True Story
It had horses, goats, sheep, an occasional cow, ducks, chickens, geese, a peacock and even a camel once. She had gone there since kindergarten. Nothing bad had happened. Not yet.
At the end of third grade, that’s when the trouble started, when the “improper touching” from her math teacher, the principal’s husband, started. It only happened once or twice, right before school ended for summer break, so she just pushed it aside. She didn’t think much of it.
But when she came back, it happened again. And again, and again and again. She knew it was wrong, not right. And even though he acted like it was innocent, she knew he knew it wasn’t. She knew because every time his wife would come by his classroom, he would stop.
It’s not like she wanted it to happen. She would forget something or be last out and he’d call her back. He would start and she’d make an excuse to leave. She didn’t tell anyone. Not her parents because she thought they would get angry. Why, she had no idea. She couldn’t tell her friends because her best friend was the teacher’s daughter. The only person she told was her sister because she just had to tell someone.
After it had been happening a while, she found out that it wasn’t just happening to her. It was happening to a few of her friends. They didn’t tell the teacher’s daughter but she found out anyhow. She told them that he did it to her but he was only showing his affection. She said it was innocent. But none of them believed her.
One day, the girl’s sister ended up telling her mom. Her mom told her that if it happened again they would have to do something. It happened again soon after but before she got a chance to tell her mom, the group of girls decided to have a pizza party so they could decide what to do.
The girl couldn’t go but during that party, the mom of one of the girls called the police. She told them everything. The mom told the police about what happened to every girl including the girl who didn’t show up.
Now the whole time, the girl had been praying, praying that he would stop. So when the teacher was taken away, her prayers were answered but her experience was not even close to over.
She continued to go to the same school. But her best friend was mad at her because her dad was taken away. The girl prayed and soon after her best friend wasn’t mad at her anymore.
She thought it was over but she was wrong. Since the teacher was denying that he had done the “improper touching,” there was going to be a trial. The court wanted the girl to testify. So, she got her own lawyer from the government. The lawyer asked her about what happened so the girl went over the whole thing while being video taped.
Then, the lawyer got her ready to testify. She showed the girl what to do when she was up on the witness stand. She told the girl that only once would she have to look at the man who had done this to her and that was when she had to point him out.
Now even though she was older, more mature and it was only one time where she would have to look at him, she was so scared. She was frightened. So, she prayed. She asked God to let her be able to go through with it. She asked God to let her say the right things. She asked Him to let her be calm, not scared and trembling.
God answered her prayer, just not the way she imagined. She pictured being up on the witness stand, all cool and collected or, as I should say, calm. “But there was no trial, no testifying.” Instead the teacher decided to take the lesser years in prison by saying he was guilty.
After the court thing, the girl prayed to God and asked him to not let this experience effect her life. He answered her prayer but in a different way. The experience only affected her life in a good way.
The school stayed open for two and a half more years. It just shut down a few months ago.
The girl left the school after fifth grade but not because of this experience. She went to a new school for sixth and seventh and found two great new friends. She is now in eighth grade.
She no longer feels like this happened to her. The only thing that connects her to it is the memory. Even when she does hear about the teacher, like in the paper, she doesn’t feel anything. It’s as if it were only a dream.
But she does watch out for strangers more. She doesn’t trust everyone all the time anymore. She tells her parents almost everything bad that happens to her. She is safer. The experience made her more aware. It had a “positive” effect.
So now the girl lives on like this never happened. In fact, most of her friends don’t even know it occurred. She’s an ordinary, mature, responsible (as her parents would say), thirteen-year-old girl.
Oh, by the way, that girl is me.
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