High School Claire

Had a teacher asked High School Claire to write a story about the most difficult thing that had ever happened to her and read it in front of 250+ people, she would have scoffed! (and then possibly scampered off to write a very melodramatic story, but damned if she would have read it aloud in front of anyone).

1999: two of my senior portraits, heehee

But miraculously, my high school students are very different than High School Claire, cause man did they blow me (and everyone else) away when they took on that very task.  

Over the course of the semester, my ROOTS students have been writing stories and poems about their incarcerated family members.  Some were present for their parent's arrest, others spent much of their childhood visiting their fathers or mothers in state prison, some have been incarcerated themselves.

The auditorium was overflowing, and there were at least 40 people standing.  I can hardly conceive of the bravery it must have taken for these teenagers to share their words.  I wish you all could have been there, but here are some short clips to give you an idea of what it was like:

Can you see why I'm such a proud mama hen?