99- Back to School

The atmosphere of the school is much more positive when the students are in attendance. Kids were excited to show off their new holiday toys. Scattered throughout the sea of brand new coats and holiday sweaters, many of the kids had on pairs of Healie shoes. Healie shoes are the new fad amongst youngsters; they look like normal shoes, but have little wheels in the heel that jut out and allow the children to roll from place to place. Any kid with a pair of wheelies is the envy of others.
I realized how much I had missed my students as they collected in my classroom. Ignoring all fears of ringworm, I warmly returned hug after hug. The children were bursting with Christmas stories.

Kathleen: Santa had to come to my house twice! The first night he forgot to bring my Barbie Ferrari.
Francesca: Well, Santa brought me a pair of diamond earrings and a brand new tennis racket!
Robbie: I have seventeen GI- Joes and over two-hundred comic books!
Hannah: My mom let me eat chicken nuggets at every single meal, even for Christmas dinner.
Josh: I got wheelie shoes! I’m gonna cruise all over this school.

I allowed the children time to share with each other. They laughed and smiled as they joked with one another. I noticed that Demarcus had chosen not to participate in the discussion and was sitting quietly at his desk.
“Demarcus,” I asked him, “Did you have a nice time on your vacation?”
The boy silently shook his head.
“No?” I was afraid to ask, “Why not?”
“My house burned down.”
His house burned down?
“What?” I hoped I had heard incorrectly.
Demarcus went on to tell me that his house had burned down two days after Christmas. The family could not afford heat, so his mother had built a fire in the fireplace to produce some warmth. My ma’amma, she built a nice big fire, and I got to sit by it whenever I wanted. It wasn’t so cold with that fire burnin’. I liked it. My ma’amma, one day she say, Demarcus, we need to go to the store. So, my ma’amma and me, we left to go to the store. We left that fire going ‘cause my Grandma, she stay home and she want to keep warm. We weren’t gone too long, but when we got back, our whole house was burned down. All my Christmas presents got burnt up. But not this! Demarcus pulled a small toy car from his pocket. I had this with me! The boy smiled longingly at his toy.
What do you say to a child who’s home and all of his belongings have been burned in a house fire? I found myself wishing I could give Demarcus a home and new Christmas presents. Just like with Nelson, I wanted to be able to tell my student that everything would be all right, but I couldn’t. Instead I gave Demarcus yet another hug and sent him on his way, with Turd Boy, to the Resource Classroom.
After school, I went to speak with the Resource Teacher about Demarcus. I wanted to find out if she knew of a way to send donations to his family. The Resource Teacher told me that a local church had taken Demarcus and his mother in for the holidays. The boy and his mother were now homeless; his grandma had been killed in the fire.