Letters from Students

Most teachers probably love getting letters from students.  I don’t.  I know, that is weird, but true.  Every time I get a letter from a student it is because that student is writing me from jail.  (If you didn’t know, I work at a school for Youth-in-Custody of the state.)

You see, they have lots of free time there (in jail).

And they are finally drug free.

And they are thinking about their lives.

And, I think they are lonely and for most of my students their teachers are the only people they know who care about them.

Today, I got a letter in my box and I knew automatically who it was from.  I have a former student who has already been in jail once.  He had me for 4/5 periods a day 2 years ago.  Sometimes he called me Mom.  He was that one student that I thought I had changed his life.

But, no.  I didn’t.  Not really.  Not in the ways that really matter.

Here are parts of his letter (I’m not going to change his spelling or grammar):

“Yeah I have been in Jail. It felt like I lost everything.  I gave up on my self.”

“I was homeless and lonly.”

“I had no where to go. My mom was living in a hotel and still is now, using drugs and still drinking.”

“I went back to my past pretty much. I felt no love, I did not know what to do.  I was lost.  So I bet you can guess what happened next, I wanted to hide my feelings, so I only knew one ay to do that. USE DRUGS. Which I hate to say but its true.”

“I whould steal things, which I am not proud of”

“I did not care for anything but my stupid high. I whould go weeks without eating, couple of times I had to cheack my self into the hospital”

“On top of all this I am supose to have a kid due in December 18th, I don’t know what to do.  She wants to give it up for adoption. I want to keep it.”

“I love you like a mom, really I mean it, thank you for everything you do to help me.”

And I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this.  Reading things like this really upset me.  I can’t even imagine living that life.

Getting letters like this make me wish we didn’t have the mail system.  Honestly, I was happy in my ignorance – in this situation at least.