"Please excuse my daughter for not being in school these last two days...
..She just had an abortion. We just found out she pregnant and we had to get her the abortion," the woman, most likely in her thirties told me with vacant, glass eyes. She said this, not in the hallway, under hushed tones, away from the other students in the room. She let me privy to this corner of her world, a corner that is far darker it would have been in the world I am used to, at a volume that filled the room. There was no sense of shame or embarrassment. Those words were stated as if she were to say,
"Please excuse my daughter from your class....She had the sniffles and a tummy-ache."
I had no idea how to react. I had told the mother that she would be excused for those days and if she needed to take an extra day today, I understood. She let me know that the girl would be in my class and she would be doing all of her make-up work.
I happened to walk past her desk today while she was chatting with friends. She was relaying a story about a fight she had been in the previous night. A day past her abortion, and she was fight a girl because she was "talking shit." She mentioned that she had in fact pulled the girl's "weave out her head."
I am not going to delve into my personal opinion of abortion. I have always felt that the right to privacy and jurisdiction of one's own body should be guaranteed. That does not mean that I do not realize the fact that the choice is not an easy one.
I have known several young women who have had abortions. It was physically and emotionally devastating to them. Living in a culture where death is rare and mourned heartily, I was floored by the casualness taken about the matter at hand. This was the first time this job had shocked me since my first year of teaching.
I honestly don't see how anyone has the mettle to take on this job for more than a few years. Before I was offered the job on the northside, I gave this school another year, three at tops. Now that I know that my stay is only temporary, I can't see how I envisioned this.
The school has two teachers who have been there since the seventies. They are strong, hard working men. I have no fucking clue what is in their veins, but it ain't blood.
..She just had an abortion. We just found out she pregnant and we had to get her the abortion," the woman, most likely in her thirties told me with vacant, glass eyes. She said this, not in the hallway, under hushed tones, away from the other students in the room. She let me privy to this corner of her world, a corner that is far darker it would have been in the world I am used to, at a volume that filled the room. There was no sense of shame or embarrassment. Those words were stated as if she were to say,
"Please excuse my daughter from your class....She had the sniffles and a tummy-ache."
I had no idea how to react. I had told the mother that she would be excused for those days and if she needed to take an extra day today, I understood. She let me know that the girl would be in my class and she would be doing all of her make-up work.
I happened to walk past her desk today while she was chatting with friends. She was relaying a story about a fight she had been in the previous night. A day past her abortion, and she was fight a girl because she was "talking shit." She mentioned that she had in fact pulled the girl's "weave out her head."
I am not going to delve into my personal opinion of abortion. I have always felt that the right to privacy and jurisdiction of one's own body should be guaranteed. That does not mean that I do not realize the fact that the choice is not an easy one.
I have known several young women who have had abortions. It was physically and emotionally devastating to them. Living in a culture where death is rare and mourned heartily, I was floored by the casualness taken about the matter at hand. This was the first time this job had shocked me since my first year of teaching.
I honestly don't see how anyone has the mettle to take on this job for more than a few years. Before I was offered the job on the northside, I gave this school another year, three at tops. Now that I know that my stay is only temporary, I can't see how I envisioned this.
The school has two teachers who have been there since the seventies. They are strong, hard working men. I have no fucking clue what is in their veins, but it ain't blood.
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