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    DarthPumpkinAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 8:57pm

    That's one badass assistant principal.

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      Snacktastic Part II: the Snack AwakensDarthPumpkin
      1/13/16 8:59pm

      I agree. It speaks to someone who really cares about the kids in his school

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      secretagentmanDarthPumpkin
      1/13/16 9:12pm

      That AP is a fricken hero.

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    Rapunzel's Frying PanAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 9:09pm

    Okay, first: Kudos to the teacher who didn’t attribute the child’s exhaustion to laziness or disrespect. I know that should be a given, but many signs of abuse and neglect are blamed on the child.

    Second: I want to give that assistant principle a high five and a medal and a hug.

    And finally, third: Up to seven years? Up to seven years? Up to seven years?

    GIF
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      clockworkandcameosRapunzel's Frying Pan
      1/13/16 9:57pm

      That is so true. My teachers in high school attributed my exhaustion and lack of focus to laziness and disinterest.

      In reality my father was keeping me up all night because he would be on a drug fueled bender, he would use the drugs and couldn’t remember then rip me out of bed and accused me of stealing them to mess with him.

      I signed up for and attended summer school/standardized testing prep even though I didn’t need to because I would rather be at school in 90 degree weather and no air conditioning than to be home with him.

      The fact that the teacher and assistant principle did so much to help these children, I admire them so much for it. I truly hope they are recognized for what they do for the students.

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      Rapunzel's Frying Panclockworkandcameos
      1/13/16 10:21pm

      I’m so sorry that you had to endure that kind of turmoil at the hands of someone who is supposed to love and respect you, and the ignorance of people who are supposed to be aware and intervene when your wellbeing was compromised. Thank you for sharing your experience.

      I agree that they should be recognised and praised. Being overworked and underpaid is gruelling and can drain even the best of humanity’s optimism. This inevitably leads to the cynicism that contributes to micro-aggressions and oversight of abuse victims. And while it doesn’t seem like our politicians will be able to get their heads out of their asses long enough to reform the education system and its perceived value, the least we all can do it give credit where it is due to the educators advocating for their students.

      I would really like to know their names. While identifying the abuser is understandable, I’d like the opportunity to recognise these people by name!

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    spektraVDGAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 8:48pm

    Only seven years? Bullshit.

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      AllieCat ❤️'S hats on cats-is probable weirdospektraVDG
      1/13/16 8:54pm

      Literally word for word what I thought too. She stole their childhoods. Not enough time.

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      BicycleBettyspektraVDG
      1/13/16 8:57pm

      Seriously I reiterate, seven years? This kind of shit goes on a lot more often than Americans are willing to admit. And, it continues because human trafficking is a low risk/high reward crime. Among all the evils humans have concocted for one another, this type is damn near the worst.

      I praise the children for speaking up as well as their care-givers who gave them the strength to do so.

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    Ari Schwartz: Dark Lord of the SnarkAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 8:58pm

    Huh. So trafficking children gets less than 10 years?

    Eww.

    Huh.

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      Ari Schwartz: Dark Lord of the SnarkAri Schwartz: Dark Lord of the Snark
      1/13/16 9:02pm

      Eh. Never mind. Even I’m not up for that dark of a joke right now. Ignore this. Test post.

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    V.Anna Merlan
    1/14/16 4:50am

    How are things so fucked up in America that a woman can force two kids under 16 to work in a supermarket? In the UK, we have really strict laws governing the ages, working hours and pay of 16yo’s, and there are very very very few jobs for under 16's - Paper rounds mostly, and even then the liability issues and local authority oversight is pretty tight. I remember working in a popular high street newsagent and stationary retailer at the age of 16 and the rules about WHEN we could work and for how long were crazy strict!

    I’m glad someone at the school was giving a shit though. When you have hundreds of pupils pass in front of you daily, it can be hard to confirm your suspicions. When I was a trainee teacher, one of my placements was in an all-girls school and half my Year 10 class were 15yo Muslim girls who barely said a word in class and just got their heads down and did their work: Model pupils. Other, more disruptive pupils tended to suck up my time (I was a trainee remember, I was new to teaching so my behaviour management was still a work in progress) so these silent girls in Hijabs, bent industriously over their work tended to fly under the radar a bit. That is until the end of the spring term. When we returned from the Easter holidays, one of them was missing. Her parents reported her as ‘Off sick’. They did this for 3 weeks until the mandatory pupil absence rules kicked in on the register system and alerted the local authorities. Turns out the missing girl would never come back to school. It transpired that during the easter break, her family had gone back to Pakistan for a family wedding. They returned without her. Guess who the bride was.

    I don’t know what happened to the parents (I heard that the local authority was pursuing a forced marriage charge), but that little group of girls became even more quiet and withdrawn, and when I spoke to their form tutor, she told me that this happened regularly and that it was likely that one by one half of these quiet, industrious girls would disappear during the holidays and never come back - some families were keen on their daughters getting GCSEs, A-levels and going to University, but just as many weren’t interested in educating them beyond the age of 15 or so - only until they were old enough to marry off.

    My eyes were opened and I was genuinely saddened at how many of these girls just sit quietly in class, working hard, not drawing attention to themselves in any way until one day they just aren’t there any more, and it really hit home to me how hard it is for teachers to spot potential trouble like this. The ones with problems tend to be the quietest.

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      Surprise! HippopotamusV.
      1/14/16 6:35am

      It’s pretty likely they were working illegally/off the books, as it sounds like they were not in the country legally and therefore would not have been able to obtain the necessary “working papers” teens need to apply for jobs.

      Outside of this tragic situation, there’s nothing inherently fucked up about teenagers working at a grocery store, in my opinion. There are loads of examples of the US being fucked up, but I don’t think our teens being allowed to work (under a number of restrictions until age 18) is one of them. I was working at my local grocery store by age 15 on the weekends and in the summers by my own choice—got a solid work ethic, earned some money, made friends from other high schools, and learned to interact with both bosses and the public. It was a great experience all around.

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      KaeteV.
      1/14/16 7:08am

      Generally if teenagers are working legally, there are restrictions - only so many hours during the week, less hours allowed on a school night, only during certain times of day.

      Some of the work laws are pretty archaic, though - New York had exemptions for newsies, for goodness sake.

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    IgAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 8:52pm

    We. Need. To. Pay. And. Respect. Our. Teachers. More.

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      ferdinandthebullIg
      1/13/16 8:57pm

      I agree in general, but assuming they have been going to school for the full five years it is amazing that it took that long.

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      Igferdinandthebull
      1/13/16 9:34pm

      Maybe if we respected and paid our teachers more they’d have the time, energy, and resources to help sooner. Francis Lewis High School is overcrowded with huge class sizes—I’m sure the teachers there are stretched thin as it is, as are teachers in every lower income neighborhood in the U.S.

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    RevengeofthegreysAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 8:57pm

    Sometimes I feel very discouraged that there are so many assholes roaming around stealing souls. Fuck seven years. These kids will need a lifetime of therapy.

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      CountvegasRevengeofthegreys
      1/14/16 6:53am

      Exactly!!! As an elementary school teacher, I’ve found myself in a similar situation. The child & his siblings always came to school disheveled, exhausted & hungry. It was discovered that they were all subjected to physical, sexual, emotional & mental abuse. Their “mom” was charged & that BITCH received NO jail time! She was ordered to take parenting classes, while her “mother” (who was aware of the abuse all along) “raised” the children. IRONY-1 of the abused children, age 16, was arrested for marijuana possession & SENTENCED to 6 mos in a juvenile detention facility!!! WTF is the justice?!?!?!? SMH...

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      krystollaRevengeofthegreys
      1/14/16 8:58am

      She should be paying for their lifetime of therapy. If you ruin someone's car you have to pay to get that fixed. Should be the same if you ruin someone's life.

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    IsonoxAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 9:52pm

    Everyone else has already covered the important bits, but that last line about the grocery store sticks out to me. If the mother was taking their wages, should the store have to pay the children again? Was the store aware of how the money was being used? Shouldn’t the mother be forced to give them their earnings back? Is it even legal for them to be employed at that age? Or is it simply that the AP wanted them to get their last paychecks and then quit because they shouldn’t have to work there anymore?

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      BCDFGIsonox
      1/13/16 10:14pm

      Totally not legal, but in outer borough NYC supermarkets it’s very common to have someone working off-the-books at the end of the conveyor belt/register, just for tips. (For anyone reading this: if you’re ever at a supermarket that does that —don’t shop there).

      And from the description of the story, it sounds like the kids simply turned over money to Mommy Dearest because they didn’t know any better. That principal did the right thing by teaching those kids that they earned their own money and they should keep it —poor kids have probably been gaslighted to death with filial piety stories, and it’s got to be super important to build their self-regard back after an experience like that.

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      KaeteIsonox
      1/13/16 10:38pm

      A.) The woman was not their mother.

      B.) The salary owed was certainly just their most recent paycheck. A company does not owe anyone extra pay because a person unconnected to the business stole their money.

      C.) Looks like state law allows 18 work hours for minors attending school who are 14 (more hours if they are older), so they could have been working legally.

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    TheVageniusAnna Merlan
    1/13/16 8:53pm

    Thank Dog for people willing to stand up for those kids. Someone said recently - You can’t save everyone but you can certainly help someone!

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      IhaterickysomuchAnna Merlan
      1/13/16 9:14pm

      How are all those terrible things only worth 7 years in prison?

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