Personal Advocacy Reflection

I had a student several years ago I will call "Josie". This girl came to a team of teachers a sad and troubled sixth grader. She was very intelligent, always completed her school work and made good grades. It took her a very long time to trust this team of four teachers because she had been let down by adults her entire life.
Josie began to open up to the teachers by saying small things, such as "I hate weekends, I would rather be at school." This seemed odd but, knowing what her home looked like, made some sense. Josie was often looking for ways to get attention. She had the makings of a pretty good athlete, but would often be "hurt". She complained about knee pain and walked around on crutches much of her seventh grade year.
Luckily, the team of teachers that Josie began sixth grade with looped up with her to seventh grade. It took half of that year for Josie to finally open up to one of the teachers in the form of a letter. She began her letter "Please believe me..." The contents of this letter was heart wrenching. The amount of physical, sexual and mental abuse that this little girl was going through at the hands of SEVERAL family members was horrifying.
The teacher shared the letter with the rest of the team and reported what he was told to the authorities, as is required by law. A month and a half went by and Josie came to this teacher and asked if he had believed her letter. He told her that he had believed her and had reported her situation to people who would help her. She asked him why she was still living the nightmare.
This teacher checked into the report and found out that the back log of cases had hindered protective services from investigating. After being told this, he decided that he would call everyday until the chid's home was checked out. This took another week and four days of calls before someone finally investigated this family.
Through the course of their investigation the abuse was proven and the child was removed from the home and sent to live in another state. This would have never happened without the diligence of one teacher who took the time to follow through to make a difference in the life of a child.
When Josie was sent away the teachers were not given an address or phone number in order to stay in contact. But, it was not long before Josie found them on Facebook and still keeps in contact today. She is struggling with her demons but is finally finding happiness with a foster family who will soon adopt her.