“Most here do not. We have the highest percentage in the district of kids in foster care. So many haven’t found their homes yet and are bounced around.”
“That’s terrible,” I said. Whenever I visited schools like this, I always remembered how fortunate I was. Some of these kids didn’t even have a home.
“Even some of the children who do live with a parent or other family may have different addresses from one week to the next,” the principal explained. “We’ve had our fair share of calls from police or child protective services letting us know that a child has been removed from a home. And sometimes we’ve had to make a heartbreaking call to child protective services to look into the health and safety of a child’s home.”
“I bet that’s one of the hardest calls you guys make,” Corey said.
“It’s very troubling. I’d rather have this whole front office filled with kids misbehaving than not know where they disappeared to.”
As we talked a little more about demographics, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the kids in some of these sad situations. One of the things we’d asked the principal for before coming to the school was for them to assist with selecting kids who might be less fortunate or in a bad place that we could invite up to the stage for some games and demonstrations. It was something Patrick suggested years ago. He said something that seemed so little to us, might be the one thing that would give the kid hope, motivation, or courage to fight another day.
I remembered when he said that to me and how terrible and sad I felt. He’d told me that I had been the only thing that kept him going in high school. And I remembered how much the news of Chase attempting suicide had devastated all of us. It still gutted me that Chase and Patrick were in that much anguish and agony. Both were fighting different battles, but both hurt to the point of giving up.
“Do you guys have a few students selected to help out?” I asked.
“We do, yes. We picked one from each grade level. Our P.E. teachers will assist with selecting them from the audience and ushering them onto the stage.”
“Great. Do any of them have physical limitations?” I asked.
“Aside from some bumps and bruises, they all appear to be in good health. The oldest boy, Devon, has been in and out of child protective services through most of the school year.”
I nodded and looked at Patrick and the rest of the team.
“Well, we’ll make sure everyone has a good time. At the end of the assembly, we’ll hang out by the doors and hand each kid a drawstring bag with some treats in it. And for the kids helping on stage, we have some bigger backpacks and T-shirts,” I said as we slowly walked toward the multi-purpose room.
Some classes were starting to file through the hallways to make their way to the assembly. While my marketing team and trainers went on without us, Patrick, Corey, and I remained in the hallway near the front office. There were many hushed reactions as kids walked by.
“Dude, there he is!”
“He’s huge!”
“Look at his muscles!”
“Oh my God, look! He’s right there!”
Seconds after we heard a little boy say that, we heard the noise of someone hitting the metal door divider. The boy had been looking back at us as he walked by and wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and smacked into the metal door divider.
“Nathan, that is why we face forward while walking in a line,” the teacher told him.
“That is Nathan Barnes. He’s the second grader who was selected to help,” the principal said.
“He looks eager,” Corey said.
“He’s a huge Hollis Ward fan. In fact…” the principal’s voice trailed off as she stepped toward a wall covered with kids’ projects. She motioned us over and then pointed to one. “This is Nate’s.”
The papers on the wall were from the second graders, and they were supposed to write what they wanted to be when they grow up. Nate’s read that he wanted to be a TCF fighter like Hollis Ward. His drawing had himself with a Team Dragon T-shirt and had my fighting record on the bottom with a cartoon version of me standing on top of it.
“Wow, impressive for a second grader,” I said and smiled.
“Especially since the fights aren’t televised except on pay-per-views,” Corey added.
“His father is a hardcore gambler. His teachers have mentioned that Nate knows sports stats for games daily. He sometimes says his homework isn’t done because they were at the casino.”
“Too little to stay home alone,” Corey said.
“Is there no one else to stay at home with him?” I asked.
“It’s just Nate and his father. His mother died while he was in kindergarten due to a battle with cancer. Nate is one of our roaming students with his address changing frequently. They’ve lived in weekly or extended stay types of places, motels, apartments, and even a short period in their car.”
