After that weekend Callie had another meeting with Judy the schools other head who provides most of the funding and fundraisers for the school (Judy is 60+, white, catholic, and has an exorbitant amount of money and apparently strong beliefs). In this meeting with both Tom and Judy, all the positive feelings she had were yanked away from her and she was told that she was not allowed to tell any other faculty or student in the building until they "figured out how to deal with her situation". Callie politely explained to them that she has wanted to have kids since she was 4 years-old and while she may not be in the best position she had a family giving her full support and is very confident in her ability to raise a child on her own. None of that seemed to matter. There was talk about bringing in multiple outside therapists to work with the children once they heard the news - to help them deal with the fact that their unmarried teacher was having a baby.
The thing about The Neighborhood Academy is that most of these kids are from broken families where their parents are in jail, they live in single family homes, have possibly a more confusing family structure than I do. They aren't going to care if she is having a child out of wedlock.
I somehow managed to be at school the day that one of the students and in turn the rest of the faculty found out the news. One 10th grade girl approached her in the hall- eyes beaming and just smiled and immediately Callie and I both knew that she knew. She whispered into Callie's ear, loud enough for the other students around to hear, and asked her if she was pregnant. Saying yes this apparently usually cold girl smiled and hugged her. Then my favorite response came "damnn Miss. Callie you gunnaa get fat" I'm pretty sure that was the best thing that could have happened. The next 2 hours was full of Callie telling the faculty and her favorite class about the baby. Most people didn't believe her at first and some of the students said "eww that means TJ (tom) is going to rub your belly".
The feedback from everyone continues to be positive. The kids who were going to need therapy and outside help to deal with the reality of her outrageous pregnancy, have in reality turned into caretakers giving her suggestions for eating healthy and making themselves feel apart of the babies life. They are able to connect to her on a more personal level because many of them have the ability to relate to her. One student came in the other day saying "miss. callie my mom said I have to be nice to you because you are going to have a bastard child just like her"
ANYWAY, this is a lot of information but it has made me look at a lot of different kinds of things. One of them being the hardships Callie is going through just because she is a single pregnant woman. She is literally jumping through hoops to appease her bosses so she can have a decent work environment. Another being the inappropriate advances her male boss is making on her. On top of rubbing her prego belly he has done a number of other things that if the gender roles had been reversed would be a totally different kind of situation. However, because he is a man in power over her she can't do much else other than tell him to stop. And to assume the kids at the school won't understand what it means to be pregnant without a husband makes it seem like everyone should see the world through the middle class "american dream" stereotype. But it isn't even close to the reality that many of the kids are living in. They should be emphasizing the fact the Callie is a successful and responsible adult who has made decisions that will only enhance the life of her baby.
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