Eline

September 29th, 2011
Eline is one of my fifth grade students who comes to read with me every week to work on her reading skills. Today she came to school with her parents, which never happens in this culture. The word quickly spread that she was pregnant. She’s 11 years old. Back in May, she started her first period and then didn’t have another one. Her mom started to get worried and took her to the hospital in town. She is 3 months pregnant and brave enough to still show her face at school. But today was her last day at Lamkail Primary School. This morning the school council had a meeting to decided what to do about the situation. They kicked her out (even though she could have finished the school year off). It’s kastom here that once you start having kids your education is over. Even though the law says that all children are given the right to free education through 6th grade. After discussing what happened with several teachers and clost friends of mine in the community I realized there was nothing I could do. The school council justified their decision by saying that Eline would be a bad influence on the other students and that if she came everyone would want to have babies too….ridiculous. The part about this story that makes me most upset is that Eline and I were just starting to really work together on reading. She was finally putting sounds together in her head. All that’s left to do now is pray that her 11 year old body survives the pregnancy and that this boy is good to her.