How I Wrote It
 

I taught Remedial Reading (an ugly title if there ever was one) in the high school in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Texas.  There was a girl in my class, also in the special education classes that always wore a rain coat, day in day out and it was filled on the inside with cookies and candy.  The teachers had given it to her to keep her from accepting such “gifts” from boys who were up to no good.  Another girl’s grandmother had (illegally) had her sterilized after she had a baby at thirteen and forced her to give the baby up for adoption.  Another girl who was not in special education but in my classes led with her fists about everything.  There were stories everywhere in my classes and I merged and melded because I wanted their stories told in a respectful way.