Mrs. Jones?" 1
"Yes Sara?" The teacher looked at the sweet little girl sitting at the round table. 2
"I know how to spell my name." The little girl said excitedly. 3
"Good Sara, tell me how." The teacher proudly prodded her on. 4
"S-a-r-a". The little girl said each letter carefully as if they were jewels. She said them without stopping or stumbling. 5
"Excellent!" Her kindergarten teacher said enthusiastically, She had worried about Sara's progress, but she was coming along quite nicely. There was no doubt about it. 6
"Now who can make words with the letters in their name?" Remember like the book we read?" 7
The teacher challenged the rest of the class. Sara’s hand shot up once more, and the teacher smiled, and said, "Yes Sara?" 8
"'S' is for sand, cause I love the beach. 9
'A' is for animals cause I love my puppy. 10
'R' is for run cause I like to run fast. 11
'A' is for apple cause it's my favorite fruit" 12
"That’s right Sara, I will make sure I will write those words down for you so that you can take them home." 13
"Thank you Mrs. Jones" Sara replied. 14
Her teacher had heard that Sara's home life was not that great, she thought to herself that maybe if her mother could see how intelligent her daughter was she might appreciate the talent she was showing at such an early age, and learn to appreciate Sara a little more. 15
"Time for recess" The teacher said, and the students all lined up for their final recess before going home. 16
A week later the principal came to see Mrs. Jones in her classroom. 17
"Mrs. Jones?" The principal said quietly. 18
"Yes?" Mrs Jones replied cheerfully as she looked up from her morning planning. 19
"I have some bad news for you." The teacher saw her principal looked perplexed and sad. 20
"Your student Sara will not be in." 21
"Oh my, everything okay?" 22
"Unfortunately not, she was murdered last night in her home, they are unsure who did it yet, but they know her mother was involved somehow." 23
Mrs. Jones was not sure how to reply as the tears welled up in her eyes. The thought of that sweet little girl that was so bright, so loving, so defenseless, with her huge inquisitive green eyes, her beautiful long thick brown hair. She was the one that all the children loved so much, and now would not coming back to the class. Her mind raced, and she felt like she was suffocating, and she was sure would not be able to go on, It seemed so unfair. 24
"How should I tell the students?" she questioned as the tears started rolling down her cheeks. 25
"I’m not sure there is a way to tell them Mrs. Jones, I know it will be hard, we will bring a councilor in the class to help, and just do your best." The principal said gently. 26
"Thank you." Mrs. Jones said her voice barely audible as she felt that her entire teaching life was flashing in front of her eyes, she felt the questions of her own actions well up inside of her. "Could I have done more?" She questioned herself. She warily looked at her morning preparations, what would be the best thing to do she wondered? What could she do to ease the pain that she felt and her children would soon be feeling? How could she go on today? Suddenly she remembered the poem that Sara had recited the week before, she wrote it on a piece of paper. She decided that they would have a memorial of sorts for that sweet angel. They could all say what they remembered about Sara, and they could celebrate the fact that they knew her. She hoped it would work. She hoped that little Sara would somehow be with them in spirit. As she printed down the 'r' she remembered that Sara had said she liked to run fast, she was once again devastated, how she wished Sara had been able to run faster than the person that had murdered her. She had a good cry and gathered herself together, she would have to be strong for her class she told herself as she tried to breath. A few years later one of her old students peaked in her door. 27
"Mrs. Jones?" The beautiful blonde haired girl called to her. 28
"Yes?" Mrs Jones said, "Come in" she said, she still recognized the student as a girl she had taught eleven years before. 29
"I just dropped by to say thanks." The girl said with a smile on her face as she continued, 30
"I know you are retiring soon, and I wanted you to know that after all these years I have not forgotten what you did for my family and me." 31
"I did what I felt was the right thing, I am just so grateful it worked out, you were so young and defenseless, and now you are graduating an honor student, I understand?" Mrs. Jones said to her with a proud look in her eye. 32
"Yes, I think my mom was angry at you for awhile, but she never hit me again, and she went to get help, and even went back to school herself, all because of your call, but Mrs. Jones, I never knew and I always wanted to ask...how did you know?" The girl questioned her as if she had wondered about the answer for many years. 33
Mrs. Jones exhaled a long breath, one that it seemed she had been holding in for a long time, and she said, "It was Sara, a little girl named Sara that taught me never to ignore the warning signs of abuse, the bruises, the hurt, the sadness, and she taught me that it wouldn’t go away unless someone did something, or said something to help." 34
"Sara? That is such a pretty name...how do you spell it?" Her former student asked. 35
"S-a-r-a" Mrs. Jones recited as if she was the child herself. 36
"S-a-r-a without an h?" The student replied 37
"Yes without the h, but the h would have stood for happiness had I had known what to do, but now I just have hope it won't have to happen to others." 38
The teacher suddenly felt old and sad herself, and looked up at her former student, she wondered when she retired would the next teacher understand..39
Author notes
I know there is typos, I know there is typos, I know there is grammar mistakes, please look past that into the meaning of the story.
What did you think? Please comment!
Comments
1 - 15 of 15
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Oops... forgot to leave the link to "I Want My Mommy"
www.allpoetry.com/poem/463249
I hope you'll read it
Thanks
Dee
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Gawd, I'm sitting here with tears running down my cheeks... this is such a heartbreaking story, yet so beautiful in it's own way. I know things like this happen over and over. I know myself of so many cases similiar to this.
You've taken the all too short life of a little girl and made it truly memorable for what she accomplised in that short life. and then turned it into something helpful. Little Sara had a purpose in life, a very meaningful purpose and through you has opened a lot of eyes and minds to be aware of the symptoms of child abuse. Hooray for you both.
This is a wonderful story, it makes us smile and makes us sad .....and makes us aware.
I wrote a poem about a little three year old girl, titled "I Want My Mommy" about a true incident. I invite you to read it.
Big
for this one 
: Dee
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this was a great story..i agree withthe message and as a teacher i had to do a bit of reporting my self in the past.. but have no remorse over it..congrats in the win.. very much deserved ~iccara~
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OOO, I love the ending, that was smooth. "How do you spell it?" I liked that, hmm, this was written very well. I REALLY love the ending.
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i love it! It is one of my favorites! Great write
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Wow. . . . This one amazed me. The message is so powerful and true. This was so sad, and yet there was hope in the end. You did a great job with this. Good luck in my contest.
~Andy -
I really enjoyed this piece, you done a great job, I will have to tell andy this is one of my favorites in this contest, Keep up the good work!
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Excellent!
This is a sad story, but it is also hopeful. It shows what one person can do when she discovers something is wrong. It shows that every child has the potential to succeed.
Yes there are a lot of punctuation errors, and a couple of odd capitalizations. About halfway through I stopped noticing, and I would have to go back to see them. If you can detach yourself from the story, I'm sure you will see them too. There is a spellcheck error: as a verb, use breathe at the end of the big paragraph.
This is a valuable story, it should be published.
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Thank you so much for reading Because of Sarah. It was based on a true story, but very much fiction. I agree that teachers have a responsibility to report when children are being abused. and unfortunaltely it happens all too often. We as schools have a responsiblity to be pillars in our society!
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Wow! This was truly an amazing write. What is so sad is the fact that all of this happens in our day to day life. Some teachers andother adults see things like this happening but never say anything. We all need to take a firm stand against abuse so there won't have to be any more sad cases like Sara.
StillReal -
Excelent
AGAIN I TOOK A DEEP BREATH AT THE END OF THIS. I AM IN TEARS. MY TEACHERS, SOME OF THEM, ARE AS CLOSE AS SISTERS. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WOULD DO IF SOMETHING HAPPEND TO ONE OF THEM. I IMAGINE THAT IT WOULD BE THE SAME WAY FOR THEM ABOUT ME. ANYWAY THIS WAS AN EXCELENT STORY. YOU WILL GO ON MY FAVORITES AND I WILL APLAUD THIS. AGAIN VERY GOOD JOB. -
Oh my gosh! This is such a sad story, yet it says so much. Your writing is magnificent! My mom used to hit me, but i odnt think she'd ever KILL me (hopefully not..). The discriptiveness in this short story was awesome, i had a little motion picture in my head the whole time i was reading it. Another thing i liked, is that you had a mini poem within the write (S-A-R-A). Very creative. Great write, keep up the good work! (also, on the part where you had, "A few years later.." I thijnk you should make that a new paragraph, but thats just my opinion.
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hauntingly beautiful&more
Oh, so, so moving, I think I need to cry, also...
It, Oh, I remember this and you've written, given so, so much, here...yes, I could cry, but you show us that caring and 'doing' something helped someone else and still...Oh, beautiful, Paps... beautiful & haunting...
Oh...(((you!))) -
Thank you so much for the comment...I am pleased you read it, and you did so, so fast! Hands invisible a kleenex and a hug
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omg thats so sad i feel like crying. that was a great write. im going to go cry now.
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