By: Jayden Guidry
First Place Winner, 2015
Grades 4 to 6 Division
School Without Walls at Francis Stevens, 4th Grade
Teacher: Ly Nguyen
I didn’t have a good experience when I lived in foster care so I think that being a foster kid is not fair!
When I was 4, my brothers and I went to live with a foster family because my Mom couldn’t take care of us. The Smiths were nice at first, but they started beating us and they beat me more than my brothers. One time they slapped my face because I didn’t want to eat chicken and blood went everywhere. They told us not to tell. I was scared but one day I told my case worker about the beatings. Me and my brother Jordan moved to another foster family and my brother Joshua went to live with someone else. I have not seen Joshua since that day. We lived with a new foster family and then we were sent back to the foster family that beat us! I was scared to live with them again because I thought they would beat me even more for telling on them. I didn’t want to live there. My plan was to get in lots of trouble so that they would move us, and it worked and they moved us again.
Mr. and Mrs. Morris didn’t beat us, but I thought that they just liked Jordan. When I lived there, my case worker told me that I wouldn’t have any more visits with my Mom. I was angry and frustrated a lot. I would break and throw things and hit and kick people. I wanted to live with my Mom. One day, I was told that Jordan and I couldn’t live together anymore, and I moved again. Jordan stayed with the Morris’s and they adopted him. I’m glad that I can Face-Time Jordan and see him sometimes.
I moved to Momma Jones’s house. She was nice and she listened to me. She helped me talk about my feelings. I lived with her for more than a year before I moved from Texas to DC to live with my adoptive Mom.
Being a foster kid is not fair! I was separated from my birth Mom and brothers. I was beaten in foster care. I had to move around to different foster families. I felt like no one believed in me. I didn’t trust anyone so I had to fight for myself all the time. I can’t change what happened to me in foster care, but I’m getting better at coping with my past and dealing with my anger and frustration and trusting other people, so that’s good. I look forward to the future. I think that kids in foster care should be protected and treated nicer and people should try to understand them.