text: I lasted about three years as a substitute teacher. I would fill in at this one school just about every day. The school was mostly made up of a minority population and the school was in a very impoverished area. It was nearly impossible for the school to keep permanent teachers. The kids really suffered from the lack of having a consistent teacher knowing the kid’s quirks and their idiosyncrasies. Also, unfortunately the teacher was the only assurance for some of the kid’s to see their basic needs were being met. I remember seeing the despair in a seven year old’s face, then I had to try to figure out how to make that kid feel comfortable for at least a short while. Sometimes just by giving the kid a snack would help. Other times nothing would help, because the kid was digesting whatever insanity they faced the previous night at home. I really wanted the kids to feel safe and it broke my heart seeing them unkempt, nervous, emotionally unavailable.... Some of the kids were so quiet that they were almost forgotten. The “bad kids” instinctually knew in order to get their basic needs met they needed to do something to garner attention. I class hopped all year long, but I would spend a few days at a time in each class. I finished my first year and had a sense of fulfillment that I made it through the whole year. The summer went by fast and the next year started. Now I felt like a seasoned veteran and I picked up on more trends of the school and the kids. I did the same thing as the previous year. I went from class to class. I was a little disappointed that some of the kids moved onto private schools or were switched to being home schooled, but ultimately it may have been in their best interest. A few weeks into the school year all of the kids knew who I was and I knew them. About half way through the year two of the students were taken out of the school to be home schooled. I learned this when I would take roll call and there names were crossed out from the list. I was surprised the two kids were being home schooled, because the two kids had issues with their basic needs being met. I tried to give the parents the benefit of the doubt because sometimes you could put the kid’s favorite food in front of them and they still wouldn’t eat it or you could hand them a tooth brush and unless you wanted to force their mouths open they weren’t going to brush their teeth. These two kid’s were somewhere in the middle, where they weren’t the worst as far as there needs not being met and they weren’t the best. They were quiet and just kind of blended in. I really couldn’t focus on the two that left, because I needed to focus on the kids still present and the problems at hand. However. I was left pondering about the two kids who were dis enrolled and left under the pretenses of being “homeschooled”. I was surprised their parents or guardians actually took the time to enroll them in a homeschool program considering what those two kids looked like on an average day. Once again the school year was winding down and unfortunately the summer flew bye and I was back at school. It was really cute that the kids remembered me from the previous year and I remembered them as well. I also wasn’t shocked that the school from grades one through eight only had one permanent teacher. There were multiple home room’s for each grade as well. The school did a horrible job at teacher recruitment and none of the new grads wanted to step foot in the school because of the impoverished area. I got used to parking my car up the street by an abandoned house that had no windows, but a kid right out of college couldn’t see past that or the virtual minimum wage pay. The only consistency the school had was the principle. She had been there for years. She had no time for nothing. she would interview one counselor / social worker only to see them leave after three months. The principle was always on the phone putting out whatever fire that needed to be addressed. It was so bad that I had to create my own lesson plans as a substitute teacher and the principle would blindly approve whatever I wrote down. The school was just complete and utter chaos. once again, right before christmas break during roll call, for one of the third grade classes, I discovered one of the kid's had dis enrolled from the school. Almost, the same MO, where the kid was one of those kid's that just blended in at this school, but would have every government run agency swarming to ensure the kid was ok at any suburban school. I checked the school records and the kid's reason for being dis enrolled was "homeschool" and once again I thought it was really odd a guardian would take that initiative. I wanted to learn the process for a kid to be enrolled as "homeschool". I learned that it only required that the guardian fill out the government form and for the school to keep a copy of the form. I managed to go to where the records were stored for the school. I found the "homeschool" forms for the two kids last year and the one kid this year. I was surprised on how formal the "homeschool" forms were filled out. i was expecting misspelled words with horrible penmanship. I made a copy of the forms because I had learned how horrible it was to retrieve anything from the school. Everything got lost or misplaced. During, the Christmas break I decided to follow up on the three students. The "homeschool" forms had their phone number's and their addresses. I felt extremely awkward and what I was doing wasn't completely legal. I wanted to avoid calling because what was I going to say "I was your kid's substitute teacher and ...". So what I did was I parked my car close to where the address listed was given on the form, which was also extremely awkward and besides the fear of being in my car in the neighborhood, I felt like everyone was watching me. I tried to give the illusion that I was in my car for a reason. I was always reading something with the hopes that the locals thought I was some kind of local authoritative figure or perhaps even that I was working undercover, which I sort of was doing. I sat in that car all day and I didn't see the “homeschool” kid at all. I did see a few grown ups come and go but I didnt see the kid. I decided to go to the next kid's house address that was listed on the "homeschool" form and pretty much with the same outcome and then onto the last kid's house with once again the same outcome. I just left it at that and the Christmas break was just about over. After, the first day back I decided to muster enough courage and actually call the "homeschool" kids. Two of the lines were disconnected and one of the lines rang and rang with no one answering. I couldn't just drop this at this point. I had to take it to the next step and and knock on the kid's door. I was beyond petrified on the reception that I would receive at the front door and to be honest some of the adults who I saw leaving the homes were down right scary. So, after school with my school ID in hand, I walked to the first "homeschool" address. I waited a minute before I knocked on the door to talk myself up and muster enough courage that I needed. I knocked and an adult woman answered the door and said "what do you want". I mumbled a few words of who I was and then asked how the kid was doing? she looked at me and said "There ain't no kid here" then I said "do you remember the last time you saw ... " she raised her voice "like I said there ain't no kid here" and slammed the door. I decided to go to the next two "homeschool" house's and once again I basically got the same responses. The next week at school I nonchalantly asked the other kid's if they seen or heard from the "homeschool" kids and each one pretty much said that before the kids left for "homeschool" the only time they saw them was during school time. So, now I was at a dead end. I had taken notes of all the steps I had taken. I reexamined the "homeschool" forms and pretty much saw what I already knew. The form's penmanship's were very similar. From reading hundreds of handwritten papers, I learned that everyone has there own style and even if you were to try to conceal a particular way you wrote the letter "A" eventually you would slip up in a word and revert back to how you would typically write. That's what I noted in the "homeschool" forms. They were all different but if you looked hard enough you would see similarities. I dug a little deeper and went to the main office to see if anyone recalled what guardian dropped off the "homeschool" form. I asked the guidance counsellor and she said "I just started two weeks ago ..." and then I just tuned her out. I was just sick of hearing that. At the end of the day, I reluctantly went to the principle. I knew what I was doing wasn't by the rules. It was probably border line illegal. I remember the principle's hair that day was in every direction and she just looked like she was at her last wit. I explained to her what I was doing regarding the "homeschool" kids and I basically asked her if she had any ideas. She didn't say a word and basically just shook her head no looking completely defeated. Then, the next week started and I went to the office and to drop off my lesson plan. I just happened to see a very poised woman who had to be in her early 70's talking to the guidance counselor. She caught my attention because she mentioned the word "homeschool". The woman had a very calming voice like a very liked kindergarten teacher. She was dressed very nicely and just overall looked very pleasant. almost like the Grandma you wished more of these kids would have. I finally felt relieved and a bit embarrassed. I rarely saw the kid's parents / guardians especially being the substitute teacher. But at least now, I was actually able to see the process with my own eyes. Now it's springtime and I'm doing my typical rotation throughout the school. One day I was doing roll call and one of the kids I saw a line through their name meaning the kid was no longer at the school. I remembered that kid. Pretty much the same MO as the previous "homeschool" kid's as being Quiet, emotionally not available, ... Basically, if I didn't see the kid's name with a line through it then I wouldn't know the kid was gone nor would anyone else. I went down to the records office to see where the latest kid went to. I found the file and saw the “homeschool” form. I looked at the form and once again the penmanship didn’t seem to fit the kid’s suspected home life. Once again, I saw the same pattern with the other three. The penmanship on the forms were almost intentionally made to look different. Once more, I was able to match the date on the form with the chance encounter with the elegant looking woman in her 70’s I had in the near past. Something just wasn’t right. I spoke to the guidance counselor and amazingly she was still employed, but she really had no additional information regarding the woman or the kid. Then, I pretty much followed the same steps as the previous three kids and came out with pretty much the sam results. The kid wasn’t at the address and the phone was disconnected. At this point, I really wanted answers and just some assurance the “homeschool” kids were ok. I thought to myself Let’s face it, it’s rare for one of the kids to move on to bigger and better things it does happen but it’s rare. If the four kids were dis enrolled because the parents moved and transferred schools, I would have been like ok that’s understandable and then I could just follow up with the new school’s if necessary. But with the last “homeschool” kid it was just literally days since the kid left to be homeschooled and no one at the address given on the form had any idea what I was talking about. I checked the initial school records for the “homeschool” kid’s when they first enrolled at the school. The forms were typically half hazardly filled out with a lot of information missing. A lot of times, the family members didn’t want to give away information because of whatever illegal activities they were involved in. The school rarely if ever checked if the kid was in the right school district. I'm not sure if it was because of just being disorganized or if the district really didn't want to cause any barriers for the kids to attend school. At this point, I had to go the police. I showed up at the police station and waited around for a couple of hours. Finaly, one of the detectives met with me. I could tell he was only half listening to me. I think when I said "substitute teacher" was when the detective became disinterested in what I had to say. I showed him the "homeschool" forms, which he didn't even look at. He said "where were you trained to decipher handwriting?" I kind of muttered in embarrassment. He must of looked at his watch 10 times for the five minutes I spoke with him. Eventually, I left and there was no business card given to me. He didn’t even say give me a call if you find anything else it was basically get out and thank you for wasting my time. I felt like I was punched in the gut. Nobody cared in what I found or had to say. It was the weekend and I had time to gather my thoughts. I have only been at this school for a short time and was able to pick up the "homeschool" pattern of kids basically disappearing. I said to myself there must be countless more “homeschool” kids possibly in this school alone. Unfortunately, the school didn't have a report, I could run to see what kids were dis enrolled as "homeschool". So I thought and I thought then I realized the only way was going to be looking through yearbooks. I decided to focus on the years and the grades of the kids I encountered and still should have been in the school. I took as many of the yearbooks I could from the School's basement department. I flipped through yearbooks and quickly ruled out any of the kids who were still enrolled at the school and I highlighted any kid that I didn't recall seeing Of the kids I didn't recall seeing, I found about 20 kids. Then, with the 20 names I painstakingly looked up the names in our schools record department. From the records, about 15 of the kids were listed as "transferred". I actually called the school's of the 15 kids and the kid’s were all fine. Then with the remaining five kids, I found something extremely unsettling. I saw the "Homeschool" form's in each one of the five kid's folders. I now had five additional "homeschool" forms. Two of the forms it looked like the writer either felt brazen or nearly just got sloppy. Though two of the forms were about five years apart, the penmanship had way to many similar characteristics. I figured I had to follow up with each of the five additional forms. As I suspected, at each address I went to listed on the "homeschool" form, no one had any idea what I was talking about. At this point, I had my folder with all the copies I made and all of my notes. I demanded to meet with the principal and she made available a time and date. I showed up tobthe meeting with my evidence in hand. I explained again to the principal what I uncovered and the additional five "homeschool" kids who had disappeared. She listened to what I had to say and then she said "who told you to do this?" I replied "Do what?" She said "snoop around files ... call parents ... who told you to do this?" I said no one. Then she said I violated multiple school violations and I wasn't allowed back in the school. She made me hand over whatever copies I made and whatever notes I had. I was now out of work. The school year ended. I worked in a retail store that summer that was just down right depressing. I figured with the new school year starting maybe I could find work at a different school in a different district. The school I applied for was just as equally as bad as the previous one. As long as I had a bachelors degree and no criminal record, then they would hire you on the spot as a substitute teacher. This year was going to be different. I was there to teach and to be nice to the kids and that's it. I was not going to be a detective, that was over and done with. The school year was breezing by and I was used to going from class to class. I wasn't looking for any patterns. I just did my assignment and then went home. Then it happened. I saw that elegant woman in her 70's. She was talking to the guidance counsellor at this new school. My head was in a different dimension. It was like seeing your dead grandmother. I was in complete shock. I just stood there. She had the same calming voice. She was dressed impeccably but not overly showy to draw attention to herself. I was frozen. I could tell she didn't recognize me. I saw her give the "homeschool" form to the guidance counselor and then she proceeded to exit. I snapped back from my shocked state and I popped my head into the principle's office and said "i'm not feeling well I have to go." Then, I quickly got in my car and I followed her. I drove for nearly two hours and eventually. she pulled into one of the nicest houses I have ever seen in one of the most richest neighborhoods that I had ever been in. She had a gate that opened and closed electronically. I stayed on the road for a little while just to take notes. There was zero evidence of any kids being on her property, but I did notice a pool company was servicing her pool. Eventually, I saw the pool van leave and I was able to get the name of the company. That same day, I called the same pool company and applied for a job. The pool company was desperate and I lied and told them that I was experienced and I owned my own business for years. All I wanted was to get the company's pool van so I could get through that woman's gate. Within two days the pool company gave me a van to drive and an assignment of where to go. It was a Saturday, so I didn’t have to worry about missing school. I ignored the pool company’s assignment and went right to that woman's house. I got to the gate and used the intercom and explained that we forgot to do something the previous day. She opened the gate and I proceeded to the pool area. I stood by the pool and was just trying to take in everything and was just looking for any type of clues for anything. I knew something just wasn’t right. I still saw no kids so she wasn’t a philanthropist trying to help underprivileged kids. I must of stood by the pool for a half an hour in my company issued pool uniform. The woman eventually came out and very cordially welcomed me. She just had one of those very calming voices and she was very hospitable. I made up some mumble jumble problem with the pool and then I started to do some small talk to try to get any information about her. I said “I’m going to try to get this pool fixed as quickly as possible so I could visit my child in the hospital”. I said that so she would say something like “yeah I’m a mother” or “l’m a grandmother”. I then went on and made up a story about my child having special needs and how involved I was in this non-profit agency and she had absolutely no follow up responses. It was like kids to her was a completely different planet. She maintained her nice demeanor the whole time and brushed off anything I said or was completely sympathetic to me for working in a non-profit company. I knew I didn’t have much time left and I really had no evidence of anything. Then, I realized I had to say something. I said “well let me get this done because I don’t want to have to drive two hours back here from ...” and I actually gave the school’s name. Then, I witnessed something that I have never seen before. I observed a sheep turn into a wolf within a blink of an eye. The cordialness was gone. She said “say that again.” She didn’t say it in her typical voice. It was like she just wanted me to confirm what I said. So I reiterated the school’s name. We both looked at each other and I said “who are you?” She just continued to look at me and I said “who are you?” She took off her wig and she now looked like someone in her 50’s. She gave me a death stare. She knew I uncovered her. I said “where are those kids?” She didn’t say “I have no idea what your talking about?” or “excuse me?” She then got on the phone, which she pulled from her blouse pocket and on the phone she said “come right now” and she looked directly at me the whole time like she was going to kill me. At that point, I felt extremely uncomfortable and thought I have all the information I needed. I got into the pool van and I manually forced the front gate opened and left. I was a little relieved that my hunch was right but I was also extremely afraid. Whoever that woman was she knew where I worked and even if I quit my job the school had my information on file. After returning the pool van I headed back home. I really needed a few days to compile everything I had and come up with a plan. I actually waited a week and decided to return to that woman’s house. I was shaking during the whole two hour car ride. From about a block away, I could smell the familiar scent of burnt ambers. As I pulled closer to her house, I realized that the house was completely burnt down. Nothing but ashes. I saw one of the neighbors jog bye and I asked what happened. Based on the story and the date the neighbor gave me, I realized the woman or somebody else torched the house right after I had left the week before. I asked the neighbor if he knew the woman who lived in the house and he said besides exchanging casual greetings he said he knew nothing. He said the house was so completely engulfed in flames there was no way of telling if she died in the fire. I never returned to that school or any other teaching job. All I had was a list of those “homeschool” kids. Months went bye and I figured would never hear anything again regarding those kids. Then, I was scrolling through the internet and I came across this court case, where a jail house rat was looking for leniency based on information she had. The jailhouse rat said that her cell mate confided to her that she sold her kid for drug money and she knew horrible things were going to happen to her kid, but she didn’t care because all she cared about was getting drugs. Continuing to read the story from the jailhouse rat, I started to dry heave, then I actually vomitted because the jailhouse rat mentioned the principal from the original school was involved in the child selling scheme.