Wednesday was the craziest day i have seen yet in my 3 weeks here at shelterwood. One kid was suspended and when a hall director tried to get him out of bed he got violent and had to be restrained, later that night the same kid barricaded himself in his room and cut himself. Another kid tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrists, and taking some prescription pills. While he was in the ER he told us that there was more stolen drugs that where still in possession of other littles. We put the whole campus on lockdown and after school brought all the boys down to the Gym for Dodge ball while we systematically searched all of their rooms. Then we brought them back from the gym one at time for questioning and to be searched. We got tipped off and found most of the missing drugs in one of the littles water bottles. After we had all the kids back in the house i found out even more dirty secrets by just sitting next to closed doors and listening. I felt like a Cop, taking peoples statements, searching rooms, searching people. Then just before bed the kid who was found with the drugs starting walking off property and i didn’t even know until someone walked in from outside and asked if it was ok for him to be walking by himself. I Jumped up and ran outside looking for him knowing that he had really wanted to talk to this girl but was unable because it was too late. We weren’t able to find him even after driving back and forth down the only road leading off property. He apparently just needed to clear his head and went for an unapproved walk and wasn’t trying to run away. I talked to him later that night for a few hours and it was really good to hear how he was doing and to know him as a person and to share how God has changed my life. After this i was talking to another staff member and he reminded me that i need to take everything with a grain of salt. He said these kids are extremely manipulative and they know that to tell you to make you think they are changing. This was definitely hard to hear but a good reminder that will hopefully help me to prevent learning the hard way.

I will hopefully have more time to talk about my feeling and experiences later but i just wanted yall to know about the craziest day i have lived through.

Love you all,

Brian F