Bledsoe County Stories
Kristin
As a Communities in Schools Site Coordinator, it is my job to bring communities, schools, parents and children together to guarantee the future success of Tennessee students. I did not count on opioid addiction joining the party. Uninvited and affecting every person it meets, it tags along anyway.
Opioid addiction invites itself to the hallways of the schools, tagging alongside the student walking to class. I see it following the students and teachers like a shadow. The shadow looks different on each person. On some, it is only the shadow of regret as they speak of a childhood separated from the care of a parent. They go through the halls with computers and books eager to get the education that will free them from the small pills that ensnared their parents. On some, the shadow can be seen on their very soul. They show with mussed hair, late to class and wearing the same clothing as the previous day and in some cases the day before that. No matter how they look on the outside, they all share two things: Hopes and dreams smothered by a small pill that controls their daily lives and a deep love for the parents suffering from the disease that has ravaged our small community.
Opioids also invite themselves to sporting events. Athletes at times scan the crowd and look for the face of their parent in the bleachers. They have promised time and time again to be in attendance, especially during the student’s senior year. Unfortunately, news in our small town travels fast, and the student learned their parent was arrested for opioids. It may have come as no surprise, but it did not lessen the blow. Often weeping on my shoulder, the student says “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
When I speak with the parents, many of whom are now incarcerated and away from their children, it is equally heartbreaking. They tell stories of their children and recall happy times before addiction clouded their judgment. I don’t tell them the stories their children tell me. It would not help. We instead talk of their accomplishments and dreams.
My biggest fear is opioid addiction will be so close and so familiar to them from their childhood that they will invite it willingly to the next phase. After all, it has been with them all their lives.