When I first started teaching vocational skills to kids with special needs  I was in awe of their enthusiasm for volunteering so perhaps eventually they could secure a paying job. I was an idealist and still have great expectations of my fellow man. But one of my first attempts to get a student  a volunteer few hours at a book store near our town college didn’t go well.

I always brought the student with me as I looked for placement for volunteering. I always explained to management we were from the high school work program and we would have someone with the student coaching at all times until such time as they could work on their own. The book store would be a great volunteer sight for the student.

I must say I was mortified when the manager said in front of the student,” I don’t want these kind of kids in this store!!” I was taught to be polite and so I turned around and walked out. If my student noticed the disgust in the managers voice I don’t know, however, I never went back to that store in my thirteen years working the job I loved in the work program.

As I wrote my novel Town of Angels I remembered that manager’s  unforgettable bullying. Yet I am happy to report for years many employers were gracious and loved our students. Most students excelled and became productive members of the community .

Where does cruelty come from I wondered as I wrote my novel? Perhaps it comes from the bully’s inferior attitude toward themselves. How sad to think that manager would never know the joy and hope that radiates from these special individuals. The angels not only sent me wonderful students to teach all those years but  taught me something else. They taught me to just walk away from a bully that long ago day.