He was playing basketball by himself in the middle of the (online!) school day.

As LeChelle, Tina, and I (Martin), the Faith and Work team, were walking and talking about a possible site for a neighborhood cleanup, LeChelle shouts out to him, “Why aren’t you in school right now?”

The truth is that with school being offered only online presently, the “disappearance” rate of students from their classrooms is increasing dramatically – and is reaching crisis levels. It takes a lot for students, whatever their age or situation, to get on and stay on in front of a computer day after day.

Sometimes it takes encouragement from the whole community.

Thankfully, the young man’s response was that they had just been given a two-hour break and that he would be back online on time.
And he didn’t mind the “check in” one bit.

Is there someone you can check on and encourage and let them know you care?