High School Teacher Watches Student’s Newborn Baby While the New Mom Attends Job Fair, Teaches Us a Lesson in Kindness
It’s a romantic notion to think that our high school teachers will always be there for us — but Chicago teacher LaShonda Carter proves that true educators want to help us grow in every way they can. Even if it means linking up with a former student outside of office hours to keep an eye on her newborn baby while she attends a job fair.
Carter has always made it a point to keep in touch with former students — to see where they go in life and to be a support should they ever need it. When former student Larresha Plummer reached out to Carter, three years after she had been in her class, the teacher was true to her word.
[Read about high school teacher who raised $130K for her LGBTQ student who was abandoned by his family]
Plummer explained to Carter that she had been going through some tough times — she was out of a job and had a 3-week old baby to think about. She mentioned a upcoming job fair but to get there she’d have to bring her newborn with her — on the bus, to the interviews, all of it.
“There was no way I would have let her take a baby in a bus, I told her right away that I would pick her up in the morning,” Carter told CNN.
And that’s exactly what she did. The next morning, Carter picked Plummer and her newborn baby up, drove them to the job fair, and waited in the car with the baby while the new mom went to network and apply for jobs.
Later, Carter shared a sentimental video on Facebook in which she asks for help from the community, to come together and ensure all young people, like Plummer, get the support they need.
“Sometimes as a teacher, our jobs go beyond the classroom… she’s a young teenage mom, and she needs some help,” Carter said on her Facebook post above. “I’m gonna do what I can, as much as I can as an educator, but know I can’t do it all by myself.”
As for Plummer? According to Carter, she has successfully found a job to support herself and her newborn and will be starting work in the fall.
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