Arkansas Teacher Spends $163.77 on Student's Bed as $50,000 Salary Stretches to Food Aid
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 15
Arkansas Teacher Spends $163.77 on Student's Bed as $50,000 Salary Stretches to Food Aid
2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 15
Summary
$163.77 from her own savings let Pine Bluff biology teacher Crystal Barnes buy a bed frame, mattress topper and discounted mattress for a student who kept falling asleep in class.
The girl had been sent to live with her grandmother after her parents dropped out of the picture, and she was sleeping poorly because the home had no bed for her.
At the house, Barnes found termites eating through the structure, the electricity shut off over unpaid bills and the student helping care for two younger children; another teacher added sheets and a comforter.
The bed solved only part of the problem: the student then asked Barnes for food, underscoring how poverty outside school was driving her exhaustion and hunger.