Second Peer Blog Response

The blog itself was well organized, easy to read, and all of the posts were there, as well as the citations. What I liked most about your blog though, was all the different sources of information you used. This made it more interesting to read. Your responses were also well thought out and you seemed truly interested in your topic and in finding out more. The notes you took were extensive and were easy for me to understand, even though I knew nothing about your topic. If it were possible to find an interview with someone who has been through sex-trafficking, I think that would be very interesting. Overall, great work so far.

girlhood- RESPONSE

The movie “girlhood”, although didn’t pertain directly to my topic, taught me a lot about how other people my age are living and what might, in the end, lead them to a life of sex trafficking. It also put my life in great perspective. Comparing myself to Megan, my mom seems wonderful! While her mother is constantly being put in jail and yelling at Megan, my mom is bringing me shopping and asking me about my day. Although I feel terrible for Megan’s situation, especially because it most definitely led to who she is today, it made me feel happier about where my life is now in comparison. Shanae’s story seems even more terrible than Megan’s (although they are of-course both horrific). Can you believe being twelve years old and killing your best friend!? And then to top it off being ripped away from you family for almost four years?! I personally believe at that young an age she should have gone into intensive residential therapy rather than being punished. All and all girlhood was one of the most interesting documentaries I have ever seen and would recommend it to all who have an open mind.

girlhood- NOTES

-in the US during the last decade, the number of young girls committing violent crimes has more than doubled

-this movie follows the lives of two girls living in the city Baltimore, Maryland

    >true story

-the girls’ are named Shanae and Megan

    >Shanae was 12 when she stabbed her friend three times in a fight

    >Megan is 16 now, she grew up in foster care and has been arrested on runaway and assault charges

-this film follows Megan and Shanae for three years as they come of age, both in juvenile institutions and at home on the street

1999:

-Megan and Shanae are locked up at the Waxter Juvenile Facility in Maryland

-they both have open-ended sentences. this means that they will be released based on their behavior and family circumstances

-about a dozen girls sit in a community discussion dressed in an obvious uniform of light gray sweatshirts and sweatpants

-there are a few women leading discussion (dressed in colorful attire)

-Shanae is 14 and wants to leave the facility for she believes she is missing out on life

    >she has been their for two years already and hates that people see her for her     sentence and not who she truly is

    >she says she wants her mother (like a puppy)

    >she has been at Waxter longer than any other girl

    

    >on Shanae’s birthday she has a birthday party

        ~she cries because she is so happy

        ~the girls start a dance party- they look like any other teenagers

    >on her birthday Shanae has reached enough points to live with her mother on     the weekends

        ~Shanae tells her parents that the girl she killed has the easiest part of all

        ~her parents tell her their goal isn’t to get her home, it’s to make sure she         wont hurt anyone and no one will hurt her, they are reticent thats ever         going to happen and don’t want her home

        ~when she returns on Monday she must be stripped searched

    

-Megan is 16

    >she tells the camera she misses her little sisters the most and that her mother is     locked up, like her, in a jail

        ~she says in a joking yet serious manner that her mom will get out of jail         soon, but in the matter of a few weeks be back in jail again

        ~her mother gets locked up for “gettin’ high and prostitution”

    >when asked where she will go when she gets released she says that she has     no where to go

        ~she has lived in eleven foster homes, run away from ten of them and was         taken from the eleventh

        ~she says every time she runs away she looks for her mother on the         streets she says “i love my mother, i would die for her”

        ~she was five when her mother was first arrested so she and her little         sisters went to live with their grandma, but they were soon brought into         foster care

        ~on visiting day she wants her grandmother to come- she doesn’t (even         though she says she would

            + “i swear nobody loves me”

    >she has a tattoo on her right arm

    >megan is clearly depressed

    >megan doesn’t go one day without getting in trouble

2000:

-Shanae is still in rehab although she is now being reviewed to possibly be released

    >she tells a board of people she “had to stab her” [her friend] although she is     guilty of her death, she does not regret it though

    >shanae’s therapist says although her mother is quite loving she is “not ready for     Shanae to come right home

        ~Shanae looks sad about this-nobody wants her

    >when asked what Shanae thinks should “happen to her now” she smiles and     says “I wanna go home” but “she knows thats not possible”

    >is it decided that she will go to a less intense treatment program in a few     months, before returning home

        ~Shanae gets an interview at one of these facilities

            +she has mixed feelings

            +at the interview it gets uncovered that she was raped at 11 by five             different people and became pregnant

            +she gets accepted into the facility and is overjoyed to be leaving             but she is clearly hurt to be leaving so many of her friends and a             part of her, despite this she is ready

-Megan receives a card from her mother and has to ask an adult to read it to her

    >after hearing the card she says she didn’t expect to hear from her mom ever again because she hasn’t heard from her in two years

-Megan says “there is no reason for me to be here, all I do is take up a bed”

    >Megan is in Juvi for attempt at murder with a murderous weapon, a box cutter

-Megan continues to get in trouble everyday-she doesn’t seem to understand

-people tell her she’s going to end up just like her mother- she rebuts saying “i already have

-Megan tries to escape

    >she gets caught

    >Megan wanted to leave to see her mother, she says shed “do anything for her”

-Megan gets evaluated and says that if she stays her any longer she will “loose her mind”

    >she gets released (I DONT UNDERSTAND) to foster care

    >their reasons is that they believed she was “spinning her wheels here” {Waxter}     and the only way they could get you to live act properly is to take a risk and     release her

    >she says is will register when she sees her mother

    >one week later her foster mother is concerned about her

        ~Megan has been hanging out with men who sell drugs

        ~she is floating on thin ice as she is not following her foster mother’s rules

-Megan goes to visit her mother- it is clear she loves her mother and is quite worried about her

-Megan and Miss Harrison (her foster mother) don’t get along so Miss H agrees to let Megan with with an adult friend of hers if she checks in with her periodically

2001:

-Megan’s mother is off drugs and has been working since she was released from jail

-Her mother wants Megan to go into counseling

    >she is taking drugs (prescription) and doing drugs (weed)

-She is now living at her aunts house (her 8th house since she has been released)

-When asked is she had three wishes what would they be, she hesitates for awhile but in the end replies “i don’t know what i would wish for, i don’t know, their aint so sense in wishin or nothin’ ”

-three months later Megan and her friend get their own apartment

    >her mother does NOT approve

-Megan says that she has started school

-Megan sees her mother and it is clear that her mother is back on “dope”

    >Megan says she never wants her mother to see her again and she is “no longer     her mother”

    >Megan says she “aint nothin’ liker her mother cuz she wants somethin out of her     life and her mom don’t”

-Megan says that her father said he wishes she was never home

-Shanae gets released to go home!

-Shanae says her mother is the only person she could not live without

-Later in the summer Shanae’s mother is rushed to the hospital with heart problems

and one week after that she dies

2002:

-Shanae is fourth in her class

-She is going to her prom (in a limo)

-Shanae will be attending community college

    >she plans to major in psychology and the law

-Megan is back living with her aunt and going to counseling through Social Services

-Her mother is back in prison