I am a writer. Writing has always been my lifeline—the way I process, untangle, and make sense of the world, even when it refuses to make sense.
Even weeks later, I find myself still trying to piece this together, still reaching for the words that might bring clarity or, at the very least, give my emotions a place to land.
I create. I weave words. I vent. I cry. I tell stories. Writing isn’t just something I do; it’s the way I echo my thoughts, the way I scream without making a sound, the way I breathe when the air feels too thick with everything unsaid.
I take my role as a mother very seriously. I fought with everything I had for my child who died of cancer. And yet, no matter how much time passes, there is always that gnawing pit in my stomach—the relentless guilt that whispers, “You didn’t fight hard enough. If you had, he wouldn’t have died.”
It’s the “I have a dead child” guilt—the kind that never fades, never loosens its grip.
Logically, I know it makes no sense. He died from a disease that had no cure. But the fact that he got childhood cancer in the first place? That will never make sense.
Two senseless things, tangled together, forming an unbearable weight. And with that weight comes an overwhelming, suffocating guilt.
But here’s the thing about me.
I’ve always been a fighter.
Survival demanded it from an early age. Childhood trauma set the stage, bleeding into my teenage years. I fought my way out of an abusive relationship. I learned that speaking up and fighting for what’s right wasn’t just something I could do—it was something I had to do. It’s in my DNA. My mother and father made sure of that.
And then I became a mom.
That’s when I realized just how much of a fighter I truly was.
I became a lioness—fierce, relentless, and ready to tear apart anything that threatened my children. Breathe wrong near them, and I will fucking maul you.
When Ronan got sick, that instinct sharpened into something even more primal. I wasn’t just fighting to save his life—I was fighting to hold onto my own sanity.
I watched my teenage son go through his first heartbreak, and if I ever see that girl in the wild, I might not run her over with my car, but let’s just say, it won’t be pretty.
You fuck with my kids, you fuck with me.
I am a Capricorn. I do not forgive or forget. Sorry, not fucking sorry.
And now we get to the part of the story that needs to be told.
I need to be vocal about this.
Because this is about protecting our kids.
This is about being an advocate, not looking away when something feels wrong, not staying silent when our children’s safety is at stake.
This is about taking our children’s tears seriously—about teaching them that their voices matter, that when they say something feels wrong, we listen.
As parents, we are our children’s fiercest advocates. We know their hearts, their struggles, and what they need to thrive. We trust schools to be places of learning, support, and safety—but what happens when that trust is shattered?
This is a story I wish I didn’t have to tell.
It’s about my daughter and how what should have been a straightforward process for academic support turned into a reckless, invasive, and deeply harmful experience—one that left my daughter shaken and me outraged.
Poppy is wild and free, a force of nature wrapped in an 11-year-old body. A sixth grader with a tender heart, an untamed spirit, and a mind that refuses to be put in a box.
She is a born feminist, a girl who questions everything, who doesn’t just accept things because that’s the way they are. She believes in fairness, justice, and standing up for what’s right. If she sees someone being left out, she invites them in. If she hears something that doesn’t sit right in her gut, she speaks up. She has never been afraid to take up space, never been afraid to use her voice, even when it shakes.
But make no mistake—Poppy is not hardened by her fire.
There is a softness to her, a kind of gentleness that feels like a whisper in a loud world. She finds comfort in her stuffed animals, each one with its own personality, each one deeply loved and never left behind. She is a storyteller at heart, losing herself in the immersive worlds she creates on paper, weaving tales full of adventure, magic, and heart. She is a creative soul, one who sees the world through a lens of endless possibility, turning the ordinary into something extraordinary with nothing but her imagination.
And when Poppy loves, she loves with her whole being.
She loves her animals like they are part of her pack, whispering secrets to them, swearing they understand every word. She loves her family with an intensity that wraps around you like a warm embrace, making sure everyone knows how deeply they are cherished. And she loves the brother she never met, carrying him in her heart as if he were right beside her, speaking his name with reverence, refusing to let the world forget him.
She thrives in safe, supportive environments, where she is seen, heard, and free to be exactly who she is. Her teachers describe her as a delight, and she is.
But this year has tested her.
This is Poppy’s first time in a big school.
She came from Desert View Learning Center, a small, nurturing school where she felt safe. From there she spent a year at a Montessori school as DVLC ends in 4th grade.
Now, she’s navigating loud hallways, packed classrooms, and timed tests for the first time ever—and it’s a lot.
She’s an amazing student, but math has been hard for her this year.
So we did what any responsible parents would do.
We got her a tutor.
We helped her navigate this new world.
And at the recommendation of her therapist, I started the 504 Plan process to make sure she got the extra help she needed.
That’s what these plans are supposed to do—help kids succeed.
But instead of help, she got a nightmare.
I have spent years fighting. Fighting for my children, for what is right, for the kind of world where kids are safe—where they are treated with kindness, dignity, and respect. But what happens when the very place that is supposed to protect them becomes the thing they need protection from?
What happens when the people entrusted with their care abuse their power?
What happens when a grown adult—an authority figure in a school—uses intimidation, humiliation, and emotional manipulation against an 11-year-old child?
What happens when it’s your child?
Because that’s what this is. Abuse.
It may not leave bruises, but the wounds are just as real. And what happened to my daughter—my wild, free-spirited, kind, and trusting Poppy—is something that no child should ever have to endure.
This is the story of how a school counselor violated my child in the most unforgivable way.
On Monday, February 10th, my daughter was pulled from class without warning.
Without explanation.
Without reassurance.
Without my knowledge.
Without my permission.
Let me repeat that. Nobody asked me. Nobody notified me. Nobody got my consent.
She just took my child.
She was removed her from the safety of her classroom and placed her in a room with a complete stranger.
She took my 11-year-old daughter and interrogated her about deeply personal, deeply painful things—her family, her emotions, and most horrifying of all, her dead brother.
She did this without me there.
She did this without my consent.
She did this without even having the decency to inform me.
And the worst part?
She saw my daughter shaking. Saw her crying. Saw her break down. And still, she kept going.
She saw the distress. She saw the pain. She did not stop.
Who the fuck does that to a child?
Who continues pressing when a child is shaking and sobbing?
For what?
What was the end goal?
What did this woman think she was accomplishing?
What could possibly be gained by breaking a child down like this?
Poppy has three brothers—Liam, Quinn, and Ronan. She says that on her own, willingly.
Though she never met Ronan—who died of Neuroblastoma before she was born—he is, and always will be, her brother.
She speaks about Ronan on her own terms, in safe spaces, with people she trusts.
But that day?
She was forced into a conversation about his death.
Not with care. Not with compassion. But with coldness.
“How many siblings do you have?”
Poppy responded, “I have three brothers.”
That should have been the end of it.
But instead, she was mocked.
“What are their names?”
Poppy said, “Liam, Quinn, and Ronan.” She softened when she said Ronan’s name, as now knowing she was going to have to talk about her brother who died.
“Liam, Quinn, and blah blah blah. I can’t understand you, speak up.”
Let me ask you something.
What kind of adult mocks a child when they are talking about their family?
What kind of person hears a child quietly say their brother’s name and cuts them off to belittle them?
When Poppy said, “My other brother’s name is Ronan,” this woman didn’t just listen. She argued with her about the pronunciation and spelling of his name.
Because that’s what really matters, right? Correcting a child on how she says her dead brother’s name.
Then the interrogation continued.
“Well, where is he?”
Poppy sat there quietly, tearing up, struggling to find the words.
Instead of showing even an ounce of kindness, she kept pushing.
“Is he in jail?”
Poppy, now crying, quietly said, “No.”
“Is he alive?”
Poppy, still crying, responded, “No.”
And then— The most disgusting, heartless, vile question of all—
“Did he commit suicide?”
Read that again.
My 11-year-old daughter was asked if her dead brother had committed suicide.
She had to sit there, sobbing, and explain to a complete stranger that her brother had died from childhood cancer.
And when she did?
When she finally managed to force the words out through shaking sobs?
She was met with this cold, emotionless response:
“Well, you seem awfully upset over a brother you never even met.”
What kind of person says that?
What kind of person sees a grieving child and chooses cruelty over compassion?
And more than that—why?
Why force this conversation in the first place?
What purpose did it serve?
Did she want to watch a child crumble? Did she need to see the breakdown happen right in front of her?
Because she did.
And she kept going anyway.
But it didn’t stop with Ronan.
Poppy was then interrogated about her home life.
She was asked why she lives with me during the week and stays with her dad on weekends—as if she needed to justify her family structure.
And when Poppy, already emotionally overwhelmed, started to cry?
She was met with this completely reckless remark:
“Your dad’s house must not be a happy place if you’re tearing up about it.”
What kind of person takes a crying child and decides, now is the perfect time to attack her relationship with her father?
What was the goal here?
Was it to see just how far she could push her?
Because let me tell you something—she pushed too far.
She violated my daughter that day.
Was it enough for her?
Apparently not.
Because after all of that—after humiliating my daughter, breaking her down, shaming her for her grief, interrogating her about her home life—she decided to cross yet another line.
I walked into that 504 meeting completely unaware that, while I was sitting there discussing my daughter’s academic accommodations, she had just been put through hell.
Nobody told me.
Nobody warned me.
Nobody said, Hey, just so you know, we pulled your daughter out of class today. We took her into a room with a stranger. We interrogated her about deeply personal, deeply painful things. We made her cry. We watched her shake. And we didn’t stop.
No.
I found out when I got home.
At the 504 meeting I attended, I was not asked, not suggested, but flat-out told that I needed to take my 11-year-old daughter to a gynecologist—because of migraines related to her menstrual cycle.
Let me repeat that.
In a room full of people—the vice principal, two of Poppy’s teachers—this woman looked me in the eye and had the audacity to bring up my daughter’s period.
She spoke with authority, condescension, and absolute disregard for the fact that this was wildly inappropriate.
Not with concern. Not with kindness. With judgment. With arrogance. With the kind of tone that dripped with an unspoken accusation: that I was failing my daughter.
She wasn’t making a suggestion. She wasn’t offering support. She was giving orders, as if I were too incompetent to handle my own child’s well-being.
And that wasn’t the only insult she threw at me.
She had the nerve to tell me that my daughter “wasn’t articulate” because she struggled to talk about her dead brother.
As if my daughter—who was shaking and crying under this woman’s interrogation—should have had the ability to sit there and eloquently discuss the brother she never got to meet.
And because she couldn’t?
Because she struggled?
Because she was overwhelmed and hurting?
This woman called her inarticulate.
My daughter had more articulation in her tiny pinky finger than this woman has in her entire body.
She was being forced into a conversation she should have never been in.
She was doing her best to hold it together while an adult—who should have protected her—was tearing her down.
And this woman?
This condescending, brash, rude woman?
She sat there with no compassion, no warmth, no understanding, acting as though it was my failure as a mother that my daughter struggled to talk about the brother she lost.
As if this entire situation wasn’t cruel enough already.
As if she hadn’t already done enough damage.
Who the fuck does this woman think she is?
Who gave this woman the authority to dictate my child’s medical care?
Who in their right mind stands in a professional setting and makes a public spectacle out of a child’s body?
I’ll tell you what this was.
It was an abuse of power.
It was manipulation, intimidation, and emotional cruelty disguised as authority.
I sat in that 504 meeting expecting to discuss math accommodations. I expected to talk about Poppy’s anxiety with test-taking, her need for extra time, and how we could best support her academic success.
What I did not expect—what blindsided me in the most gut-wrenching way possible—was hearing my dead son’s name leave this woman’s lips in a meeting where he did not belong.
I was not prepared for it. I was not warned.
And yet, suddenly, there it was—Ronan’s name being spoken into a space where it had no place.
And suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.
It took me a second to even register what was happening.
Ronan. My Ronan. My son who died of Neuroblastoma.
What the fuck was she doing? What did this have to do with anything?
I felt my entire body tense. My stomach twisted. My hands clenched. My throat burned as I tried to swallow back the tears that threatened to choke me.
I did not come here to talk about Ronan.
I did not agree to this conversation.
And yet, this woman—who has no right to speak about my child—took it upon herself to analyze my family’s grief in front of an entire room of people.
She looked at me, and with unearned authority and absolute ignorance, she said:
“It’s clear to me that Poppy has absorbed your family’s grief.”
The words hit me like a punch to the chest.
My mind went blank.
Was she serious?
Was she really sitting there—in a meeting about my living daughter’s education—making reckless, baseless, and completely inappropriate claims about the way we grieve our dead son?
Does she have formal training in grief counseling?
Because I do.
And she had zero right to bring up her so-called “knowledge” of grief in this meeting.
This wasn’t grief counseling.
This wasn’t a discussion about trauma.
This was a 504 meeting about Poppy’s test-taking accommodations, and yet here I was, choking on my pain, completely unprepared to defend the way my family has worked tirelessly to honor Ronan.
She had no idea what she was talking about.
She knew nothing about how we have taken the worst thing imaginable—losing our son—and turned it into love, advocacy, and support for others.
She knew nothing about the years we have spent making sure that Ronan’s presence in our lives is one of strength, connection, and purpose—not a burden.
She knew nothing about our home.
She knew nothing about how we speak of Ronan with love, AND sadness, and that is ok.
She knew nothing about how Poppy never once felt like she was living under the shadow of grief but rather in the glow of her brother’s light.
She assumed.
And that? That is unforgivable.
Who gave her the right to dissect my family’s grief in front of an entire room of people?
Who gave her the authority to claim that Poppy’s struggles were somehow a product of her dead brother and not the completely normal, manageable challenges that come with transitioning to a bigger school?
How fucking dare she?
She spoke about my child—my child who died—as if he were a problem. As if his memory were a weight dragging us down instead of a force lifting us up.
She spoke about my daughter—the wild, brilliant, creative, deeply loved child who adores her brother even though she never got to meet him—as if she were damaged by our love for him.
And that?
That is beyond insulting.
She has zero knowledge of our family.
She has zero understanding of how we grieve.
She has zero right to speak about my son, my daughter, or the love that we carry for Ronan every single day.
Because grief?
Grief is love.
And our grief is our love for Ronan.
And this woman—this uninformed, reckless, insensitive woman—not only failed to see that—she twisted it into something harmful.
And I will not stand for it.
I made a mistake.
I was naïve.
I didn’t think to warn my daughter that sometimes, even adults in positions of authority can be wrong. That sometimes, the people we are told to trust are the very ones who will cross the line.
I never imagined I would have to tell my 11-year-old daughter that if an adult pulled her from class and started asking her things that made her uncomfortable, she didn’t have to answer.
She could have asked to call me.
She should have known that she could say, “I don’t want to talk about this. I need my mom.”
But I never told her that.
Because never in my wildest fucking dreams did I think something like this could happen.
That was my mistake.
And I will never make it again.
We have to empower our children.
We have to teach them that they have rights, even when they’re sitting across from an adult in a position of power.
That they do not have to answer questions that make them uncomfortable.
That they do not have to sit there and take it.
That they can say NO.
That they can ask to call their parents.
That they can walk out of a room if they feel unsafe.
We have to tell them this.
Because I didn’t.
I never thought I needed to.
I assumed that the people entrusted with our children’s safety—the ones who are supposed to guide them, protect them, lift them up—would never be the ones to tear them down.
But I was wrong.
She will not shrink herself to make others comfortable.
She will never again sit silently through something that makes her feel small.
She will never again feel like she has to justify her family, her emotions, or the brother she never met.
And she will never again think she has to suffer through someone else’s abuse of power alone.
Because she is powerful.
Because she has a voice.
Because she knows now that no one—not even an adult—gets to make her feel small.
I don’t know what the final outcome of this will be. I don’t know what consequences—if any—this woman will face for what she put my daughter through. I don’t know if she will be held accountable in the way she should be. Like being fucking FIRED. And how many other kids has she done this to? How many kids who don’t have advocates have been through something like this?
But here’s what I do know.
I sat down in a room with the superintendent, the vice superintendent, and the principal of my daughter’s school. I told them everything. Every single horrifying, gut-wrenching detail.
And they listened.
They didn’t brush it aside. They didn’t try to make excuses. They didn’t tell me I was overreacting.
They validated my concerns. They heard my daughter’s pain. And they took action.
This woman—the one who humiliated, intimidated, and emotionally manipulated my child—will have no further contact with Poppy.
She will never again be allowed to sit across from my daughter and wield her power like a weapon. She will never again make her feel small, or unsafe, or like she has to justify the love she carries for her brother.
Poppy now has a new counselor—one who is kind, one who is compassionate, one who is safe.
The system didn’t fail us completely.
Because when I spoke up, they listened.
And I will never stop speaking up.
Because this cannot happen again.
Not to my child.
Not to any child.
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