It was on a late spring day when Amanda Schroeder finally received the report she had been hoping for.
A student she’d been working with as a social worker for the nonprofit Communities in Schools had successfully passed the 7th grade. Normally, this wouldn’t be a particularly remarkable moment, but this child’s situation was anything but ordinary.
The student, who Gambit is not naming because of age and privacy laws, had earlier that school year spent a month wrapped up in New Orleans’ juvenile justice system, an experience that had left the 13-year-old so traumatized it threatened to derail the rest of his life.
