Choir was a major equalizing factor for Chase in middle school. It was the only class that Chase was allowed to join as a peer, and it introduced her to the "regular" population and gave her a place to belong. The other choir members proved to be accepting and encouraging. They treated Chase with respect and kindness. Any one of the choir members who sang in proximity to Chase knew that she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, but they encouraged and accepted her as one of the choir. The director was wonderful in taking her in as a member of the choir...he didn't seem concerned in the least that she might sing out of tune or out of place. He was a major godsend in Chase's life in middle school. Chase still encounters fellow choir members in the community, and she is always greeted with kindness and acceptance. What a wonderful thing choir was for Chase while she was in middle school and beyond.

Every child in our new city would face the ninth grade at a separate campus. Ninth grade was segregated from the rest of the educational system for some reason that I have yet to figure out. There are two campuses, one for each high school, and the ninth-graders attend them according to the high school into which they ultimately feed. This would prove to be a real challenge for Chase, and we would once again find ourselves trying to navigate the public school system in such a way as we were not inclined to do. We found out that the system wanted for all of the children in special education to spend two years in the freshman schools. Unfortunately, the freshman schools would prove to be inferior to all of the other schools in the district. Chase's school was in a part of town that was not safe, and it was located very far from our home. The many times that I had to go to the school took a very long time to get there. Our school system has chosen to bus the students in ninth grade to this campus, and there is no telling how much cash it has cost the taxpayers to bus all of these kids all the way across town. That is a whole different story, and I won't get into it now.

The point is that the freshman school is in a bad part of town, and we, as parents, expected that our children would be supervised closely and protected from any dangers in the area. That did not happen, however, and one afternoon, we eluded a danger that would scare us for the rest of Chase's time there (not to mention Chase's little sister, who would soon be attending the same freshman school). Chase's teacher did not properly supervise the students in her care, and one afternoon Chase and her friend were waiting for the bus without any supervision. They were both trusting and innocent, and they would soon face other students who would take advantage of them. A student approached Chase's friend, tell her that he had something to show her, and he would give her a necklace if she would come across the street to see a pretty necklace that he had to show her. Chase's friend followed him across the street to see what he had, and he intended to assault her and to do other things that we didn't have to find out about, thank God. Luckily, there was a parent waiting for another student to come out of the school who witnessed this whole interchange and saw it as abnormal. She followed Chase's friend across the street and intercepted an exchange that could have ended in a sexual assault or worse. Chase's friend only wanted to get a necklace out of it, and she completely trusted this student who lured her away from the school and across the street to an abandoned building. I am so thankful that she had someone looking out for her and that person stood in the gap between goodness and something awful.

This would not be the only horrible thing that would happen while Chase was at the freshman school. School supervision would once again come into play, and we would have the opportunity to interact with the administration of the school once again, even though it would not be pleasant.