Speak really spoke to me...

So for this week's assignment we had to read Speak...
Thank you Pete.
I can never thank you enough for having us read such a powerful, poignant piece of work!

As I went through something very similar to what Melinda went through, this book "spoke" to me on many levels.
I think this is a book that you have to teach in High School.
Students are sexually, emotionally, and physically abused every day in every school district.
Maybe reading a book like Speak will give them the courage to speak out and not take abuse like Melinda did.
Speaking about such traumatic events can help.
Thinking about Speak and then watching an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit where a nurse accidentally told a friend that a patient was raped by a teacher and wouldn't speak.
Acting on a hunch, the detective broke all confidentially laws and got to the student and got the student to talk so that the student wouldn't face years of alcohol, drug, and sexual abuse, as many rape victims that don't face/talk about their abuse end up going through later on in their adolescent and adult lives!

I hope reading this book will inspire students they may have been abused in anyway, to either speak to a teacher, friend, parent, social worker, or guidance counselor.