Playing Catch-up
Jade Smith and her classmates at Forest Brook Middle School are making up lost time after Hurricane Harvey — five minutes a time. Photo by Lawrence Knox.
Written and reported for the Houston Press, November 2017
At this point, Dequerion Sherrard has decided he just won’t look at the calendar.
Calendars mean dates and dates mean tests and tests mean enough time to sit and stress about the questions but never enough to actually finish. Like a few weeks ago, as Dequerion, a 13 year old at Forest Brook Middle School in northeast Houston with almond-shaped eyes and a low, sleepy voice, took one of the many exams he’ll be required to finish this school year. He is sitting there, staring at the question, working it through his mind, and suddenly his computer just logs him out. He about melted into the floor.
So now, with more exams on the horizon, Dequerion just sticks his head in the sand.
“It makes me worry like, ‘Oh man, this date is almost coming up.’ They make me scared so I try not to look at them,” he explained on a Wednesday in early October, just two and half weeks into what could be a long, stressful semester for Dequerion and everyone at Forest Brook.