SPOKANE, Wash. – As you walk through the halls of high school, you might recognize familiar faces but never truly know the stories and challenges behind them. Two seniors from Spokane have faced extraordinary obstacles and are now set to cross the graduation stage this weekend. Here are their remarkable journeys.
Esmerelda Bautista
Esmerelda has seven siblings (two older, five younger).
Her father was deported while she was in elementary school, which left her with a lot of parental responsibility, especially when she had a falling out with her mom.
On a regular basis, Esmerelda would come home and be a mom for her siblings. She would change their diapers, feed them, and bathe them before making sure they got to bed on time.
That started when she was only nine years old.
Eventually, her mom kicked her out of the house, so she stayed with her boyfriend for a while before bouncing from couch to couch, sometimes staying with her sister, sometimes having nowhere to stay at all.
This all happened while she dealt with huge amounts of racism from some of her classmates.
“People would tell me that I had to, like, go back to where I was from,” said Bautista. “One time they told my brother, they drew a line and were like, ‘This is the border, you stay where you belong.'”
Despite dealing with incredible challenges, now she’s graduating, even though she transferred to On-Track Academy with only four credits to her name.
She’s hoping to get a degree and go into social work to help people in similar situations.
Congratulations, Esmerelda.
Akayla Schaller
Akayla Schaller’s parents have been separated since she was just a young girl, and because of that, she’s rarely found herself living in the same place for very long.
Since she was in elementary school, she’s lived with her mom, her dad, her boyfriend, in foster care with her sister Chloe, and in a homeless shelter.
Half the time she was with Chloe, half the time she was not, and when she was, she would often have to advocate for her and adopt something of a motherly role even though she is only one year older.
Later in life, while she lived in her dad’s apartment, he was dealing with addiction, and it quickly became a drug house where people would visit at all hours of the night and take whatever they wanted from the home.
Akayla thinks that’s partially why she got meningitis when she was only 12 years old and at one point had to be resuscitated after dying in the hospital and going into a coma.
She worked through years of physical therapy to regain her ability to move.
Now she’s got all the credits necessary to graduate. Her final tests are taken, and she’s hoping that her success can motivate others in similar situations.
“Even when times get hard, it’s okay,” said Schaller. “If you’ve got to cry about it, cry about it. If you’ve got to scream about it, scream about it. Get it out, but you’ve got to keep moving. You’ve got to push yourself to keep moving on no matter how hard stuff gets.”
Akayla has a full-ride scholarship to Whitworth and is hoping to become a social worker where she can help others dealing with situations like hers.
Akayla, congratulations.
