“A student from the middle school where I taught disappeared and was brutally murdered by a gang despite the efforts of an entire family of educators, social workers, law enforcement, and community activists to prevent it. Only two years later, it appears that no one remembers her. I wrote this story to make sure she is not forgotten. It’s a fictional account of her best friend’s struggle to speak up in order to save her own brother from succumbing to the same gang that killed her friend."

author Susan Zimmerman-Orozco