| May 3, 2005 Kyrsten Keith I have known Kyrsten Keith as a friend and classmate since the last quarter of the 2005-2006 school year. I would describe her as a hard working student who is constantly busy. Often times she is stressed out over an up-coming test, speech, project, or assignment. Along with taking three Advanced Placement classes this year, she is also deeply involved nonacademic activities such as republican club and leadership as junior class president. Despite all of these achievements and attributes, Kyrsten is constantly concerned about getting accepted into a reputable college. Currently her stress is at its highest with AP, SAT testing, prom, her campaign for ASB president. Kyrsten Keith is studious, but in no way is she a boring “goody-goody.” That is not to say, she is an unruly, troublemaking rebel. Her good sense of humor is one of the main things that makes Kyrsten so likable. Rather than go to parties and get drunk/high like some of her peers, Kyrsten likes to spend time in the company of her friends, watching a movie, listening to music, or making jokes. She would always consult her parents before dying her hair. She dresses stylish not scandalous. She does not ever swear, even when she is mad or upset. Kyrsten almost always has an upbeat personality even during unpleasant situations- which brings me to an incident that occurred during the first week of February this year. (The account below is as I remember it and is not word for word in the conversion) On February 3, 2005 I received a call from Kyrsten around 7:00 pm. It started out as a normal conversation with a “how are you doing?” I started telling her about my day for maybe a minute, but was abruptly cut off by her saying, “I’m sorry I have to go.” I got worried because her voice was filled her nervous urgency, and I anxiously waited for her call again and explain what was wrong. Several minutes later the phone rang again. She was whispering and close to tears. I knew something was very wrong because Kyrsten hates to cry. She told me that after making a mistake with preparing dinner, her stepmother had yelled at her. Debbi had asked her why she couldn’t do anything right. I found out that this hadn’t been the first time she had gotten yelled at. I don’t know how long this has been going on. Other times, she was blamed whenever something went missing or yelled at for drinking too much milk. Debbi claimed everything that went wrong was always Kyrsten’s fault. Her stepmother also accused her being spoiled by her father. Her father at the time of the call was not home and had left to some unknown place after Kyrsten had been yelled at. She was calling from a trailer outside her father’s house and was afraid that Debbi would come in and yell at her. I learned of all of this through several phone calls because she would quickly say “I have to go” and hang up every time she thought she heard her stepmother. Kyrsten’s father was still not home when we were talking around 10:30pm. I hung up with her around 11pm, promising that if need be she could come over to my house the next day. I had also advised her to tell somebody like a teacher or her mother about what was going. She said that that would make matters worse and she didn’t want to take it into a legal affair. Now it has been almost two months since that phone call, and hopefully my friend will not longer have to live in a household under the guardianship of people whom she is verbally abused and feels threatened by. Krista Yamashita |
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