C. J. Huff to Arkansas teachers: I don't know about you, but I own these kids

During a break from all of the efforts to make sure that Joplin High School opens on time, R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff offered an inspirational breakfast message to Pea Ridge, Arkansas, teachers Monday morning, at approximately the same time that he had hoped volunteers would begin moving items into the new Joplin High School. That move, of course, was delayed when the school flunked in inspection Friday.

Huff was in Pea Ridge, representing Bright Futures USA since the Arkansas school recently adopted Huff's Bright Futures initiative.

Huff encouraged the Arkansas teachers to share stories of their students:

"I don't know about you, but I own those kids," Huff said of his possessiveness towards his students when he was a classroom teacher. "People need to know those kids exist. There's a way to share those stories.


"If people know these things are happening in your community, they'll help. There is a child being beaten at home and coming to school with a lot of baggage. We need to engage our community in a way we need to engage them."

Huff told of a child in one of his first years of teaching whose mother was "MIA," absent from his life, a father in prison and who was being raised by two grandparents, the grandfather was a drunk and the grandmother was a meth addict. "He was a sharp kid but he was on a one-way track to prison. He was going to follow in his dad's footsteps. We loose too many kids to situations like that."

"Memories of him still haunt me," Huff said. "We shouldn't finish our careers wondering what happened to those kids."

"God put me on this earth because I love kids. Period. The end. I fight for the underdog," Huff said. "I'd encourage you to do that, too. Quitting isn't in my vernacular. We shouldn't quit on our kids."

"Why do I get out of bed every morning?" Huff said. "If I don't get out of bed for them, who will? You can't quit on any kid. We have a responsibility as caring adults to make sure every kid is successful."

"Find Your Why!"

"Keep our children's dreams alive!"