radical personality change during their years in birmingham. but i didn t realize completely at the time. but in retrospect, yeah. i could definitely, i can definitely see exactly what happened. for almost two years, teresa says physical abuse and psychological terror drove her to consider suicide. i was very withdrawn and quiet. i was exhausted. inside you re crushed. ashamed and scared for her life, and the safety of her young brothers, teresa kept her nightmare a dark secret. in retrospect, teresa says the hardest feeling to overcome is her anger at her teachers. i went from being a b student to a d student and somebody should have seen that. how many days i missed from school because i was constantly not wanting to be there and saying i was sick and trying to come up with every excuse i could to miss school.
and they didn t notice, that i didn t have shoes on, that i was my pajamas were soaking wet and torn. the officer tried to explain to teresa s parents that this wasn t a simple case of a partying teen. he got really loud with her and corrected her. he was like, no. you don t get it. your daughter is your entire family is in serious trouble. and you re in danger and you need to get out of here. you need to move. you need to do whatever it takes to get your kids out of here. before leaving, teresa says the officer took her aside and asked her to help him prosecute the gang. he said, i know what happened. and i need your help and we can stop this. but i there was no way i could do. teresa says any chance that she would cooperate with police and press charges evaporated the next day. i stayed home from school. my mom let me, you know, stay there and she was furious at me. and she didn t knock on the door.
they thought i was out having a good time partying. and they didn t notice, that i didn t have shoes on, that i was my pajamas were soaking wet and torn. the officer tried to explain to teresa s parents that this wasn t a simple case of a partying teen. he got really loud with her and corrected her. he was like, no. you don t get it. your daughter is your entire family is in serious trouble. and you re in danger and you need to get out of here. you need to move. you need to do whatever it takes to get your kids out of here. before leaving, teresa says the officer took her aside and asked her to help him prosecute the gang. he said, i know what happened. and i need your help and we can stop this. but i there was no way i could do it. teresa says any chance that she would cooperate with police and press charges evaporated the next day. i stayed home from school.
couldn t carry me. weak and dazed teresa found her soaking wet pajamas in the shower and dressed herself. with no shoes she wandered into an all night diner at the end of the motel. and the only person in two years that ever helped me was this little waitress in this motel. and she said, can i help you? and i didn t know what to say. how can you help me? what can you do for me? and i didn t know i wanted to take her help but i didn t know what to do. teresa says the waitress called the police. by the time the officer drove teresa home and woke her parents, it was early dawn. i was sitting at the top of the stairs. my parents had already gone downstairs. i heard a police officer talking. they were in the foyer. and i heard him tell my parents. he said, you have no idea what your daughter is involved in. we know what s going on here. your daughter is not she almost died tonight.