It was a typical high school teaching day when choral instructor Jimmelyn Garland Rice took a break to use the restroom. When she stepped into the bathroom, however, she heard the disturbing sound of a student purging in an adjacent stall. Then as she was washing her hands, Rice overhead a student talking about her abusive stepfather and another confiding to a friend that she was afraid she might be pregnant. The following week Rice found a girl in the restroom cutting her arms with a razor blade.
Compelled to do something, Rice started taking her breaks in the bathroom rather than the faculty lounge so that she could befriend a host of lost, lonely, struggling girls. The issues facing these teens were serious and numerous, including addictions, eating disorders, self-harm, pregnancy, and toxic relationships.
