atlanta_women_05_girls_0109

Deandra’s mother works as a waitress. According to Deandra, “she works all the time and is tired when shecomes home.” She misses the time they used to spend together playing games. “The best time in my life waswhen I went to the mall with my Mama, but we don’t do much things like that now.”Deandra has had a difficult time in school and remains unhappy about her lack of friends. “Kids talk aboutme and call me names all the time. I don’t know why but it hurts my feelings.”She attended four middle schools, “cause we kind of didn’t have a home, so we was living with people.” In 6thgrade, Deandra was expelled from school. “These older [sic] girls kept pushing me in the mud and talkingabout me, tried to jump me. So I took out a knife to school but I gave it up.” “I get suspended all the timefor trying to be somebody I ain’t, be in the crowd, have friends that ain’t really my friends, just talk about me.I got no real friends.”This school year, Deandra began skipping school and leaving school. She was charged with simple battery forassaulting another girl and was transferred to CEP.The first time Deandra ran away was after she and her mother had a fight. “Every time I get in trouble, I feellike my Mama loves me more then.” This reinforced Deandra’s pattern of running away. Deandra ran off with“this boy” when she was 13 years old, because she “thought he was in love with me. Plenty of times I left withhim, lost my virginity because the other kids were doing it.”Since then Deandra claims that she has had four sexual partners. Several of Deandra's friends were strippersand Deandra admitted to stripping but denied she was prostituted, but her last boyfriend was a known pimp.He was grooming her to begin turning her out. Luckily, Deandra was detained at Metro Regional YouthDetention Center for running away before he had the chance.After being detained at Metro, Deandra was referred to Weed and Seed and the Baby Think it Over Program.She failed to attend either of these. Deandra was then referred to CEASE and is currently at Angela's House.Melissa –20-year-old CaucasianWhen Melissa was 5 years old, her older male cousins (ages 7 and 9) began fondling her. They told her, “I sawmy mom and dad do this” and would then do it to her. She did not know it was wrong at the time but sheknew she did not like being touched that way. At 11 years old, Melissa began having intercourse with hercousin, then 14 years old, and a group of his friends, who ranged in age from 14 to 17.Melissa saw her first pornographic magazine when she was 7 years old at her father’s house. She watched herfirst pornographic movie when she was 13 years old, at a drug dealer’s house. She and her friends would rentX-rated movies and take them back to her mother’s house to watch.Melissa’s parents divorced when she was an infant. She lived with her mother in Alabama. They were very closeuntil her mother remarried when Melissa was 12 years old. Melissa and her new stepfather fought all the timeand she finally was sent to live with her father. Melissa’s father was also remarried and lived in Georgia nearMacon. Melissa had problems living with her father and even had a physical altercation with her stepmother.Melissa had a lot of trouble in school, feeling out of place and not getting along with the other students. Shegot in several fights. Melissa finally refused to go to school and she was sent to boot camp twice. She believesthat she is bisexual. Her first sexual contact with a female was while in boot camp.43