HOUSTON – As an alternative education program, 8 Million Stories' mission is to give at-risk teens a second chance at putting their lives back on track, including getting their GED.
“A lot our kids are working on computers and developing their soft skills to be job ready,” said Marvin Pierre, the program’s co-founder.
But those learning tools the students rely so much on, are now gone.
Someone stole them.
Over the weekend, thieves busted a back window in the cafeteria and helped themselves to 35 laptop computers and two projectors that the teachers use.
“So not having that resulted in the loss of two days of academic instruction, and so for our kids, they can't afford to lose that much time. You hurt a lot of kids,” Pierre said.
Pierre has no idea who ripped off 8 Million Stories because there aren’t any cameras inside the school. 8 Million Stories can’t afford them.
Pierre has filed a police report and for the time being, educators have gone back to using textbooks.
“We don't really know how we are going to recover or how we are going to move forward but we are hopeful,” Pierre said.
He's hopeful that this won’t set students back too much since he knows students are counting on the program to help them be successful.
“The people here are so dedicated to really serve our kids. This environment is based on love and support and structure and our kids thrive because of that,” Pierre said.
Most of the school’s funding is through grants and donations. If you’d like to help 8 Million Stories, you can do so by visiting their website.