Key points

Quiet students may carry hunger, exhaustion, and adult responsibilities invisible to their teachers.

Chronic stress disrupts learning, making survival feel more urgent than schoolwork for vulnerable children.

Being heard can shift a young person’s path and create the possibility of safer, healthier choices.

The room carried a quiet stillness that afternoon as the young adults gathered for the restorative justice session. Their stories held old wounds, many of them shaped in childhood spaces where silence felt safer than truth. Mateo, 22 years old, entered softly and selected a seat near the edge of the circle, his posture revealing the weight of years spent swallowing words. On that day, however, he chose to speak.

He looked down for a moment before raising his eyes, and

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