Name withheld

At a glance

• They go to school and help an older brother earn money afterwards.
• They moved after trouble where they used to live; without papers from the old school this student started a grade behind where they should be, and the papers are the biggest thing in the way.
• When their mind is somewhere else they get restless, fidget, and sometimes get up without asking, and some teachers send them out; asked privately by one teacher whether something had happened, they said no, because they did not want to answer where others could hear.
• They never asked for help out loud, because they did not want to be the new kid with the sad story.
• What helped was mostly that older brother, who tells them it is okay not to have the papers and that "we'll sort it", and one friend who asked no questions and simply let them sit alongside.
• They say they do not know much about their rights: as far as they know, no one ever told them whether displaced children can be enrolled without all the old papers; in their words, "We just assumed we had to fix it ourselves."

In their words

I didn't want to be the new kid with the sad story. I wanted to just be normal there.

I'd want schools to let you in first and sort the papers after.

What they want changed

Schools should let a student in first and sort the papers after. They want readers to understand that it is not that young people in their position do not want to explain what happened; it is that they want one place that is not about that.

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