NM Teacher Tells Story Of Abuse
By ABC-7 Reporter Jill Galus
Las Cruces, New Mexico – No more. This is what a Las Cruces teacher is empowering youth to say to child abuse.
Lisa Wooten says, as a child she watched her father abuse her mother for years. Then Wooten says, she grew up as a mirror image, and became an abuser. Now a survivor, her remarkable story is changing the lives of some of her students.
“I decided to kill before being killed, to hurt before being hurt, and definitely abuse before being abused,” Wooten said.
A pattern Wooten says, she learned from her father.
“Do I blame my father – no,” Wooten said. “Somewhere down the line, somebody perpetuated his cycle and it’s just ongoing and ongoing.”
And it is this continuing cycle Wooten says, she’s helping kids break.
“Most people see me today and they’re like, oh she wouldn’t hurt a fly, well, I mask it very well,” Wooten said. “I have it under control.”
Control she says, is how she is able to move forward from her life as an abuser.
“It’s a rage that starts at the bottom of my feet and it starts crawling up,” Wooten said.
Anything but your average teacher at Las Cruces High.
Her classroom now a foundation for a program called T.M.E.Nation – uniting and empowering youth to stop child abuse.
“She’s not afraid to tell us her real story.”
One of her student’s spoke with us about domestic violence he has experienced within his family. He says, Wooten is the only person he is able to share that with.
“She was like in the same place that I’m in right now so I can identify myself with her.”
Her ability to identify with so many is what has helped her speaking platform on abuse become a global lesson plan.
“I’m just your average teacher that loves her profession, loves her kids and believes tomorrow can be a better future,” Wooten said. “But here’s the catch – we have to create it, they have to create it.”
For more information on how to become involved with T.M.E.Nation or bring the program to a school near you, visit Wooten’s Web site at TME4U.org.
