Formerly homeless child prostitute enters law school

[lightningandsnow]

From selling sex to Osgoode Hall

Wendy Babcock ran away from abuse and into a life of prostitution. Homeless just weeks ago, she's studying law and aims to change attitudes.

Osgoode Hall Law School professor Alan Young paces leisurely. Standing before his Criminal Law I class, he begins to discuss a 1954 murder case.

"Here's a guy who's impotent," he says. "He goes to a prostitute ..."

"Sex worker."

Young stops. Dozens of eyes dart quizzically from laptop keyboards to the source of the brazen interruption.

Even at diverse York University, the woman in the front row is a curious sight. She takes notes on an unlined piece of white paper. Her arms are tattooed. Her brown hair is streaked pink. And her bespectacled gaze is firm.

In private, she will confess that Osgoode scares her, that she doesn't know if she belongs, that she doubts she is the intellectual equal of her classmates – who "look like law school students and talk like law school students and have the background a law school student should have."

I know this woman...she is quite amazing! Her story has really inspired me.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/729829--from-selling-sex-to-osgoode-hall?bn=1

[Odin2005]

1. K&R

[midnight]

2. Those entering law school have mostly been comfortable, and have mostly

never had to live the life this women has had to. I hope she makes it.

[lightningandsnow]

4. I hope she makes it too!

I really, REALLY hope she does run for office one day.

Heck, I hope she becomes Prime Minister.

[KamaAina]

12. Why not?

Unlike Harper, she's through being a prostitute. :P

[lightningandsnow]

14. ...

:rofl:

[Odin2005]

21. DUzy!

:rofl:

[mitchum]

3. She's guaranteed a book deal in this "the age of memoir"

[conscious evolution]

5. I know a former child sex worker

who is about to graduate cumma sum laude from medical school.
An amazing women.
She managed it with two children and no child support from her deadbeat ex(whose father is senior preacher at a fundie mega church.Talk about 'family values').

[lightningandsnow]

7. Good for her!

She sounds amazing.

[Ilsa]

23. They would claim that her hardships are her fault for being

a sex worker and god is punishing her and they don't owe her a dime to help raise the children.

[conscious evolution]

24. They did do that

She is gonna have the last laugh,though.I know what she has planned for him.I wish I could say what she is gonna do cause its gonna be a doozy when it happens.The asshole is gonna be in a world of shit when she does.The best thing-its totally 100% legal.
I would love to see his and his fathers faces when it happens. :evilgrin:

[tekisui]

6. knr!~

[Blue_Tires]

8. kick

[Gwendolyn]

9. Nice story! Reminds me a little of Liz Murray (Homeless to Harvard). n/t

[DollyM]

26. Whatever happened to Liz Murray anyway?

She dropped out of Harvard and then just kind of disappeared. Did she finish her schooling somewhere else? I admire kids who do things like this but it is very stressful. We had a foster child that went on to a state college and did well her first year but then her grades started sliding and she started hearing voices and had a mental break down. She didn't finish school, just too much baggage in her past (sexual abuse by her father from the time she was little until she was removed from the home at 15)for her to function well. She went to work at Wal Mart and eventually married a young man she had been dating at college and seem to be happy in her role of mom and wife.

[Gwendolyn]

28. She's doing okay I think. She left Harvard to go to Columbia as her dad was dying.

Today she's one of those motivational speakers. (No one's perfect. But if she's helping people it's all good). What a life though. Incredibly sad childhood and yet she was so loyal to her parents right to the end.

It's nice to hear that your foster child did well too. :)

[lightningandsnow]

10. Kick

[SidDithers]

11. Saw that this morning, when The Star hit my doorstep...

uplifting story, to be sure. Here's wishing her great success.

Thanks for posting.

Sid

[Naturyl]

13. As nice as these cases are

You know they will eventually be used against the poor and homeless as one more example of "this person did all this on their own, so don't ask for any help from us."

Grats to her, though. Hope she doesn't turn conservative when the money starts coming in.

[lightningandsnow]

19. Trust me, she'd never become conservative.

:)

[aikoaiko]

15. I wished they used an ex. of her intelligently discussing law instead of an interruption

There is nothing wrong with describing someone who exchanges sex for money as a prostitute, and the term sex worker is broader than prostitute.

I hope she succeeds and contributes much to law.

[Barack_America]

16. Great story. But it still sounds like she has an uphill battle.

I'm really pulling for her.

[Blue-Jay]

17. HA! I love this picture of her:

[joeybee12]

18. And being a lawyer is a step up?

Sorry, it's far to easy to bash lawyers...that said, I wish her well...tough to break out of that life and make something of yourself.

[lightningandsnow]

20. Haha. Obvious joke is obvious.

:P

[chatnoir]

22. It mentions tuition is 18K per year?

Thought higher education in Canada was heavily subsidized, if not more or less gratis?

Good for her, though. Hope she makes it.

[TrogL]

27. Hell, no

You can get student loans at good rates. If you graduate the government, if it feels like it, may write some of it off.

[lightningandsnow]

25. kick!

An uplifting story for Thanksgiving. :D