Some stories aren’t that great to tell, but they are invaluable nonetheless.

My Christmas story this year, which hopefully won’t come out on Christmas, is about a 10 year old special needs child who was physically assaulted in a local residential treatment center. Her mother was going around desperately trying to find someone willing to listen to her story about her daughter, who was put in a choke-hold, pulled out of her chair and dragged down a hallway floor by her arm.

Those aren’t great stories to tell, and they aren’t great stories to tell two days before the holiday weekend. But they are stories that need to be out there. They suck, but they are also the reason I got into this. I will touch up the story tomorrow, and it will likely run next week, but what I did was give this woman a voice. Hopefully no other disabled kids suffer the same fate.

That’s not a bad present, is it?