By fern goldstein

The Student

a Novel

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland… Tick… Tick… Tick… Seventy-nine incidents of gun violence* on school property in 2022 with 46 dead; 882 shootings in 2023 with 28 dead and 67 injured, and another 32 incidents as of May 2024**, and while children are shooting their teachers and other children, the people who should do something do nothing or don’t know what to do.

The Student, a novel narrated through the journal of Special Education teacher, Sharon Bonavina, takes the reader down the halls and inside classrooms of Abigail Adams Middle School to intimately experience the complex struggles that The Student and his potential victims each face. The reader feels the teachers’ and administrators’ frustrations as they try desperately, but in vain, to reach The Student while grappling with the legal and ethical issues and the realities of what can and cannot be done in schools for students who struggle and for those who suffer because of them—until we end up cowering behind the way-too-thin wooden doors of Sharon’s classroom, watching the clock, wondering if help will arrive in time.

Tick… Tick… Tick…

* By using a different definition of gun violence, other sources put the numbers much higher.

** Source: Matthews, Alex Leeds. “School shootings in the US: Fast facts.” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/us/school-shootings-fast-facts-dg/index.html, updated 2:37 PM EDT, Mon April 22, 2024 and May 30, 2024

Author

Welcome!

During the pandemic lock down in my new home in Delaware, I decided to finally write that novel that had been on the back burner for three decades while I taught so many students with LD how to write and led workshops for other teachers on how to teach writing. That novel hasn’t been written yet, but I wrote another one instead, and I think, if I must say so myself, it’s a really good one. I’ve also been tutoring and serving as President of the Learning Disabilities Association (LDA) of Delaware and on the national Board of LDA of America.

Use the buttons below find out more about me, LDA of America or LDA Delaware!

About Fern

About LDA of America

About LDA of Delaware

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ADHD people will say, “Oh, my God, it’s me!” Parents of ADHD people will say, “Ohhhhh, now I get it, and I’m so sorry.”

– Evan Goldstein, Reader with ADHD & LD

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“Wow! This gripping, tightly woven narrative immerses the reader in a vividly accurate
portrayal of one of the most contentious issues facing society today. The students Ms. Goldstein created are real, too real…so real that I found the ending devastating. The novel left me with many questions and with the unsettling feeling that this problem may not have a solution.”