On the Subject of Teaching: ‘It’s Very Depressing’

I appreciate your article regarding teachers (“Keeping New Teachers From Dropping Out,” July 11).

I taught seven years in a private school and 15 years in a school outside Los Angeles. The problems are severe. We do not have enough money for supplies. We had our salaries cut. We have no support system to assist us with severe problems.

A 14-year-old told me, laughing, in October that she did coke, beer and pot. She said she could handle it. By spring I learned she was a hooker operating from the front room of her home when her mother went to bed. I had no resources to call upon to settle her life. Her mother went to the police to state she could not handle her daughter. At this point, the girl ran away.

It’s very depressing.

LOIS THORNE

Echo Park