{"id":346,"date":"2017-02-16T17:05:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T17:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/?p=346"},"modified":"2022-08-04T22:44:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T22:44:07","slug":"r18-ess-all-american-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/r18-ess-all-american-refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Student Succeeding 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The All-American Refuge<\/strong><\/h3>\n

[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https:\/\/youtu.be\/RRd04EgKIfI[\/youtube]\n

Mohammed Mohammed\u2019s story has a happy ending. But the cruel reality is Mohammed\u2019s story is the exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very inspirational case,\u201d said Sophia Jacoub, an English language coordinator in Grossmont Union High School District. \u201cNot every student who comes in to a new country at 14 or 15 years old makes it this far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed, ACSA\u2019s Region 18 Every Student Succeeding Award recipient, was born in Iraq. His father owned a car dealership. Terrorist groups used the family\u2019s wealth as an opportunity to incite fear and threaten violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would always tell my father that they were going to kidnap me, but if he paid them money, they wouldn\u2019t kidnap me,\u201d Mohammed said. \u201cFrom that, he didn\u2019t let me out of the house. He told me to stay home and be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2008, the same terrorist group kidnapped Mohammed\u2019s father. His mother sold the family\u2019s house to pay off the ransom, but his father was never returned, and they never saw him again.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people say he\u2019s alive and some people say he\u2019s not,\u201d said Thekra Betrus, Mohammed\u2019s mother, in her native language of Arabic. \u201cBut I don\u2019t really care because we\u2019ve missed him for eight years now, and he hasn\u2019t shown up. I\u2019ve been the one raising my son. So whether or not I have my husband, it doesn\u2019t matter because God gave me a son, and I care about him the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed\u2019s mother made the difficult decision to move the family to Syria. When they first arrived, Mohammed described his new country as \u201canother United States.\u201d But that quickly changed when the civil war began in January 2011. The United Nations estimated more than 90,000 people were killed in the first 28 months of the war. More criminal groups began kidnapping children in Syria, just as they had done in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really scared, and I just thought that it was the end,\u201d Mohammed said. \u201cMy family is all going to get murdered by those people, by the terrorists. But then my mom stepped up and she said, \u2018We need to leave this area. We need to move on with life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In November 2012, Mohammed and his mother escaped Syria with the help of the UN and made the journey to the United States, ultimately ending up in El Cajon. Knowing very little English, Mohammed struggled to adapt to his new environment. But he quickly discovered, he was not the only refugee in El Cajon. The city is believed to have the second-largest number of Iraqis in the United States. El Cajon Valley High launched two summer school programs to help refugees assimilate and adjust to their new lives: Hope, Opportunity, Prosperity and Education (HOPE) and Perseverance, Responsibility, Independence, Dedication and Education (PRIDE). Mohammed flourished, and before long he was named captain of the school\u2019s soccer team and was crowned Homecoming King.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I heard his name, I cried because I felt this is who deserves it because the students vote and it just proves how liked and well-respected he is on campus,\u201d English teacher Melissa Drake said. \u201cIt was the greatest moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed suffered through two wars, multiple attempted kidnappings and the loss of his father. He graduated from El Cajon Valley High and has dreams of becoming a doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis impact on campus transcends being a refugee,\u201d El Cajon Vice Principal Jason Babineau said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about being a refugee to Mohammed. It\u2019s about him impacting groups of people throughout the entire campus, including staff members, including teachers, including vice principals.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more than anything, Mohammed Mohammed is safe and secure. And that\u2019s what matters most.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I always thought that I would be murdered or kidnapped,\u201d Mohammed said. \u201cAnd I would always have that fear. But right now in America, I don\u2019t have any feeling of that. I\u2019m in a better place. I\u2019m in a place where it\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The All-American Refuge [youtube width=”560″ height=”315″]https:\/\/youtu.be\/RRd04EgKIfI[\/youtube] Mohammed Mohammed\u2019s story has a happy ending. But the cruel reality is Mohammed\u2019s story is the exception. \u201cHe\u2019s a very inspirational case,\u201d said Sophia Jacoub, an English language coordinator in Grossmont Union High School … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regions.acsa.org\/18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}