Every morning before school and every night before bed, Jolee Brown tends her family’s goats, chickens, ducks and pig.
It is one of her responsibilities at Red Barn Farm, a small farm outside Frankfort where Jolee, 16, lives with her mother, Maria Clark, and stepfather, Larry Richardson, in a small three-room trailer.
At the farm, she gathers eggs and makes goat milk soap with her stepfather. They sell it every week at the farmers market.
Two years ago, Jolee got caught shoplifting headphones at a department store. She also began cutting herself and skipping school, so her parents decided to enroll her in a special public school for troubled kids called The Academy. Several teenagers there are parents, others wear ankle monitors and frequent emotional outbursts are not uncommon.
Jolee emerged as a model student there and is working to get herself on track. She has learned to enjoy the attention she gets for doing well instead of for acting out.
Recently, Jolee was chosen to speak to the Franklin County Board of Education to advocate for more money for The Academy.
Although she’s made strides, Jolee stills suffers from mood swings, as well as trust issues. Her father left when she was 2, and her mother left her with her grandmother for a few years. Jolee deals with her issues through counseling and playing basketball. She wants to be either a nurse or a carpenter.
Her stepfather and mother can be strict, but she knows they want the best for her, she says.
“I can’t go to parties,” she says. “(Mom) wants me to focus on school.”
Maria is proud of Jolee and hopes she attains a better life.
“I don’t want her to struggle,” Maria says. “I have literally lived on the streets. I want her to have the education, to have the money, to never worry about something. I want her to have what she wants, not just what she needs.”
