“After facilitating the group, I would walk with the girls to the subway. I would often hear snippets of their conversations with each other about their home lives. They would talk about their family, their friends as school, and occasionally their husbands…..I couldn’t imagine how these giggly high school girls could possibly transition to be someone’s wife once they left the playful space of our girl’s group (Yetu 3.).

The passage above captured my attention and greatly portrayed the severity and intensity of forced marriages. The simple imagery of a group of girls on a subway together and being “giggly” makes the situation so much more realistic, especially now that I am in a high school student teaching placement. I think of my high school students and imagine if one of them were in a forced marriage and it seems to be unimaginable to me because at the high school level I find some adolescents to be very immature. At the young age of 14,15, or 16, when adolescents are going through many changes and are simply chatting innocently about friends and family, is this an appropriate time for a (forced) marriage?. Shortly after this passage I was happy to read definitions of marriage do vary such as it can mean engagement, however, I wonder, where is the line drawn between cultural importance in a new country versus the endangerment of an adolescent’s well being? This is highlighted even further when the article mentioned court cases in that parents have gone to jail in endangering the welfare of a minor child. Because cultural norms (in sometimes immigrant populations) are clashing with the laws of child welfare, the process becomes complicated. There are many questions that linger with not always many answers. I think that the best approach as a future educator would be to have open conversations with students and create a safe space. Resources such as community dialogue/ meditation and culturally-specific coordinated interventions should be utilized in each situations to best deal with any issues at hand.