By Claire Middleton, Sophia Rosewarne & Bella Yerkes
The Communicator Magazine
Ann Arbor Community HS
1st Place
Division 4, News Writing
Diversity Coverage
On Ms. Mullen’s ninth hole at The Country Club of Detroit, she landed the golf ball in a sand trap. A young woman named LaShawn Courtwright was her caddy for the day. Though caddies at the Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich. were not supposed to talk to the golfers, Courtwright decided to anyway. “You can do it! You can do it Ms. Mullen,” she said. Ms. Mullen was able to hit the ball out of the sand trap and right into the hole, jumping joyously off the ground in celebration. Courtwright described this moment as “one of the greatest highlights of golfing.”
Courtwright grew up in Detroit. She was an avid member of church, did well in school, and participated in extra curriculars. Courtwright talks highly of her achievements in her youth. “During my elementary years, I would receive handwriting awards and penmanship awards,” Courtwright said. “I used to score very high in comprehension. When we took the Michigan Equivalency Aptitude Proficiency Exams, I was in about fourth grade, and I would score eleventh grade comprehension.” She was also on the swim team and trained to be a lifeguard.
At school, especially in middle school, Courtwright was bullied. She would have to run to the bus and to her locker to avoid the tormenting. “I talked to my grandma often and she told me sometimes people only do what they know to do to, so sometime maybe people don’t know any better than some of the things they do,” Courtwright said.
When Courtwright was 14, she began seeking work. After receiving an offer from the owner of a local bar to begin cleaning his space, she accepted with no hesitation. But when she arrived for her first day of work, she didn’t start with a broom in her hand, but rather with a knife at her throat.
She was raped by her new employer that day.
That was not the only time Courtwright was sexually assaulted. She was molested and abused by family members on several occasions as well as other men she trusted and felt close to. She remembers being raped with two guns to her head and in front of a group of people. “Sometimes it’s hard to remember that stuff because your mind sort of does what it wants to do with it,” Courtwright said. Her traumatic experiences also left her with PTSD.
At 13, Courtwright was thrown out for staying out late at a party and returning home after her curfew that her mother had given her. She knocked on her door and her mother was outraged. “B***h, I don’t know where you been, but you go back where you been,” her mother said. Courtwright had been at a party with two girls from her neighborhood, both of whom were 15 and had already had one and two kids respectively. Courtwright, who had lived a sheltered childhood, had never seen a party like this: people were smoking marijuana and cigarettes, drinking, and dancing sensually. At the party, Courtwright did nothing illegal; she was just intrigued and lost track of time. After being thrown out, Courtwright did not know what to do or where to go. The minimal help she received as a youth left her with a tainted view of social workers.
Courtwright now also suffers from anxiety, depression, an unspecified mood disorder, and cluster B personality traits. Previously unaware of her disorders, Courtwright began to self-medicate with alcohol, which she believes contributed to her legal issues when she found herself in prison around age 30. After being released from prison, Courtwright went to see a psychiatrist by recommendations from a close friend.
Courtwright grew up loving to write and still does. “I like to write about things that challenge me and make me think outside the box,” Courtwright said. She wrote a poem called “Who’s Plea Bargain No Deal” about the criminal justice system. “I’m disappointed with how the criminal justice system works and how people have to, when they don’t have a lot of resources to pay for a paid attorney, end up taking pleas for stuff that you didn’t do,” Courtwright said.
Currently, as Courtwright is working on publishing her first poetry book, she is also working to meet financial challenges. “I like my poetry to reflect my experiences,” Courtwright said. “I write about things because I want to be able to use my experience to help somebody else, that maybe they don’t have to fall into some of the pitfalls that I fell into.” One of her favorite poems she wrote is called, “Homeless not Hopeless.”
Courtwright also still attends church, though she hasn’t been recently. She found a church in Ann Arbor that she likes. Church has taken a large part in Courtwright’s life. She was the junior choir assistant at her church during her youth, which she went to with her “Great Auntie.” “[Church] teaches me how to forgive people,” Courtwright said. “I don’t have to like them, but it taught me how to forgive, it gave me a lot of strength through bad times. It teaches me to be spiritually grounded.”
For her future, Courtwright hopes to become a renowned writer, take a business math class, and work with adolescents. Courtwright has worked at Washtenaw Literacy to improve her math skills, and wants to start again. She believes her experiences as a youth would help her work with adolescents who’ve had similar and traumatic experiences.