Working Hard To Beat The Odds
Sharla Rausch knows how lucky she is to have support. Without it, the 18-year-old might never have kicked the drug and alcohol addiction that had her on a downward spiral. She might not have been able to keep her 10-month-old son.
And Rausch, who is one of 15 Spokane Valley High School students who graduated Tuesday night, might not have made it through high school.
“It would have been really hard without my parents. I’m a strong person, but …” said Rausch, whose voice began to quiver.
Gone was the proud, confident smile she wears. Her hazel eyes wandered across the room and her mind drifted to another place.
She would spend the next several minutes talking about falling in with the wrong crowd and how easily she found trouble.
Images of countless parties raced through her mind. It was at those parties that Rausch began to experiment with drugs and alcohol.
Experimentation led to addiction and Rausch found herself out of control by her sophomore year. The relationship with her mother, which she valued so dearly, was falling apart.
“I didn’t recognize myself anymore,” Rausch said. “When I started to do drugs I drifted away from my family.”
Eventually, Rausch asked her parents for help and spent 60 days at Daybreak of Spokane to kick her addiction.
She worked hard the rest of her sophomore year at West Valley High School to turn her life around.
By her junior year, Rausch had made progress. Her grades slowly began to improve.
And then she got pregnant.
Rausch’s mother, Pam, was furious. She feared her daughter wouldn’t finish high school.
But instead of blowing up in a rage, Pam Rausch took a deep breath and talked calmly with her daughter.
“I tried to be supportive, but I also told her this is a life-long thing,” Pam Rausch said. “You just don’t turn your back when there’s a baby. I was real honest with her when I said I’m not ready to raise another baby.”
She was in the delivery room when her daughter gave birth to Jacob Tyler Theil on July 7, 1995.
Just as the bond between new mother and son was forged, the bond between Sharla and her mother was mended.
“That brought us real close together,” Pam Rausch said. “It was like bonding. It made me feel good knowing that she still needed me.”
Sharla Rausch transferred to Spokane Valley High School, the West Valley School District’s alternative high school, for her senior year to take advantage of the school’s day care center.
Rausch felt comfortable among the other young mothers. She thrived on the individual attention and learned to trust and lean on principal Doug Grace and counselor Sue Ellis when things got tough.
“It’s almost like having another mom or another dad or a big brother and sister,” Rausch said of the two.
A few months later, she moved in with her fiancee, Craig Theil, who wanted to spend more time with his son.
“Plus, I figured it was his turn to get up at 3 a.m.,” Rausch said.
Three more personal tests awaited Rausch during her senior year.
Two former West Valley classmates died suddenly - one the victim of a car accident and the other a murder victim - teaching her how short life could be.
And, in January, Rausch tried to transfer back to West Valley. Her father, Ted Johnson Jr., and Theil had both graduated from West Valley and she wanted to do the same.
The change was harder than Rausch expected and she returned to Spokane Valley High a month later.
She slipped easily back into the school and finished her course work on May 15, despite working 30 hours a week at a fast food restaurant.
Now, Rausch hopes to study phlebotomy in college. She also is planning a summer wedding.
“I really admire what she’s done,” counselor Ellis said. “Being a teen parent and working and finishing school. That’s a lot of roles to handle at that age.”
Her principal attributed Rausch’s success to her determination.
“I think she realizes graduation is the beginning and not the end,” Grace said.
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