Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson
By Emily Alpert
Published April 3, 2011 on
Ten-year-old Elizabeth Padilla has been the new girl over and over, at school after school around City Heights. First there was Central Elementary for kindergarten. Then Carver. Then Euclid.
Then the landlord upped the rent and her mother went to find another apartment. Elizabeth was off to Cherokee Point Elementary. Then to Marshall Elementary this January. And at Marshall they pleaded for her to stay.
“You’ve done so well here. Do you know that? Do you feel it? You’re really letting your light shine,” Principal Staci Monreal told the tall, tomboyish girl one Wednesday when she stopped into the office.