"A true story of love, loss, leadership, and lessons that rally teachers and students together."
Damon was an African American male student and senior that I coached on the football field in a skill position with which I was unfamiliar. Damon was everything I feared in an athlete and knowing I was out of my element as a position coach. It is where other student-athletes questioned my ability to lead the position, Damon received me with open arms. His tragic death rocked my foundation and changed my educational philosophy forever.
Allison became a daughter figure, as I was called to teach her in two different schools. She is a White female that lived with only her mother and began seeking me for advice as she went in and out of shifting relationships with her father. The timeline of the mentor relationship began during her 8th-grade year (2012), but began to flourish during her sophomore year in high school, and continues today into her adulthood.
Drake represented the challenge of teaching students you care about, but with whom you experience personality clashes. Drake was an African American male student-athlete that I taught and coached in both 7 th and 8 th grade at a previous school (2012-2013). Drake’s mother passed away, and he moved schools. I taught him again in his 10th-grade year. Drake’s premature death was a wake-up call of reality for me as an educator and his story is a battle cry to overcome those hard-to-conquer barriers some students build against the teacher.
Lance and Molly are two students that began an organic friendship inside of a multi-diverse class I was teaching in 2017. Lance is a White male student with autism who had trouble making friends and trusting people. Molly, a White female cheerleader, is a school socialite with few enemies. Molly took it upon herself to befriend Lance and in turn, completely changed the young man’s life and the dynamic atmosphere of the classroom. This mentoring relationship is about how students can take it upon themselves to change their world around them, without the direction to do so.
Tyson was the first African American student-teacher relationship I had experienced. He needed a ride to football practice and from there the conversations that ensued opened my eyes to Tyson’s world. A world which was previously unknown to me became known. A fallen son, haunted by his past, became the prototype relationship of what was to come, leading students to stand for themselves, and reshape the world around them.
Hello all!
I am Dr. Scott McKneely Blanchard and I recently completed my Ph.D. at LSU. MISSING LION is the true story of the research process, which was designed to explain Christian leadership principles in public schools and the relationships I built because of my Faith. The 5 stories in MISSING LION became an in-depth analysis of teacher identity and the false narratives that I grew up with that brought me face to face with tough questions about my own understandings of race, poverty, and my own motivation to teach.
Because these stories are so personal and these students and former students are so dear to my heart, I have elected not to sell the book to a large publisher when the time came. I have chosen to share-publish the book with Christian Faith Stories which owns none of the copyrights or licenses to the "characters." That keeps the authenticity of the story intact and the future of the MISSING LION book in control of the author.
I say all of this to explain that your pre-order of the book is important. Because of the decision to keep the integrity of the stories home, knowing how many books to print is extremely important to keep costs low. We have a two-phase plan for the book release.
1. MISSING LION will release in July locally in the Louisiana area between Lake Charles and Baton Rouge.
2. MISSING LION will release worldwide in August on Amazon and in all major book stores.
If you pre-order your copies through this program, your copy will come directly from me, which allows me the opportunity to personalize them. If you get it from Amazon at the release date it will ship directly from them.
The feedback from sharing the stories in this book has been nothing short of humbling and it has raised my initial goal of printing 1500, to 10,000! That would make MISSING LION a New York Times Best Seller.
If the book does make this type of impact not only in our local community but around the world, it will allow me to share the proceeds with local organizations that are attempting to build a Unity Center for our youth.
I cannot thank you enough for sharing this campaign and pre-ordering your copies. This book has been nearly two years of hard work and research. Now I am sharing my heart, the heart of these kids, and how they have changed me forever with you.
$15 - paperback
$20 - paperback personalized
$25 - hardcover personalized
