Theresa Clark, 50, associate professor of social work

To keep Clark in school, her mother had to break the rules.

Each school day, Clark was spirited into neighboring Lunenburg County - 30 miles away - by teachers, her mother's friends, and for a time, a group of men traveling to their jobs at a lumber mill.

Theresa Clark attended a school in another county when her school closed. She had the lie about her address and was almost caught once. (Fredreka Schouten | GNS)

Clark said she almost was caught one day when her second-grade teacher called each student up to her desk to verify their home addresses. The 7-year-old proudly rattled off the one she knew by heart: Route 2, Box 46, Meherrin, Virginia.

"If that's your address, then you don't belong here," the teacher said. "You go home and you ask your mother."

Clark recalled that her mother "became almost livid."

"She didn't really explain to me what was going on, but she gave me an address that I should be using," Clark said. "It was at that moment, in essence, that I really was taught to lie."

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