Principal adopts student who was sent to his office to be reprimanded

CAMPBELL COUNTY, Ky. (WKRC) – A Kentucky student went from being reprimanded by her middle school principal to becoming a member of his family.

“She said that she had thrown a cup of yogurt at lunch,” Campbell County Middle School principal Jason Smith remembered. “And I asked, ‘Well, if you were out at a restaurant, would you do that there?’”

Jason Smith initially was Raven Whitaker-Smith’s principal when she was in the sixth grade.

“I was like, I’ve never really been to a restaurant. I don’t really have a family. I’m in a group home,” Whitaker-Smith explained.

For the first 11 years of her life, Whitaker-Smith said she never felt loved and was stuck living in terrible conditions.

“We had head lice. We had bruises all up and down us. Our fingernails were really gross and stuff,” Whitaker-Smith said.

Jason Smith and his wife, Marybeth Smith, had already been through infertility attempts and fostered kids who eventually returned to their biological families.

“It just crushed us. So we made a decision, probably more so me, that my heart couldn’t take another break like that,” Marybeth Smith said.

But after her husband heard Whitaker-Smith’s story, Jason Smith wanted to help her. They decided to start the process of fostering.

“They say that a mother falls in love with a child at first sight. And I can remember Raven walking into that room that day, that scared little kid, and I just knew in my heart this is what it’s supposed to be,” Marybeth Smith recalled.

At first, Whitaker-Smith was hesitant to be fostered by the principal, but she felt like she belonged after just one weekend visit.

“The same weekend, we went and painted the room my favorite color teal. I just knew that everything happens for a reason,” Whitaker-Smith said.

Jason and Marybeth Smith officially adopted Whitaker-Smith in 2017 when she was 12 years old.

Whitaker-Smith said she doesn’t think she would be alive today if not for her family.

“I probably would have went down a completely different path,” Whitaker-Smith said.

She had a new life, but it wasn’t always easy. Whitaker-Smith had to overcome a lot of trauma from her childhood.

“She’s overcome a lot of the challenges that she’s had at work,” Jason Smith said. “We’re really proud of her.”

Some of that trauma she still deals with, but Whitaker-Smith said she’s hoping to help others like her.

She’s now studying social work at the University of Kentucky.

“If you’re out there and you’re thinking about fostering a kid, don’t be afraid to take a teenager. I couldn’t love her any more if I had given birth to her,” Marybeth Smith said.

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