It's been a tough couple weeks for Malia Obama and Melania Trump. I don't know the Obamas or the Trumps, but Charlotte Pence is a different story. I met Charlotte - Charlie - last February, when she came into my classroom as part of a program called Community Peacemakers.

According to their website "The Community Peacemakers . . . pairs DePaul students with CPS high school students to serve as college mentors in exploring the roots of violence, promoting peace throughout schools and communities, and engaging in service in an effort to reduce violence in the city of Chicago."

Charlie and her co-mentor, Emmeleigh, came to my class once a week, usually about ten minutes late. With their support, my students studied the youth homelessness in Chicago, put together a panel discussion for their peers, collected donations, created shirts to advertise their work, and made personal hygiene bags to donate to The Crib, a shelter which supports LGBT youth.

This particular Friday, two weeks before the program's end, only Charlie came to my class. It was her last day; she was finishing early because she'd gotten a job working at a summer camp in my hometown, Indianapolis. After class was over and the students had left, I thanked her for all her help and wished her luck with her summer job and said, "Though, I have to, on behalf of people from Indiana, apologize for Mike Pence. Not all of us are like that." She turned to leave, took a couple steps, and stopped.

"You know he's my dad, right." Awkward laugh.

I was completely taken aback. Although her email address included her last name, I never thought that Mike Pence's kid would be interested in volunteering to come to an urban school to help end violence. We talked some more. She made a point of telling me that she loves her dad. I told her that I thought she must have a hard time being so passionate about issues of equality and women's rights when her father supports anti-LGBT and anti-women's legislation. She told me that she's talked to her dad many times about the need to compromise. I told her that I feel like I can't go home again because I am a person who is disenfranchised by the laws her dad signs.

I bear no love for Mike Pence. His policies are restrictive The possibility of his becoming the Vice-President is terrifying. However, I hope that Charlie is able to keep her distance, love her dad, and not get dragged through the mud because of her family. She's not a bad person, and although she probably doesn't realize it, I wish her well.