She’s an amazing young woman with straight As and a college scholarship lined up for when she graduates from high school this spring at age 17.

She’s a peer tutor who runs programs at school for at-risk youth using some of what she learned at a summer arts program last year. And, she volunteers 20 hours a week.

She’s also homeless.

Unsurprisingly, the principal and teachers at her school describe her as “exceptional” and “very, very special.”

But she’s locked in a battle with the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Afraid to go home, this exceptional girl may be the only teen in British Columbia who has ever begged to be taken into government care only to be repeatedly rebuffed.

I’m not using her name or any identifying details because she is a minor and because she needs and deserves protection, not attention.

Because of privacy laws, I can’t identify anyone connected with her case.

For now, the First Nations teen is staying at a youth safe house. But any day, she could be turned out because she’s already overstayed the shelter’s seven-day limit by several months.

The ministry could even order the government-supported shelter to turn her out because of a social worker’s contrarian thinking that the best place for the teen is at home with a family that she and those familiar with her case describe as worse than chaotic.

She has asked for her own social worker, not the one assigned to her family. The representative for children and youth has appointed an advocate for her, but the advocate works 775 kilometres away from where the teen lives. Because she has no phone, their primary means of communication is via email.

Neither the ministry nor the representative could comment, citing privacy laws.

What she’s asked is to be placed into a foster home or a semi-independent living situation with other youth who get daily support from counsellors.

Unlike many teens in care who want to be put on a youth agreement and given the freedom to live on their own, she fears that.

She’s afraid that the “black monster” whose voice encouraged her to cut herself at 12 and attempt suicide at 15 might come back if she were living alone in some basement suite.

“The ministry is doing nothing to help me,” she says. “As teens and young kids we see posters and ads saying if you’re feeling unsafe to call and you’ll get help. It takes guts to leave. But I did that and I’m still waiting for someone to help me ... My life is crumbling and nobody is helping me.”

The irony is not lost on either of us that we first met on Family Day.

More than anything else, what this teen wants is to break the cycle of addiction, violence and sexual abuse that is a hallmark of her family.

Her biological father is an addict living on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Her first stepfather had a penchant for violence and was eventually diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic.