Summarization of Sanctuary by Lynda Barry

When Lynda Barry was young, she lived in a poor home where her parents were often fighting. Her brother and herself were used to sleeping in the living room, due to family sleeping over, watching television until the late hours of the night. They were not acknowledged by their parents most of the time. 

One morning, in a panic, she woke up and went to school alone in the early hours of the morning. Everything was dark and quiet and deserted, as if the whole world was still. Approaching her school, that anxious feeling eased.

Lynda comments that if her world was perfect, she would have been missed at home and she would have been noticed, instead of being invisible. 

At her school, the young Lynda feels at home and important as she is noticed by the janitor, the secretary and her teacher. 

For the next few hours, she would be in a warm and stable place; a place where she was relied on and wasn't invisible. She was asked to do small yet important chores for her teacher, and she felt supported by her teachers.

At school, Lynda had found a happy place in an environment where she was noticed and where she learned to draw, creating pictures of perfect houses with perfect families. She escaped from her home life through her art.

The public schools had to cut some programs though. Before and after school programs are not there to watch children when the parents are unable to; they are left to fend for themselves while their parents neglect them. 

The public school system had provided a home away from home for the children whose lives were hard. But with this sanctuary being taken away from children in need of it, they are left alone, in a world where they are not being taken care off.