Blog Entry 4: Interviewing Important People in My Life

What makes a social issue even graver than it already is? When nobody knows it exists. Were I to make even the barest of a mention of abortion, gun control, or climate change to my friends, I would have a full fledged debate on my hands, but when I mentions the issues withing the DCF and the foster system, all I receive is questioning looks and the sound of crickets. How can change be effected when nobody is aware of the problem? The answer is that it can't. Luckily, some of the adults in my life have personal connections to the system and were able to give truly insightful testimonies. The overall view of this complex beast is that well, its dying. It simply is not effective enough, with ever increasing numbers of children in crisis and a fall in the number of foster families, things are not going well. The interview I will focus on today came to me completely by accident. We had a substitute named **** in AP Biology, and well...she was a talker. I was focused on my work, but I kept hearing buzz words like child, family issues, stress, and foster family. As it turned out, for the last 40 years, she had worked in the "planning room," working with troubled students. As I began to talk to her I realized she had the most amazing stories, having gone through the foster system, she had stories of her own but more importantly, stories of students today. Perhaps one of her most heartbreaking stories began with a child who every day would refuse to do his work, get sent to the planning room, and promptly fall asleep on the couch provided. This happened every day, until on the day of February break, the principle came to **** and said, you need to stop this, you can't let this kid camp out in your room, So she went to the student and said "after February break, you have to stop sleeping in my room." }"It's February break?" the child said, " Mrs. ****, what am I going to eat?" As it turned out, the child had been sleeping in a tent with his family every night, and waking up at 4:00 in the morning to ride to Newport on the bus with his mother to "go to the doctors" a.k.a. go get another dose of methadone, the drug she was dependent on. Three years later, he is still with his family, homeless, food-less, and blowing welfare money on drugs, just another child to slip through the cracks. Now how could this happen, aren't there programs in place, aren't teachers mandated to report these issues, to file a formal report with the DCF? Yes, but from there the DCF decides, they can choose to investigate a report or simply send a form letter back saying "we have evaluated the case and found it not to be worth investigating." There is simply not enough money, not enough employees, and not enough time to investigate every case. The foster system itself is troubled, one person confided that they stopped fostering children because they were afraid to be alone with them. Some children had been in the system for some time and had learned to look out for themselves. If they were angry with families, or wanted a change, they could simply say they had been hit or abused and bam, they get a new family and the old one gets a black mark. It was because of this happening that the family decided to stop fostering, and they were not alone, the number of foster families is falling and the turnover rate is excessive. My guidance counselor told me stories of foster children at our school who would be found loitering around outside, and when asked why, they would reply, "I dont know who I am going home with tonight."There is hope however, people are still trying; my uncle has been fostering a pair of children, for nigh on ten years now, at first full time, but now working in a partnership with the parents to ge the family back on their feet, but more on that later. (They are on a trip and can't be reached)

Felice, Carrie. "DCF and the Foster System." Personal interview. 2 Oct. 2015.

Grant, Phil. "DCF and the Foster System." Personal interview. 2 Oct. 2015.

********, ****. "Personal Stories About the Foster System." Personal interview. 5 Oct. 2015.

Brown, Jeff. "DCF and the Foster System." Interview by Alexander C. Bickart. 4 Oct. 2015: 

Assorted Friends Who Didn't Help Much.

(Word Count Stipulations are Agonizing)