CPSmesh

A few days ago I was walking out to my car after work, well after school had let out, and found the twin sister of the girl who had been in mom's weed cookies sitting on the bench. She looked a tad forlorn, so I sat down with her and asked her what she was doing. As it turned out, she had been kicked out Kid's Corner (the after school program at school) for a few days. That did not blow me away nearly as much as what came out of her mouth next: "I'm waiting for my mom." I tried to contain my startled reaction and called Rietta to get the scoop. 

After the weed cookie debacle, there was a court hearing and many social worker visits. In the end, CPS decided to not remove them. Apparently it takes more than letting your children get into your drugs to do that. Regarding Kid's Corner, she had been suspended for a week because she bit another child in the belly button region because he wouldn't play her game the way she wanted him. The Kid's Corner employee I spoke with says she's been increasingly acting out for months now, does anyone else think this perhaps have to do with her home situation? Hmm...

This is not meant to be libel against CPS. Every CPS employee I've encountered has been kind, and as helpful as possible, at least toward me. It's not their fault money is short and complaints long, and I understand they cannot possibly have adequate resources to do everything we would like them to do. That said, it was terribly disheartening to find that the twin girls - 8 years old - and their toddler sister - are still stuck at home with that mother of theirs. And if letting your drugs get into the hands of your kids too small enough to metabolize them is not enough to get a kid removed from their home, I don't know what is. (Thank goodness this was "just" marijuana that the girl experienced - what if it was cocaine, or something worse?)

All in all, it was an incredibly disappointing conversation on the bench.