Monday, May 08, 2006
Blowing the whistle on Saskatchewan Social Services -- Part 2
. . . continued from previous post
On Sept.10, 2004, No.1 foster son was delivering flyers in the Erindale area. I told No. 2 foster son that he should bring a book or a couple of magazines with him, as we would be in the car for a couple of hours. We dropped No.1 off and I drove to an agreed upon location to await his return.
No.2 was sitting in the back seat of the car reading his magazines. I opened my book and started reading. About 20 minutes later I had to stop reading because the car was rocking so hard. I turned around and said to No.2, “What the heck are you doing?” I could not believe what I saw. Here he was with his hands down his pants masturbating!
I said, “Stop that! What do you think you are doing? First of all young man, you do not do that in a public place, and second of all you do not do that in front of me!” I said, “That is something very private and if you must do it, you do it in private.” He moved over behind my seat and whispered in my ear, “I hate you, you bitch, hotdog, salad dressing.”
I said, “What did you say?” He said, “You heard me, chicken soup, spaghetti, potato salad.” I got out of the car and I pointed to the other side of the back seat. I said, “No.2, I want you to move back over to the other side of the seat.” He said, “Okay” and moved. I stood there looking at him trying to figure out what hotdogs, salad dressing, chicken soup, spaghetti and potato salad had to do with hating me. I kept watching him. He made all kinds of weird faces and kept talking about food. I said, No.2 get out of the car and stretch your legs, you’ll feel better in a minute.
No.2 got out of the car. He walked back and forth for a minute and then he jumped up in the air hollering, apple pie, Jell-O, Kentucky fried chicken and bananas.
No.1 came around the corner just as all this was happening. He said, “No.2 what the hell do you think you are doing, you retard!” No.1 looked at me and said, “He does this crazy shit all the time.”
I stood there in shock. I must have had the most stunned look on my face.
No.1 said, “This is nothing. He’ll watch me eat a pudding cup, then a couple of hours later, when I’m laying on my bed watching T.V., he’ll stand at the foot of my bed with his hands down his pants and start beating off. He starts talking about how sexy I look when I eat my pudding cup. Then he starts all this fool food naming shit.”
I finally found my voice but all I could say was “What?” While No.1 was telling me all this, No.2 was dancing and jumping around on the sidewalk calling out, donut, hamburger, cereal, French fries, butter, macaroni, pizza. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I knew No. 2 was obsessed with food but H-o-l-y what the heck was this all about. No.2 was making a fool of himself. People were looking out their windows watching this 5ft 6inches 230 lbs boy, jumping and skipping around calling out random categories of food. I did not know what to do.
No.1 went over to him and tapped him on the head. He said, “Hello in there, hello, it’s time to knock it off you damn fool.” No.2 stopped dead in his tracks, looked at me as if I was crazy, then looked at No.1 and said, “When did you get back?” No.1 just shook his head and said, “Get in the car you damn fool.”
No.2 looked at me as if nothing had happened and said, “Is it time to go?” I nodded my head in response and we all got into the car and I drove home.
As soon as we got home No.2 said he was going to take a shower and away he went. I said to No.1, “What the Sam Hell was that all about?” He said, “He does that all the time, he’s retarded man.” He said, “Oh and our Teacher at school wants you to call her.” I said, “Okay.” He said, “Yeah he sits at his desk and starts beating off when the Teacher is trying to teach the class. Oh and you know he has that job in the cafeteria?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Well they’re having trouble with him there as well. He keeps eating people’s food off their plates as he’s serving them. On top of that, when he clears away the dishes, he eats what ever is left over on the plates.”
I could not believe what I was hearing. It’s not like I didn’t feed the kid. The next morning I phoned his worker. As usual she was not around. I left a message and called my Resource Worker and told her what was going on. She said, “Donna, we know that he’s a little slow and that he likes to eat, but I’m sure it’s nothing. He’ll settle down once he’s used to you.”
I said, “Say what! You sound as crazy as this kid is acting!” She said, “No, just wait and see, he’ll settle down its just part of his transitioning.”
I said, “Maybe it has something to do with all the sniffing he’s doing.” Jennifer did not comment. She said, “Well if there’s nothing else I’m really quite busy.” I said, “No I don’t think there’s anything else.” She said, “Alright goodbye then,” and she hung up.
Once again I remind you, this was all new to me. I knew that No.1 son was FASD but all I knew about No.2 son was that he was supposed to be a little slow. I was starting to feel a little slow myself.
We were taught in our classes that all these children were to come to us with a blue book. Within the blue book is supposed to be a history of the child or at least as much as the Department knows about the child. Foster parents are supposed to write in these books reporting any problems, or events involving the child. That’s all well and good but you have to be given a blue book to start with.
: Tue May 09, 03:30:00 PM 2006 The Foster Care Council of Canada
If you have concerns with the child protection system in Canada, please visit the Foster Care council of Canada web site where there is a message board for each province to start discussions on important matters such as legislation, policies, practices, personal experiences and much more.
Everyone is welcome who is affected by the child welfare system in some way or another, whether they be foster parents, foster children/youth, former foster children / youth, birth families, adoptive families child welfare professionals, government officials, church or faith groups, and anyone else in the community who is concerned about child welfare issues.
The web site is at http://www.afterfostercare.ca
Please forward this message on to someone who you think would benefit
from it.
John Dunn
Executive Director
The Foster Care Council of Canada
It distresses me to hear that your child has become a permanent ward. Being made a permanent ward does not mean that you can never get your child back. It just makes thing's a little tougher. If I may, I would suggest that you go down to the children's advocacey office. Have a talk with them and explain your situation. They will know what to do and advise you on what you will have to do to get your daughter back. A few more word's of advise; never, ever, ever, ever, have a meeting with the dept. without someone from the children's advocacey's office or the ombudmunson's office with you. This way you always have a witness to what was said in that meeting. Always be polite no matter how ticked off you get. Never, ever, ever loose your temper. Go punch a wall after the meeting's over! Just kidding. Hope this helps a little.
Donna Jones
: Mon May 29, 11:33:00 AM 2006 The people I stayed with were great people who tried to treat me well and I appreciate it.
I guess I never really realized how much garbage these poeple had to put up with just to care for wayward kids. Personally, I was a bad fit for child services as they involved themselves because of my 'deliquency as a child in a fatherless house with no male influences', but their involvement actually increased my deliquency as, since I did not feel the need to listen to my mother, I certainly felt no need whatsoever to listen to some dimwitted government employee moron try to tell me how to live.
I am older now and wiser and I know what I was doing was wrong and dangerous. But I do not know this because of the influence of child services that is for sure.
: Mon Jun 23, 02:26:00 PM 2008 : Fri Jul 18, 11:11:00 AM 2008 Links to this post:
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