In another time,

I really don't want to talk about Cherokee Board of Education/Charter School thing. If you don't know, there is a Charter School that wants to come in. They almost have everything ready except for an okay by the board. The only thing that I don't really like is that they had planned on having 700 students and now want 300. B/c of the new 300, our budget would have to be used and they are saying that more furlough days, no step increases, and teachers losing their jobs. I have friends that are home school teachers and have friends that are assistant principals in the school destrict. I don't want to argue or debate the reasons why I think this is good/bad. I see all angles of it. There is another meeting on Friday night which I will go to with my sister and mother. I was driving and thinking of what I would say to the board if I was given the chance to say anything. I think that I would be illequiped to say my stance on the subject b/c I don't know as much as I could. I instantly remembered one family that I worked with while at DFCS. I was an ongoing caseworker which meant if I got your case, neglect or abuse had been founded. I got cases after the other workers came in and looked over your home or in such as this case, I got cases where children were taken out of the home and then I worked a case with the family to see that the children stayed with them. This case I got right after the judge gave the children back. I was told that this family of 5 kids were taken b/c of how the home looked and the mother not taking them to the doctors. Listen, this was before Hoarders and before all of the tv shows on the subject. I remember doign my job and seeing the kids at school and also going to the home to speak with the mother. The mother had taken time to clean out the rooms and had set up better beds for the children to sleep in. One room that was just used for junk was cleaned so two of the children could sleep in it. The woman was really nice and just seemed as though she didn't know any better. That's not an excuse but if you grew up in filth and no one taught you any different, than how would you know that things could/should be better for your children? So, I had been meeting with the mother and then it came time for the next court date. I remember that I had other cases on the docket and this one seemed easy b/c the mother had shown that she had been working at making things better for her children. The judge was one that I was always infront of so I wasn't as nervous b/c I felt that I had also been doing my job so why wouldn't I feel ready? Well, than it hits. The judge starts reading from the court documents on what this mother was supposed to be working on and lo and behold, nothing was worked on. I was SO mad that I was never given the correct information to work with her with and also a little embarassed that I hadn't seen the court documents to go over with the mother. She was supposed to have taken her children for check-ups and also cleaning her house which she had done, but she also needed to work with the one of the fathers of the children to get Paternity. There was a couple of other things but my mind went foggy when the judge asked me how I could say that the mother had been cooperating with the State when she hadn't done the things that were on that paper? I now felt as though I was being charged with something! The judge took leniency on us and we both we told the things that needed to be worked on. The mother was thinking that her case was going to close that day (as I did too), when she now had even more things to do. Yes, her lawyer should have kept up with her also and I could also name some other reasons that are not my fault. I have no idea why I thought of that woman and her family today but I think I was thinking about a time where I felt like I was in the wrong and infront of many different people.