Article about Relisha Rudd's Principal and School Social worker

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read the Post article. Thanks for the link. I am filled with rage. How on Earth could a mother do this to her child? How can we as a society let this happen? Why can we put a man on the moon and build a space station but yet we cannot address mental illness and poverty?

Parents sell their kids every day, right here in the US. Sex trafficking is huge.

Anyone who traffics his/her child should.... There is no punishment harsh enough.

[Anonymous]

As a social worker, I was really worried to open up this thread. Most of the time, when social workers are in the news, it's about the clients that have slipped through the cracks. Sometimes it's negligence on the part of the SW but most of the time it's bureaucracy, insane case loads, red tape, or a little bit of everything. I did a stint in a DC school in SE. That is one place I would never, ever want to go back. There is no support from anyone you'd expect: parents think your sole job is to get their kids taken away (so not true... reunification is almost always the goal) and principals/teachers think you're a whiny feelings-only person who isn't based in reality. I feel so badly for social workers who lose a client. I had a teen girl in a group of mine almost 6 months ago for a few weeks, and about 3 months ago I found out through a coworker she killed herself. I don't go more than a day or two without thinking about her and thinking if there was something I could have seen or done. I can't imagine how helpless the SW must feel in this case.

[Anonymous]

A Post article a while ago discussed the mother's background and implied that she is mentally retarded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not a child who fell through the cracks. This is a child whose family betrayed her and sold her. No amount of social services could have saved her. I hope her mother gets the punishment she deserves. That poor sweet girl.

This is so easy for people who have never walked a second in her mother's shoes to say. People who are homeless have an entirely different life experience than those of us who have never been dependent on others whom we do not know for support. I don't know if her mom sold her or if she trusted the wrong people in a situation where your life dictates that you trust strangers - keeping n mind that this wrong person was employed by the shelter so presumably was trustworthy. But at this point I sure don't know enough to judge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a social worker, I was really worried to open up this thread. Most of the time, when social workers are in the news, it's about the clients that have slipped through the cracks. Sometimes it's negligence on the part of the SW but most of the time it's bureaucracy, insane case loads, red tape, or a little bit of everything. I did a stint in a DC school in SE. That is one place I would never, ever want to go back. There is no support from anyone you'd expect: parents think your sole job is to get their kids taken away (so not true... reunification is almost always the goal) and principals/teachers think you're a whiny feelings-only person who isn't based in reality. I feel so badly for social workers who lose a client. I had a teen girl in a group of mine almost 6 months ago for a few weeks, and about 3 months ago I found out through a coworker she killed herself. I don't go more than a day or two without thinking about her and thinking if there was something I could have seen or done. I can't imagine how helpless the SW must feel in this case.

I don't think social workers are to blame in many of those cases. Social workers have enormous case loads and get paid next to nothing to help people who often don't want it. I think States having been voting in candidates who just want to lower taxes so things like social work and education get cut back to bare bones. This is how children fall through the cracks. No one wants to pay the taxes to support a social safety net.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a child who fell through the cracks. This is a child whose family betrayed her and sold her. No amount of social services could have saved her. I hope her mother gets the punishment she deserves. That poor sweet girl.

This is so easy for people who have never walked a second in her mother's shoes to say. People who are homeless have an entirely different life experience than those of us who have never been dependent on others whom we do not know for support. I don't know if her mom sold her or if she trusted the wrong people in a situation where your life dictates that you trust strangers - keeping n mind that this wrong person was employed by the shelter so presumably was trustworthy. But at this point I sure don't know enough to judge.

Only she and her boyfriend had FB postings flashing money and new Jordans around the time Relish was given to Tatem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a child who fell through the cracks. This is a child whose family betrayed her and sold her. No amount of social services could have saved her. I hope her mother gets the punishment she deserves. That poor sweet girl.

This is so easy for people who have never walked a second in her mother's shoes to say. People who are homeless have an entirely different life experience than those of us who have never been dependent on others whom we do not know for support. I don't know if her mom sold her or if she trusted the wrong people in a situation where your life dictates that you trust strangers - keeping n mind that this wrong person was employed by the shelter so presumably was trustworthy. But at this point I sure don't know enough to judge.

Only she and her boyfriend had FB postings flashing money and new Jordans around the time Relish was given to Tatem.

Furthermore, whether or not the mother "trusted" this guy is irrelvant. No matter who is caring for the girl, the mother is responsbile for getting her to school. the mother then lied for the janitor for weeks on end. The mother needs to be in prison. At a minimum, her parental rights need to be servered permanently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a child who fell through the cracks. This is a child whose family betrayed her and sold her. No amount of social services could have saved her. I hope her mother gets the punishment she deserves. That poor sweet girl.

This is so easy for people who have never walked a second in her mother's shoes to say. People who are homeless have an entirely different life experience than those of us who have never been dependent on others whom we do not know for support. I don't know if her mom sold her or if she trusted the wrong people in a situation where your life dictates that you trust strangers - keeping n mind that this wrong person was employed by the shelter so presumably was trustworthy. But at this point I sure don't know enough to judge.

Only she and her boyfriend had FB postings flashing money and new Jordans around the time Relish was given to Tatem.

Horrible! Even if these two things are unrelated, why would she do that after losing a child? I wish I had not read this. It is really upsetting to me.

[Anonymous]

We pray for her every night, and other children in those circumstances. I'm glad her story is not forgotten by the media.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a child who fell through the cracks. This is a child whose family betrayed her and sold her. No amount of social services could have saved her. I hope her mother gets the punishment she deserves. That poor sweet girl.

This is so easy for people who have never walked a second in her mother's shoes to say. People who are homeless have an entirely different life experience than those of us who have never been dependent on others whom we do not know for support. I don't know if her mom sold her or if she trusted the wrong people in a situation where your life dictates that you trust strangers - keeping n mind that this wrong person was employed by the shelter so presumably was trustworthy. But at this point I sure don't know enough to judge.

I have been one of the people advocating compassion for Ms. Youngs this whole time. She is clearly a traumatized individual in great need of support services (parenting classes, counseling services, job skills training, education, etc.). That said, being traumatized does not make it okay that she lied so much about where her daughter was. Maybe she was duped by a predator, but that does not change the reality that she concealed what had happened until it was way too late to do anything about it. Had she mentioned to the school weeks previously that Relisha was staying with a family friend, they could have investigated that. But she didn't. She lied and lied and lied.