CPS fun!

Well, not all of it is fun, but I'm going to post a few of my experiences interning at CPS. Even though the semester is over, I'm staying for an extra couple of weeks. One of the case workers is being deployed so I'm helping him close all of his cases before he goes.

I'm in the investigative unit, which is the unit that goes out and determines if the claims of abuse are true and decides from there if they are going to take the kids away. We're the ones who go in and actually remove them. I'm also in one of the worst areas of Tucson, South Tucson, where the city could seriously be confused with Mexico. The area deals with the highest number of meth addicted parents in the state. So, needless to say, it's always interesting.

So I'll start with the saddest experience: it's going to be long because I like to explain a lot.

Once we remove the children, they stay in our unit for about a month before they are assigned an on-going case worker. We set up visitations between the parents and kids for at least once a week. These visits are supervised, and I am often the one who sits and watches everything because the case workers are busy.

I supervised one visit that I didn't know what happened to have the kids removed. The parents were very well dressed, clean, and spoke very properly. These are not usually the type of parents I interact with. It was very easy for me to grow to like them in the two hours of the visit: they never violated a rule and it was a very easy visit to supervise. When time was almost up, I told the parents they had 15 minutes left. At this point, their 5-year-old started jumping up and down with excitement. She thought there was 15 minutes and then she got to go home with her parents.

Her parents explained to her that it was mommy and daddy's fault because they weren't being good enough parents and that they had to take some time to learn how to be better moms and dads. The little girl was SOBBING, so they tried a different approach: "if this lady would let me take you home, I would." I'm not allowed to deny that, because technically it's the truth. I cannot retort with hey, if your parents didn't suck, you wouldn't be here.

The mom knew that I had to watch the kids for an hour after the visit because there foster parent was out running errands. She started asking if she could just have 15 extra minutes to help calm the child down. I had to tell her several times that her visit was over in 7 or 4 minutes and she had to leave once it was done. I told her the children could walk her to the lobby and say good bye to her there. It was so hard for me to be firm and not let her manipulate me into breaking the rules.

So I brought the family and of course it was full of people. The girl was still sobbing in her mom's arms. Once again, the mom asked if she could please just stay until she calms down. I explained that her visit was over and it would be easier for the child to calm down once she left. So the mom stands up, and puts her arms in the air to show that it is the child who is holding onto her, not the other way around.

I had to literally pry the kid's arms off of her mother while she was crying and screaming things like, "please let me go home with my mommy, please." Once I finally got her, I had to hold her sideways, football style while she was kicking her legs and flailing her arms because I had her younger sister in my other arm the whole time.

I said goodbye to the parents and went back into the office and got the girl to stop crying. However, I was still the bad guy for the rest of the day, and, honestly, I don't really blame her. It was so sad for me to go through and see that, I can't even imagine how hard it was for her and her parents. I just had to keep reminding myself that the children were in our custody for a reason and the were safer where we had them. It was still rough though!



Check in tomorrow for funniest experience!