So I met one of the most beautiful little girls I've ever seen in my life yesterday at work. I'll call her Yesenia. She walks into a meeting at which my colleague and I are supposed to tell her she is kicked out of school for non-attendance (which isn't even really part of our job, but that's a whole 'nother story). She is 18 years old and she walks in with her 8 month old baby. The baby has no coat and looks seriously pale and listless. She says she hasn't been attending school because her baby has been sick and she has no money to take him to the doctor because her Medicaid has been cut off. She has WIC but she says they don't give her enough formula so she is out for the month and does not have enough money to buy her baby a winter coat.
Even though the meeting was supposed to be about Yesenia, all I could think was, "What the hell is going to happen to this little baby?" The general education teacher who attended this meeting was literally crying.
It was awful.
To me, this was the culmination of the Bush years. His administration cut Medicaid and pretty much every social program there is. I took a coat and gloves to Yesenia's teacher so that her baby will have a coat and I called social services so that hopefully that baby will get formula and medical care. But I know that coat is only a short term help and there is no guarantee that social services will have the resources to help her.
What else can we do? The educational system has completely failed Yesenia and again, what is going to happen to that baby? It's been driving me nuts and I don't know what else to do. I have seen so many similar situations in my last 10 years of working with children from families who don't have money or education.
It's starting to get to me.
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