2 June 2026
Believe me, I am very aware my prediction did not come true. But I'll hold on until the end of June.
I love to carp and complain about the multiple trainings I have to go through every year at the beginning of the school year.
I also have to do the same trainings on a different platform to work at the pony school, or PA school where I was doing summer musical pop ups for years. I also hate that they charge me for fingerprints to work at these places when I'm a TEACHER and my fingerprints and background check are ON FILE with the CDE. They just want to steal more money.
Ok. So.
I just did my child abuse reporting training. Let's say I've done this at least 30 times, conservatively. But this time, I felt enraged.
Here's why: I HateThat We Need This Training.
If only if only parents would parent.
Which we all know is complicated by job loss, stress, no access to affordable childcare or health care.
We all know the statistics. And by "we" I mean Six Gentle Readers. You guys are educated and kind and reasonble humans.
Just because a kid is low income does not mean they are victims of abuse. It means their parents cannot afford to feed and clothe them. That's not parental neglect, that's societal abuse. It causes stress. It puts the family in a pressure cooker, and increases the likelihood of child neglect or abuse. Know how you fix that?
Affordable child care, free parenting classes, affordable healthcare and mental healthcare, job stability, ACTUAL SUPPORT. It doesn't fix everything--there will always be outliers who are simply cruel or deranged---but these elements put in place for everyone would change this country.
My Cuz and I were talking. She was raised poor--like poor poor--in Denver in the 1970's. I was not aware of any insurance or monetary concerns around my healthcare as a kid. I got a physical before camp, my toe stitched up when I fell off my bike, my leg soothed and wrapped when boiling water was tossed on it. We just went to the doctor or the hospital.
My Cuz's experience was very different. She said they went to a building that was "County Health Care". She was just a kid, she doesn't remember what it was called, now she just calls it "The County", but she remembers the exact location. I have vague memories that "Free Clinics" existed in Denver. Not in the suburbs where I was.
But they existed. My Aunt had three kids as a single parent, and she provided for them the absolute best that she could. So medical was The County, and food stamps were groceries and my Cuz has lived one of the most frugal, impressive lives I know. We're both 60, and from where I stand she is rich. She learned how to live close to the bone, and how to invest even tiny amounts of money to grow an actual "portfolio". Yet she still gets nervous when she has to spend money. Which I love about her and is also off topic.
The point is there was something in place, funded by Denver, that allowed free or very low cost care to humans. Where did that go?
Unfortunately, we've all seen or experienced abuse in some form. I cannot fathom severe child abuse. I had all of my buttons pushed as a parent and made some poor choices, but I never abused the kids.
It's ridiculous that teachers have to be on top of signs of child abuse, as well as feed kids and regulate them and be a shield against bullets.
Here's the thing, if you are hitting or abusing your child and leaving marks, and then sending them to school, in addition to Whatever The Hell Is Wrong With You that causes you to abuse your child, you are either irrevocably stupid or irretrievably narcissistic Did you not think we would call CPS?
Story Time.
When Genoa was in preschool, we called it the Little Church Preschool in Platt Park, I was still occasionally acting and sort of running a theatre. I had stage makeup in a tackle box, as one does. Genoa and Harp used to love to play in it. Why not? We also made jello and squished our toes in it. This surprises no one. The thing was that I neglected to remember was that they were going to preschool the next day, and I had not put any base on their arm or body before they dug five fingers into the bruise wheel and drew fingerprints across their torso. Sister Harp helped by painting their back.
I did the best that I could scrubbing it out, but theatre people know: if you didn't put on a base you're bruised for days.
I took her to school. I pulled her and her teacher to the side. I showed her the bruise wheel, the small digging finger impressions, and Genoa's remaining body art. I could see her calculating, and she was not wrong. I wasn't a teacher yet, so I didn't know anything about mandatory reporting. She chose to believe me after talking to Genoa, and I am eternally grateful.
Now that I'm a teacher and I've been in this game for a minute, I understand how desperately we do NOT want to call CPS. Not because we're chicken. Not because we do not love our students. But because we know CPS are overwhelmed, and we know the process and that the likelihood that nothing will change is higher than the likelihood that the parents will win the lottery, pay for excellent health care, sign up for mental health counseling and live their lives instead of just surviving. Or the other side where the parents have money and strong legal council and because of their position on the social ladder they will deflect and attack until you stop asking questions. They'll do the same to CPS.
Which is why I do not work for CPS. Nobody is ever going to tell them the truth. How exhausting must it be to care enough to do this work, to investigate homes and parents and offer resources to assist through difficult times and know that nobody wants to talk to you, those who should tell the truth are too afraid and everyone else is silent or lying.
Anyone wanna respond to these sweeping generalizations?
So in conclusion, all in all, to sum up: I hate that we need this system in place and that it is collapsing under the weight of human need and lack of funding.
Scene.
