Pennsylvania Schools, Solving Over Population One Kid At A Time

We called, wrote, contacted offices, pleaded and begged. Like idiots. Mental health professionals took a suicidal kid, patched him up, sent him into the world and schools ( and lawyers ) broke him again. If they'd been wrecking cars we'd never have been able to get insurance. It was just a kid. As everyone knows here in PA they're around half the Blue Book value of cars. Right? Transpires it was ' just ' our kid times more than we anyone can know. Scattered around like the litter these kids seem to be considered, they have no voice, parents have no strength against a barbaric, corrupt tsunami.


We've lost our last kid. Ours is still here thanks solely to his own strength and the mental and human services professionals who have endless skill and a LOT of glue. I don't want to think of those not here anymore but we must. If teen suicide was a disease, like meningitis, there'd be vaccines mandated, quarantines and an emergency declared. You know why, right? it's their kids too- the suicidal kids are only ours. The thing is, there are a LOT of ' us '.






Dear Sir, Madam and Other Folks,




We have wasted hundreds maybe thousands of hours trying to get someone's attention. Suicide and our children. And our schools and tax dollars spent to kill our kids. I am not kidding, I am not an hysterical female, I am not exaggerating. That'd be great. Wish I were. Our schools are literally KILLING THESE KIDS. If it were as easy as pulling teeth, getting this governor's office attention, It'd be a relief. Teeth we can do. This is not ' just ' about one child. In Pennsylvania, as you know, children are disposable. We know because ours is soggy and circling the drain. PA kids are like toilet paper. Use and flush. Let one school district get their hands on one, the entire flock of buzzards flies down, picks them apart and there are no bones left to bury.




Swear to God ( the real one, of Our Father Who Art fame ) I'm headed to DC. I'll sit in Mueller's waiting room until he's done with his present batch of putrid corrupt politicians, thugs, crooks and assorted criminals, with our large smelly Pennsylvania box. We'll give the poor man a few minutes as a breather and knock on the door. Swear by every religious holy book this earth ever carved, printed and ritualized I'm not coming out of that office until someone promises TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS KILLING THESE KIDS.




It is real. It is criminal. Suicidal children are a source of income for lawyers, a point of contention for schools and a terrific straw with which to drain tax payer funded school budgets. . They also fall outside any protection their ( state mandated ) caregivers may offer, how's that for scary? It cost our family 50K so far to try to keep our kid alive. It's part of their fun, lucrative game.  Billable hours rack up when you're trying to keep a kid alive. Like domestic relations court, who wants anyone to get along? There's no profit. ? We actually had a school try to press truancy charges at one point, when he was in a psych ward. So- mandatory attendance v. suicidal kid v. the school's ability to claim there's nothing wrong with a suicidal kid. Trifecta. So... you tell a suicidal kid he's not. See how many hours he's alive. But no one is charged with murder. I want to know why. Tell you what. If we had lost this kid, I'd have filed in every, single court, every, single crime committed against a child.  Murder. I'd have screamed all the way from California to Maine to Florida to Alaska. It's too serious to be flip- murder. We could still lose him.




That time, his psyche admission was because the school was attacking his status as a suicidal kid. Yep. Shocking? Nothing shocks me any more. Not the mess in reptile infested swamp Washington, DC, not the vermin supporting those reptiles, not the well-lined pockets weighing down officers of the court- nothing. Especially not-shocking? Kidnapped kids in government detention camps. Nope. Given what we saw? What would have been shocking to the point of incredulity would have been this government treating children as if they were, well, their own. Heavens. But I didn't mean to accuse anyone of potential kindness resulting from any such scenario. Sorry.




Our government- i.e. our school had several very commendable shots at killing our kid. Really, kudos. Only one was so blatant as to be a direct physical attack but they got a little sloppy after awhile. This kid must have been a little frustrating for everyone. He just wouldn't agree to die.  What gall? The others? Tax payer funded lawyers fed from school districts' bottomless financial aquifers were not able to quite suck it dry but hey- always the next kid. Yep. That there was a next kid is a big, fat problem. That we met quite a few parents from this district with pretty much the same story is  a HUGE, dangerous problem. And a class action suit.




" A class action lawsuit is one in which a group of people with the same or similar injuries caused by the same product or action sue the defendant as a group. " Interesting.




Well, it's both but at least a class action suit would sure make things interesting in big hurry. Seem to be quite a few folks who don't have a problem parting with other people's children. Parting with money? A whole, ' nother story. That'd suck huh?




You know that oleaginous, symbiotic  relationship existing school admin and lawyers? I mean the oleaginous, symbiotic relationship between lawyers and OUR tax dollars? The one where they get to discuss details in something called ' executive sessions ' where the public can't peek ( despite that pesky law? )  That. It's called a "floating budget". You can see why.  It floats strongly downhill, from admin to law firm, that's why it's called a floating budget, yep, yep little know fact. If I just made that up all that means is I'd make a terrific lawyer. Add a big stick with nails pounded into it, a check book and a weasley vocabulary, I'd be a terrific school administrator.




Look. This happy little missive will not make a blind bit of difference. We know that- there's been a bunch of years where screaming silence just got louder and lawyers got wealthier.  Correlation?  We asked. Then asked again. Again. Then pleaded. Pleaded more. Begging piteously for someone to step in and quite literally save a kid from dying went on for awhile. We were privileged meanwhile to behold let's see, anti-bullying programs, some hazy ' safe sc hools ' proposal, once in awhile lip service paid to teen suicide. Oh, and ' thoughts and prayers'.


Where's Truman's buck when kids would like to live awhile longer? Who IS the someone?  I know. Too many bucks floating downstream, fetid chunks bobbing in law office account books, that's where. Kids For Cash. It's here. We saw it.




Here's the deal. Teens commit suicide at rates unfathomable because no one cares. There's a price on your kid's head. Here's another deal. You hold your kid's hand in the watch hours of the night, with a phone on the pillow connected to his sister, too- both hoping he can't slip away and kill himself. You do that. You lay on the floor of the ER observation room for 24 hours with your kid, under fluorescent light, while a genuine professional searches frantically for a bed in a psych unit. You follow the ambulance there. Then. You listen to your school, it's alleged psychologist, it's lawyers, school board and assorted scumbuckets tell you all about how there's nothing at all wrong with this kid. You might be privy to whatever back room deal where billable hours changed hands but you're too busy visiting your kid in yet another psyche ward. You do that.




You people times my kid's story by 100's. Times their faces, families, stories and pain. They're all different, terrifyingly so. Our son? Honor roll athlete, never in trouble, quiet, funny, bright and kind. 4th kid through PA's system. Then he became ill. We hadn't had a previous look at PA's corrupt underbelly. It's like maggots found it so repulsive they left it alone so it's still in the middle of the road.  Legislative, legal road kill. You know, just because graft, greed, corruption, cruelty and barbarism is possible to pull off doesn't mean ' please line up '. It means someone please stop it. ' Safe Schools. Please. Oxymoronic, heavy emphasis on moronic.




I've been to auctions where broken down horses were sold. There's an avaricious gleam you get to recognize when there's a chance to make a few bucks, however sordid.  We saw that, exact thing. That we've told you people these kids are literally being bought and sold without one response over years worth of contacts is terrifying.




Pennsylvania. Taking care of the planet's over population problem. One kid at a time. There's your license plate.


Sincerely,


A Parent