In every state of our nation we have an agency that we refer to as Child Protective Services or CPS. An agency that was designed to protect our most vulnerable population, the children. They are often criticized for their lack of protection and at times, its own abuse of the children. Jennifer is one such story.
I first meet Jennifer when she was in kindergarten. The small young child with the lazy eye and thick lens glasses had been retained and forced to repeat kindergarten due to her lack of progress. Jennifer had been tossed around since shortly after birth. Her mother made it known that she had not planned on getting pregnant immediately after her son’s birth. Just ten months after having her second child, Jennifer was born.
Jennifer was taken from the hospital by her maternal aunt who kept her for the first six months. Her mother, Bonnie, tried taking care of her and her two siblings but when Jennifer was 3 years old, Bonnie determined that she wasn’t able to do it and left the three young kids with their dad, James. She didn't just walk out. She totally vanished from the picture leaving James to do the best he could.
James' was raised by his father and had very little family support to help with the kids. With no babysitter, James had to quit his job until he could figure out how he would could work and take care of them. He decided to leave the big city and move closer to his cousins in a smaller town. After spending time living out of the car, he finally managed to find a decent job and someone to watch the kids while he worked. Money was real tight for James and his three kids but he was making it work.
He soon met a woman at work and remarried. Their family of four turned into a family of seven. Neither parent had anything more than a high school education. They made slightly above minimum wage and with both working they struggled to pay bills and feed everyone.
Not surprising, CPS was called into their home shortly after their first year of marriage. Not only were they struggling financially, they were struggling with kids that had behavioral problems. Before long, dad was drinking his sorrows away while stepmom was working nights.
With James being left to tend to the five kids by himself, Tony, a friend from work, started coming over in the evenings. Tony was married with two kids and was probably in his late 20’s. It didn’t take long for those occasional nights to turn into every night. The weekends would only mean more hours to drink and have fun with Tony.
The kids didn’t mind. They liked Tony. He always acknowledged them when he came into the house and when dad would try to push them out the door, the friend would step in and say, “Hey, leave them alone. They aren’t bothering anybody.”
So most evenings the kids could be found huddled around the television with James and Tony supervising while they drank a cold one.
What had started out as a few beers after work was soon turned into drinking till James passed out. Although James didn't have the money to spend on beer, Tony apparently did. He started off with bringing a six pack over to James house. But over the course of a few months, it went from beer to whiskey. The only thing keeping the marriage together was the fact that they worked opposite shifts and had very little time together.
Tony was soon making himself right at home. There must have been problems with Tony’s marriage as well. It seemed as though he just didn’t want to go home. He claimed it was because of the wife gripped all the time but obviously he had his mind on other things. He immediately took a liking to Jennifer. The seven year old petite frame and her giggly laugh would make Tony smile.
But Tony liked her in a different way. As the days went by, he drew closer to Jennifer. He would often give her a hug or have her sit on his lap. The sexual abuse began about the age of 8 years old. Tony would stay until James passed out. He would send the kids to bed and let Jennifer stay in the living room. He would be left to have free reign of the house but would always leave before stepmom got off work.
At one point, Jennifer tried to tell her dad what was going on. He didn’t believe her. He was certain that she was making it up. Not only did she receive a whipping for saying these things about his friend, she was made to repeat what she had told her dad to Tony.
James did have a reason to doubt Jennifer's story. She had a very active imagination. Over the past couple of years, Jennifer had complained of seeing shadows of people in her room. James had also noticed that she would be talking to herself when no other kids were around. He just shrugged it off as that was just who she was.
In 1994 at the age of 11, Jennifer was placed into her first psychiatric hospital. This would be the beginning of a very long history of unsuccessful psychiatric treatments.
From the age of 12 until she was 16, she was either hospitalized or on runaway status. She would spend very few nights at her dad’s house. At one point Jennifer met up with a truck driver. He invited her to take a ride to Arizona with him. While most 13 year olds would be fearful of leaving their home, Jennifer was ready to go. Anywhere was better than her dad’s home.
At the age of 16, Jennifer was picked up by law enforcement. She was taken to the state juvenile psychiatric hospital. It was at that time that she learned that she was pregnant.
To be continued . . .