Tommy also had a younger sister, Bessie, who had just turned seven that year. At the beginning of the year, Child Protective Services, triggered by suspected family abuse, forcibly arranged for her temporary stay with a foster family. The reason was as minor as her father being busy earning money with temporary jobs after unemployment, which led to Bessie wearing dirty clothes to school for several consecutive daysâa fact noticed by her teacher. Moreover, when the teacher paid a home visit, they coincidentally found a few issues of Penthouse magazine within Bessie's reach. This discovery was a treasure for the Rhode Island Child Protective Services, who had just received the new Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act as a weapon. It was finally their chance to put it to use. Now, Bessie stayed with a middle-class family in the capital, Providence, living a comfortable life. Her father's biggest obsession was bringing his daughter back home. But it was easy for her to be taken away and hard to bring her back. Even if Bessie and the foster family agreed, the cold regulations of the law disagreed. According to the law, certain stringent conditions had to be metâsuch as the child having a sufficiently large and independent bedroom, the family earning a minimum of eight hundred fifty dollars a month, with no less than seventy dollars per month spent on the child's growth and education and the recognition of the child and foster familyâthen, after being confirmed by the protection agency, the court could rule to return the child to her family.
America 1982
Urban ¡ A spoonful of the past
detail