Death of a Foster Child

By Robert Miller

Death of a Foster Child explores the guilt felt when the foster placement of a teenage girl in the home of Rick Podowski and his wife failed. To complicate matters, the foster child was brutally murdered and the authorities believe she was selling drugs on the school campus and by implication asserted that the foster parents allowed this behavior. Rick Podowski with the help of Leti Ramos, Erin McGinty and Teresa Spinelli, also know as The Hefty Trio investigate to learn the truth.

In the process of investigating, they discover the world of drug sales on the high school campus, the underlying challenges facing students in a gang infested school, as well as the difficulties faced by special education students. The reader will experience the frustrations of foster parents when faced with a system that is designed to keep the children dependent. Suggestions to improve foster care and move the children towards independence are provided at the end of the book.

Rick and The Hefty Trio love to eat and the book contains ethnic recipes with pairings of boutique wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Miller
• Release date: Sep 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301434985

Robert Miller

R. H. Miller is a retired widower living in Nevada. Prior to retirement, he served in the United States Marine Corps and later as a middle manager in a large corporation. Life experiences provided much of the fictional material for the book. In addition, many events in the lives of family members and friends are fictionally depicted. The author’s intention in writing the book is to provide the reader with an interesting and, at times, humorous understanding of problems and dilemmas individuals encounter in unusual relationships.

Book preview

Rick Podowski and The Hefty Trio

The words, English Literature and Composition strike fear into the hearts of most students. Central High School in San Jose, California, however, has been blessed with four teachers that like to crack jokes and have a good time in the classroom. During the faculty scholarship fundraiser, they had performed a parody of Dawn, a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons song calling it Central, You're Too Thin For Me. Rick Podowski and The Hefty Trio had become an instant hit, and the group's name had stuck.

The four had worked together teaching English for over twenty-five years and each one of them knew that keeping a sense of humor was the only way to survive. When they had started working together, all of them had been thin, athletic, and single. Over the years, marriage and children had contributed to their combined weight gain and since, now that nights of hard drinking and dancing were in the past, all that was left was eating, which had become their common bond.

Rick Podowski had been particularly upset because, for some strange reason, his suits kept shrinking, especially around the midsection. He knew, however, that in spite of the physical changes, the group still had the same dedication and love of teaching that had been present when they first met. Each of them is deeply involved in informal counseling, extracurricular activities and in making sure that each student achieves all the success of which he/she is capable. They each face life with a different perspective. Leti Rios, a short, round-faced, second generation Mexican woman is extremely loyal to Rick and willing to do anything he asks while Erin McGinty, always ready to start trouble is big boned and red haired. Teresa Spinelli, on the other hand, is the Italian grandmother type with short, broad hips and the big smile of a peacemaker when she is not competing with Erin and Leti to become the center of attention. They are all loyal friends.

Since eating good food is the primary activity of Rick and The Hefty Trio, each novel in the series contains food and wine pairings. The recipes feature gourmet dishes from Rick and The Hefty Trio's Italian, Irish, Mexican, and Polish heritages paired with boutique selections from the wineries in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. These are not the typical foods found in ethnic restaurants, but rather, dishes that a host or hostess might prepare for a special guest. To enhance the reader's experience, interesting facts and anecdotes are included in the description of the winemakers and wineries.

Pour a glass of one of the wines suggested in the book and sit down for a good read.

Dear Reader,

One of the most important traits a teacher can have is compassion for the students. This is especially true in this age because we have been witnessing the deterioration of the family, and the increasingly large divide between the rich and the poor. Many of our children come from homes where divorce is prevalent and a significant number of students in the public schools live in ghetto areas permeated by gangs, drugs, alcoholism and violence.

There was a student in my class from this kind of environment, and one night she couldn't do her homework because her uncle had come to the apartment complex drunk and started firing a pistol, frightening her so much that she hid under the bed most of the evening. I performed the simple task of asking why she didn't do her homework, excused her from the assignment and I took steps to help insure that this would not happen again. My goal was to see the situation from the student's point of view and to not judge the uncle. Instead of contacting the police, I reported the situation to Child Protective Services to see what could be done about the girl's living situation. I behaved in a compassionate way towards the student, but what would have happened if the young lady were put into a foster home where she was abused? It would have been my act of contacting CPS that took her away from her family. My feelings of compassion would then turn to feelings of guilt.

After reading a study from the Pew Foundation, I was not surprised that in 2005, more than 24,000 youth left the foster care system at the age of eighteen without connection to a family. Statistics demonstrate poor outcomes for youths that have aged out of the system.

- One in four will be incarcerated within the first two years after they leave foster care.

- Over one-fifth will become homeless at some time after age eighteen.

- Approximately fifty-eight percent will earn a high school diploma at age nineteen, compared to eighty-seven percent of a national comparison group of non-foster youth.

- Of youth who aged out of foster care and were over the age of twenty-five, fewer than three percent will earn their college degrees, compared with 28 percent of the general population.

This book is about a teacher who works in a ghetto school and tries to be compassionate by bringing a foster teenager into his home and then hopefully adopting her so that she would have a family to provide emotional support.

During the five months that the teenager in this story lives with the main character and his wife, they try very hard to help her become successful, despite the fact that she is stealing from them. The situation becomes so bad that they have to ask her to leave, following which, to their horror, she is stabbed to death. As Rick who was, briefly, her foster father tries to determine why she was killed and by whom, he is forced to confront his ideas about compassion and his feelings concerning guilt.

I have tried to infuse the plot with comic relief by relating people's actual experiences when dealing with the foster care system. And finally, based upon the research and interviews that I have done to write this book, I have provided an alternative to the current model.

Happy reading,

Bob Miller

Chapter 1

Rick Podowski and The Hefty Trio confront the Problem

This is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard, Rick Podowski said shaking his head. The police actually think that I had something to do with her death! Unbelievable.

That's impossible, Rick, Leti, his round faced Mexican-American friend responded. Sarah was your foster daughter and both of you did so much to help her, particularly since Elaine is so familiar with the system

Several years before, Rick had met and finally married Elaine who was a social worker. As a consequence, Rick had witnessed first hand the issues related to foster children, and he was comfortable with bringing one into his home.

Rick's closest friends, Leti Rios, Erin McGinty and Teresa Spinelli sat together on the couch across from Rick's favorite perch, a leather recliner as they listened to him explain the crisis that had brought them together again, this one involving the foster fifteen-year old girl that he and Elaine had taken in several months before.

We were prisoners in our home, Rick was saying. We actually had to lock everything up because she was robbing us blind.

The Hefty Trio listened intently as Rick explained that each time he or Elaine had punished her; she had gone back to stealing again.

The last straw was when she was arrested at school for possession of some medical marijuana that she stole from Elaine's nephew. As part of her punishment, we refused to let her go to the church dance. With the encouragement of a volunteer from her church, she called Child Protective Services and said that we were abusing her. At that point, we asked her to leave and she was put in a group home. We had nothing to do with her death.

It doesn't matter, Erin interjected, her face growing red with anger. The reality is that the cops don't think that way. Because the girl lived in your home, you automatically became a suspect.

But that doesn't make sense, Teresa said. She was the oldest of the three and had a veneer of calmness. It's not Rick's fault that someone stabbed her to death.

I think that I can speak for all of us, Leti said. The police are suggesting that you broke the rules as a foster parent when she was in your home and that had something to do with the girl's death. As you well know, there are parents in our school that would love to see teachers fired. These people live to stir up controversy and get their names in the news, and they don't care about how much damage they do in the process. But don't worry Rick, we're all going to work together to clear your name.

You don't have to do that, he told her. They haven't accused me of anything. It's just questions so far and that's part of the process, I suppose. I shouldn't have said that they suspect me. But the truth is; their attitude makes me nervous.

I don't blame you! Erin exclaimed. The cops are so lazy that once they find a likely suspect, they more or less frame him. Then, the parents will start signing petitions to get him—in this case you—fired. You need our help so that we can keep this from getting out of hand.

I appreciate it. There was nothing else Rick could say because he was used to Erin's tendency to overreact not to mention her hatred of authority. But let's get through next Wednesday's memorial service first.

It was, they all agreed, time to take a break from speculating about what would happen, particularly since it was clear that Rick was becoming more upset by the moment. It was, as it usually was in moments of tension, time to eat.

The cheese crepes are ready, Elaine said as she placed the dish of beautifully browned Polish crepes, plates, forks, napkins, and a bottle of MJA Rose on the coffee table. She was a stunning woman with a very warm smile, and the most beautiful eyes framed by long ash blond hair. But to Rick, she was his soul mate and they shared almost everything including their hopes and dreams.

I usually don't drink rose, Leti said. But this one is full of the flavors of strawberries, cherries, and peaches. Great choice.

MJA is a new winery in our area, Rick said, since he was always ready to talk about his favorite topic. The owner made his fortune selling Kona coffee and then he turned to growing grapes and producing wine. When you go to the tasting room, they serve chocolate covered coffee beans with the heavy reds.

I love these crepes, Teresa said, dabbing a napkin to her lips. The taste of the cream cheese and vanilla is outstanding. Thanks for making such a great dish, Elaine. We can always count on you.

The recipe is from the website of Rick's favorite Polish restaurant, Elaine said as she took another sip of wine.

Polish crepes out do French crepes every time, Rick said as he tried to continue to be the center of attention.

I agree, Leti said. But the best are Mexican crepes made with cajeta. The creamy caramel made from goat's milk makes them soooo good.

The room went silent as they began to eat, an occupation, which they always took very seriously. This was especially true now that Rick had been fortunate enough to marry a great cook, an attribute that had endeared her to him. Her love of her job as a social worker had resulted in their taking a foster child into their home. Even though this step seemed right at the time, later it became clear that this girl was making their lives a nightmare.

It was a Friday night, and most people would simply be celebrating the start of the weekend, but here were three people coming to the aid of their two friends. No matter how difficult things became in terms of the death of the foster child, the five of them would remain united and strong.

* * *

During third period on Monday, Rick was standing in front of his classroom with thirty students who were either listening or pretending to be listening as he read Walt Whitman's, I Hear America Singing.

As you can see, he told them, this poem is about the immigrants who came to America. Whitman talks about the songs of the mechanics, the carpenters, masons, the shoemakers, the woodcutters, and washerwomen. Each of these activities involves sounds, and those are the songs of our country.

The poem is about us, too, Tien, an exceptionally perceptive advanced ESL student said. The campus is full of songs.

Exactly, Rick said, and for homework I want each of you to walk around campus and listen to the songs. Many of them are in the accented English of our ESL students. And then, there are the songs of the computer labs, the custodians, and even the PE teachers shouting at their students on the playing fields.

Yeah, Ricardo said, Get your butts moving is a beautiful song.

After everyone stopped laughing, Rick asked the students to read another Whitman poem silently and then to jot down the images it brought to mind to prepare for a discussion that would be held at the beginning of the next class.

Shortly before the end of the period, the silence of the classroom was broken with the song of the telephone, the voice on the line ordering Rick to report to the principal's office at the end of class. As soon as the last student scurried out of the classroom Rick headed for the principal's office, but his thoughts, as always these days, were with Sarah, whose song was sung solo because no matter what he had done to try to help her, she had never been able to fit in.

* * *

Central High School was a beautiful oasis in the midst of an economically depressed low-income section of the city. The buildings faced a large oval shaped grassy mound on top of which, near the Administration Building, was a five- by-five cement pad that served as a base for a large wooden clock tower punctuated by a clock that hadn't worked in twenty years.

In the middle of the mound was a grassed area, about three quarters down the oval on the end farthest from the administration building, the land sloped to create an amphitheater which ended at the outdoor stage of the theater-arts building. Surrounding this common area was six red brick classroom buildings, each with a terra cotta Spanish tile roof. It was a charming campus with its manicured lawns, stately brick buildings, and flowering trees nourished by the winter rains. During the lunch break, the grassy center of campus would be filled with students soaking up the warm rays of the glorious spring sun.

Rick hated waiting, and he really despised the uncomfortable chairs located next to the secretary's desk that had apparently been made for people with skinny bottoms. But, today he was distracted by the sound of what was clearly