Vol. 2, No. 1 • Fall 1997

What Would You Do?: Tasha and the Jamisons
by Joanne Caye and John McMahon

In this column in the last issue, we asked for your help. We presented you with a case example involving Tasha, an adolescent in foster care, and asked you what you would do if you were faced with a similar situation. To the readers who called our Fostering Perspectives comment line to share your thoughts and expertise, we offer a big "Thank you!" We have taken many of your suggestions and integrated them into our suggestions for handling these two challenging cases. We also included another scenario "What Would You Do? Ronny." After reading it over, we hope you'll write or e-mail to share your expertise with us. (E-mail to: [email protected])

Summary and Response

Sara and Bill Jamison are relatively new foster paretns who are having difficulty. Tasha, their 14-year-old foster child, talks suggestively to her classmates at school, and at home she is in the habit of going through the Jamison's things when they are not looking. The Jamisons worry that Tasha might be sexually active.

On top of these troubling behaviors, the Jamisons feel somewhat abandoned by the agency that placed Tasha with them. After phone calls, they have been told that their social worker has left the agency, and that their case is "uncovered" at the moment. What would you want to tell the Jamisons? What would you do in their place?

Felicia Anderson, a foster parent in Wake County, called in with this response to the Jamisons' predicament:

"One thing I would do is make an appointment for Tasha to talk with a counselor. The other thing that I would probably do as far as school is concerned is to go to school with her one day and sit in class and see what she'd doing and try to make some corrective suggestions while I'm in school with her."

"As far as her going into the Jamisons' room and going through her dresser drawers, we would have a serious discussion about privacy. Anything that I felt was valuable I would have to lock up. Then we would let her know what the rules of the household are and how we expect her to respond, and then come up with some appropriate disciplinary action for her stealing. We'd let her know that at some point, if she continues, we would probably have to talk to the police about it. She is going to have to be responsible for her behavior, and allowing her not to have some type of consequences for her actions is not really very supportive of her, because part of making changes is being able to recognize the fact that you have a problem."

Another reader had these thoughts: "I am not a foster parent, but I acted similarly to Tasha when I was her age and older. She is more than likely sexually active if she has been presented with an opportunity.

"She needs affirmation of her own self worth as a person, not as a sexual object. She, as many other young girls, are taught daily through televison, movies, magazines and immoral people that women are only good as a person when they are good sexually, and this is reaffirmed in an abusive situation. She needs a strong father figure to trust and to teach her the way a young woman should act and also that the attention she is trying to get is not the kind she really wants, and to teach her the right way to get the love she so desperately desires."

Foster parent Elizabeth Owens, also from Wake County, adds that "No child in North Carolina in a county/state foster care program is 'uncovered' for services needed. The case worker's supervisor, then the department head, and the county commissioners all have a part and responsibility in the care and safety of this child (and all the children in their care)."

"In a foster care placement with under-trained foster parents who are wise enough to recognize they need help: go for it. Be caring enough to announce to the next person in authority that the child dedicated to your day-to-day care needs professional help. The supervisor may indicate which behavior management practice he or she prefers, but get the system at work for the child. The system is responsible and the foster parents are near enough to the issues to initiate suitable care."

"This child is signaling loud and strong her cry for help. Congratulations, foster parents, you can hear her plea. This reply may be terse, but strength and belief in the value of the child is the energy driving the urgency of this reply."

Joanne Caye and John McMahon work at the Jordan Institute for Families, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work.

Copyright � 2000 Jordan Institute for Families