It hurts just to look at the child’s smiling photo. So full of life and joy, only to have both stamped out of her with the approval of her doped up mother. Teachers, neighboors, CPS, you saw nothing? Perhaps they did not. Most neighboors don’t push themselves into other’s private lives unbidden.
There's so many of these types in Albuquerque. Heck, there's plenty of 'em here in NE Florida.
I see them at my kids' school all the time. Face tattoos, hand tattoos, open sores. The strange triangular shape the mouth takes on when they've ground their teeth down to nubs. Meth heads. They live, or rather exist, in dilapidated trailers hidden in the shadows of Florida overgrowth. I see their dirty, disheveled kids. Those poor souls don't have a chance. They'll turn out just like their parents. This poor girl probably would've as well.
What to do?
Ah, but some neighbors do, to no avail. There's a bad situation unfolding on my block. All the people on the block are good people, as far as I can tell, except for one family. They're abusive to several kids living there. The house is run down, the grounds all around are a mess. The adults look like criminals and sometimes are high or drunk, and they openly drink on their front porch. They scream and yell profanities at the kids. The kids do not interact with any neighbors, probably because they were told not to. Cops get called out to their house several times a year. Only time cops come to our block is for that house. They often fight and yell in the house, and cops have come out and a couple times arrested one or more adults for domestic fighting. Sometimes the fight spills outside, with them being abusive to the kids.
Anyway, a couple times when the cops came I told them the adults were abusing the kids. They couldn't be bothered, and nothing came of it. After one incident, a mother of two of the kids was arrested, then Social Services started showing up. When they come, I've tried to intercept them and give them information. They avoided me, did not want to speak at all. Same with a couple other neighbors. The Social Services people would talk to no one on the block. They show up several times a week, go inside for an hour, sometimes taking the kids with them for a while then return them the same day. The arguing and abuse of the kids continue to this day.
Four days ago two cop cars came and stayed an hour. The next day while in my yard I overheard the grandfather threatening one of the girls, she's about 11 years old. He told her not to talk to anyone outside the house, that he didn't hit her, he just slapped her, and what happens in the house stays in the house. That he could get in trouble and she is not to talk to anyone. Apparently one of the kids called the cops the day before and grandpa was upset about it. By the way, I've been threatened by them numerous times because I've complained to them. It's a bad situation waiting to get worse. But it seems teachers, cops, neighbors, social services are powerless to let it run its course.