School: Emory University School of Law

This summer I worked at the DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center, in the Juvenile Court, primarily under senior child advocate attorneys Temika Williams and Karimah Boston. Before coming to work for them, I thought I knew what to expect based on my general understanding of child advocacy - abused and neglected children, an attempt to rehabilitate parents, and the involvement of state care and DFCS. And while that was the general gist of what was involved, nothing could prepare me for the emotional rollercoaster that my job would entail. I think that this summer I ran through the full spectrum of human emotion, with each day posing a new challenge and making me feel a different way. When a ten week internship can make someone feel so involved and so dedicated, I think that's an indication of a truly profound experience.

One of the earliest cases that I worked with (which meant reviewing the file, going on a home visit to interview the foster mother, and meeting with the children involved) left me feeling helpless and wishing for nothing less than the opportunity for these children to go back in time. Essentially what had happened is that they went on a cross-country drive with their mother and grandparents, whom they happily lived with, until they got into a terrible car accident and watched the adults burn to death. After being put into the care of their biological father, here in DeKalb County, it was found that they were being physically abused and were eventually placed in foster care. The combination of both abuse and the accident left the boys so emotionally damaged that one of them was no longer able to function in a classroom environment. They were beginning to show signs of real distress and maybe mental illness, and were sometimes posing a threat to themselves or others. It was getting to the point where both boys (under the age of 10) were so difficult that it was unlikely that very many other foster parents would be interested in taking them in, leaving them in group homes for the remainder of their lives. The difficult thing about this situation was that there was no easy answer. It's easy to point fingers sometimes, and to place the blame on the abuser for damaging the children in such a heartless way. In this case, while the father did abuse them, the bulk of the damage was caused by the boys witnessing the accident and their relatives deaths, which was something that couldn't be blamed on any living individual involved. The child advocate attorney worked so hard on this case, but it's undeniably difficult to help children in these situations and I can understand why foster parents would be reluctant to bring a child with violent outbursts or tendencies into their home. It was the first time I felt like child advocacy isn't always right v. wrong. In this case, these children were unfortunately victims of circumstance and their lives were forever changed because of it. There will likely be both short term and long term repercussions from both the abuse and from the accident, and there's no easy way of dealing with that. It taught me that the role of a child advocate attorney isn't just to be an advocate or guardian at litem in the courtroom, but also to act as a kind of support system for the child, really seeking out any and every service that may help a child with an otherwise questionable future.

More recently, I felt as though my internship came full circle in a surprising way. My first week here I was asked to do some legal research regarding when it would be in the best interest of a child to remain with foster parents rather than go to blood relatives. The DFCS view, and the view of most people involved most of the time, is that a child being cared for by a blood relative is the ideal situation. In this case, the children had been with their foster parents for years, basically since birth, and the blood relative didn't come forward for over 4 years. My research was interesting because it wasn't just based on cases from around the state of Georgia where it was ruled that it was in the best interest of the children to stay with their foster family, but also from psychological journals and studies looking at attachment and bonding. Doing that research I felt like I had all the answers - the children involved should stay with their foster parents (who wanted to adopt), seeing as they were the only family they knew and that attachment in my mind trumped any attachment with a stranger who may share some genetic information. I hadn't heard about the case again until last week, my second to last week here. The trial went on for over 5 hours, with numerous witnesses, including an expert witness testifying about attachment and bonding. Ultimately, the judge decided that the children should be in the care of their blood relative and were to leave immediately. Our office has a child play room (which happens to be a few feet from my cubicle), and the foster parents were sent upstairs to say goodbye to their sons. Hearing everyone crying seemed so tragic, and the loss they were beginning to mourn felt almost as if it were a death. For the rest of the day I felt so angry about the decision, and to this day I don't understand how that ruling could be in the best interest of the children. I had to remember to curb my emotions back, though. Temika was the child advocate attorney and she did a really great job in the courtroom. It just happened that the judge agreed with DFCS for whatever reason, and hopefully it was for the best. It was also a good lesson to show me that, despite how difficult it is, it's important to keep your emotions in check (similar to how doctors struggle to do the same).

On the other hand, I also saw a lot of really happy endings and those cases inspired me to consider adopting myself one day. I saw a mother who was adopting her foster son, who she had been with for years, and she let me look through a scrapbook she made, including photos of her son in places like the zoo, at the beach, and even on a cruise. I saw foster parents looking to adopt their foster daughter who cleaned out the trees in their backyard to make a huge playground for her, including a fire pit to make toasted marshmallows and smores at night. I saw numerous parents working diligently on their case plans, asking for guidance and really stopping everything else in their life to make an effort to be there for their child. But maybe the most heartwarming thing I saw were those foster and adoptive parents who took medically fragile children into their home and cared for them with such happiness. These people changed diapers daily, had to buy new walkers and wheelchairs every time the child got bigger, took them to various doctors and surgeries, and did it all out of love and compassion. On home visits and panel reviews you would see the bond between the adult and the child, and the way the child would indicate when they were happy, sometimes by clapping or smiling. Those moments would make your entire day happy, and the foster and adoptive parents that have dedicated their lives to these children really are role models.

This summer has been an amazing experience and I've had the opportunity to see so many different aspects of child advocacy. In any given week I could be doing legal research and writing, sitting in court, or going on home visits. I met so many children who I'll never forget, and felt constantly inspired by the hard work and dedication of the attorney's around me. I don't know if my sole career aspiration at this point is to work in child advocacy, but I do know that this summer ensured that I absolutely plan on doing some kind of child advocacy work in whatever capacity I can. Prior to even applying for the summer internship, I knew that big corporate firm work, or just transactional work, wasn't for me. But this internship helped me realize that as an attorney I have the ability to really help people in unlucky situations, and to literally give a voice to those without voices of their own. I saw this summer how challenging child advocacy and similar work can be, but also how fulfilling and rewarding it is. I look forward to utilizing the skills I have acquired as I pursue my legal career in the future, and will encourage other students interested in the ESCAP internship to apply with the DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center next summer.