They made an example of this mother & disgraced her in order to scare other poor people from doing the same.  This is not a democracy.  It parallels with Victor Hugo’s Les Mes.  Talk about social injustice!

This is right up there with the Quebec parents who have been forced to stop homeschooling because a judge said that “rote learning” was not the style of teaching that was acceptable.  Disgraceful.

The bad news, is that the majority of states and provinces are not addressing the needs of working parents with children, who are homeless. Instead, they are met with policies/regulations that forces parents to take actions such as this woman was force to do. One of the nastier policies, that states have is to insist that homeless people with children to register at the shelters, to obtain government services for their children, in areas of education and health. The parents have no say in the school that is selected or health services, and the authorities will decide where the children will go to.  For the children they are usually sent to the lowest performing schools, even if the high performing school was the nearest. To add more insult, the parents now come under the radar of child protection services always ready to pounce to remove the children from the custody of the parents. I really do not blame parents who are homeless, to choose the lesser of two evils rather than registering at the shelter.

I took the time to find a site, that has a number of articles showing the time line and events of the woman who was charge. As I was reading or watching the video, the child is now living with relatives and has returned to the school that he was kicked out of. The mother had to hand over custody to the relatives, in order for the child to meet the residency requirements. The mother is considered homeless, by the education authorities and the only way legally to meet the criteria, the mother had to give up custody of her child.

http://drboycewatkins.com/tonyamcdowell/?tag=tonya-mcdowell

In Canada, the problems that homeless people with children faced are well-hidden from the public. The homeless parents are faced with the same type of actions as their American counterparts, due to regulations/policies dealing with homeless people, working or not working.

I watch a Hallmark movie over the Easter weekend dealing with homeless people with children. It has been a problem since the 1980s, and the movie is heart-breaking how the system treats homeless parents and their children. The name of the movie escapes me, but it was a Hallmark movie. The movie portray a teacher, that began her career at the homeless shelter’s school. That is if one wants to call it a school, but she work tirelessly for the children, and was directly responsible to change the laws in the state, that homeless children has the right to attend the school of their choice. This teacher is now the leading advocate for homeless children and their rights in obtaining government services, throughout United States.