The Fulton School
For the first three weeks of my senior projects I am working with Robyn Kirk who is a juvenile attorney at St. Louis City Family Court. I started my senior projects on Thursday because Robyn switched from working with the Children’s Division to the Juvenile Office. She gave me four different books to look into before my first day. I finished one of the books called “Hey, Kiddo” by Jarrett J. Krosoczka about a child who’s mother was a heroin addict. He talked about his struggles and the importance of healing and sharing them. I am now reading “Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew” by Sherrie Eldridge.
For the first half of the day on Thursday I got the opportunity to sit in on delinquency and child protection cases in court and meet some of Robyn’s co-workers. There was so much information being said during court and it was really eye opening and fascinating to see the wide ranges of different cases. For the second half of the day Robyn took me through her process of looking at one of her TPR (terminate parental rights) cases. From Thursday I think the most important thing I have learned so far is that in child protection cases they aren’t necessarily trying to take the child away from their parents, but instead are trying to come up with a reunification plan to reunite the family. If the reunification plan fails they then will look into terminating the parents rights. I am looking forward to the next two weeks with Robyn and learning more about the legal side of child protection.
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I assume you aren’t allowed to elaborate on the details of the specific cases. Was there anything that really surprised you that you can talk about? Did you feel conflicted when hearing both sides of a case?
No I am not allowed to talk about specific things that could identify anyone involved in the case. One thing that did surprise me though was that the juvenile court uses different verbiage than the criminal court. An example is instead of having a trial (criminal court) they have an adjudication (juvenile court). Well fun fact there aren’t just two sides, but multiple sides and since every side has to back up their claims with evidence it is easier to not be conflicted.