Chapter 12 - CPS
CPS completed findings.
Against Jocelyn:
Substantiated inappropriate punitive exclusion from the home.
Substantiated emotional maltreatment based on repeated statements that Emmett did not belong and that his father wanted him elsewhere.
Substantiated failure to provide appropriate sleeping arrangements during several nights.
The agency did not call two porch hours “homelessness.”
Good.
Precision.
Cecily:
No substantiated abuse finding.
Concern for failure to question removal of bedroom and reliance on Jocelyn’s representations.
She was not caregiver responsible for porch nights.
Maribel:
Not a subject perpetrator.
Her delay was documented.
She had no legal parental duty, though as household employee and adult witness she could have reported sooner.
Me:
No maltreatment finding.
Concern around domestic violence incident—the slap—and work schedule.
Protective actions recognized.
Again.
No halo.
Then Emmett’s therapy.
He had nighttime anxiety.
Wanted his bedroom door open.
Wanted me to check porch lock.
Then one night:
“Daddy, if bad, do I still sleep inside?”
“Yes.”
“What if I hit?”
“Still inside.”
“What if I say hate you?”
“Still inside.”
“What if I break TV?”
I almost smiled.
“You’ll have consequences.”
“Outside?”
“No.”
“Garage?”
“No.”
“Vermont?”
“Not as punishment.”
He thought.
Then:
“Jail?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You are six.”
He laughed.
We built consequences that did not attack belonging.
Toy removed.
Repair.
Apology.
Earlier bedtime.
Loss of game.
Never:
May you like
You don’t live here.
That boundary became the architecture of the house.
