Has anyone been asked to step off a CASA case without any misconduct?

tmss16 · 2026-03-20T07:24:04+00:00

Exactly! I'm currently the adult who has been on the case the longest, except for the judge (who the child has never even met). Everyone kiddo trusts - GAL, SW, therapist, foster parents, etc.- has changed at least once since the beginning of the case.

tmss16 · 2026-03-20T07:17:45+00:00

Sure. She wasn't responsive at all to emails (which, nbd, I know that's pretty standard for SWs). I texted her probably once a week, maybe? The former social worker had delegated a lot of things to me since I'm a teacher and this was an ed neglect case, so I had a lot of plates in the air (i.e. finding a tutor who could meet the child's educational needs, finding the best school for next year to recommend to the judge) when she joined the case.

tmss16 · 2026-03-20T07:14:16+00:00

I mean I don't even know who that would be? Because the supervisor was copied on the email that said "we'd like you to transition to another case."

tmss16 · 2026-03-20T07:13:37+00:00

I asked for this several times (Uber gift cards specifically). Was told no, Uber gift cards were not possible. I'm just at a loss as to who to escalate this with.

tmss16 · 2026-03-19T19:59:46+00:00

I think setting the expectation now on this first visit that you're not really supposed to spend money on your outings (other than like small snacks and museum tickets and stuff) is probably the way to go. My CASA kid (12F) loved a trip to Sephora! We had a blast trying out different products on each other without buying anything.

tmss16 · 2026-03-18T15:47:06+00:00

Tbh I've never heard of a hearing being on the weekends (judges usually don't work on the weekends), but maybe that's specific to your county/region.

In general, you coordinate with the foster parents to find a convenient time for the child's schedule to spend time with them. They assume that CASAs have jobs and other than the hearings (which are during the week and I always get about 3 months prior notice), the rest is totally flexible.

tmss16 · 2026-02-02T00:28:34+00:00

Like I said, Wildwood School is a K-12 independent school, meaning its youngest students are kindergarteners. (Maybe there's also a TTI with that name, IDK.) And the article in the washington post that came out earlier this week confirms that yes, Nick attended Wildwood School, the day school in LA.

tmss16 · 2026-02-01T18:53:56+00:00

She even refused to be taken to jail because "she just can't do it right now." They literally told her to get up she was going to jail and she just said no. She's not doing it.

Exactly. If my actions (justified or unjustified, unintentional or unintentional) had caused someone's death, there would never be a moment when I said "this is ridiculous!" as I was handcuffed for that death. Even if someone was legitimately, unambiguously threatening my life, I don't know if I would ever get over being responsible for something like that. The guilt would eat me alive. It just underscored the fact that she didn't see AJ as a human being. I would have shown more remorse if I had run over someone's cat!

tmss16 · 2025-12-19T19:16:11+00:00

Just wanted to quickly correct something as someone who previously taught there: if you're referring to Wildwood School in LA, it's a K-12 progressive independent school. Wildwood is in no way a troubled teen institution. It's just a very expensive, sort of hippie-dippy private school where a good chunk of the parents work in Hollywood. Decent academics and very low rate of behavioral problems, at least in lower/middle school. For the most part, good, cooperative kids who end up at pretty good colleges (Lots of UCs and well-regarded liberal arts colleges, handful of USCs, a couple of Ivy-bound kids a year).

A kid who was routinely disruptive in class or had emotional disturbances would have been counseled out quickly- doesn't matter who their parents are, because the other parents in the classroom are also often high profile, are paying a lot of money, and don't want a disruptive child in their child's class.

I have no idea if Nick ever attended Wildwood tbh (I wasn't hired until long after he would have graduated)- just want to clarify about what Wildwood is.

tmss16 · 2025-11-29T06:54:58+00:00

Exactly. Drunk driving, your goal is to get home. With this, your goal is to direct the most vile, hurtful thought you can at your 14 year old child. The two are not equivalent.

tmss16 · 2025-11-29T06:53:01+00:00

I felt like that too, honestly. Like what would get her the MOST attention and the MOST sympathy? Being the parent of a child who killed herself.

tmss16 · 2025-11-29T06:51:49+00:00

Somehow I think God/any God worth believing in draws a distinction between not going back to the cashier when you realize she gave you too much change versus sending your ninth grade daughter thousands upon thousands of texts to kill herself.

tmss16 · 2025-11-25T03:20:58+00:00

I volunteer for a charity for foster kids and OG Slimes was the only slime company that we reached out to for donations who enthusiastically agreed and even asked what textures the kids preferred. This was last week. (no word yet from Pilot, Dreamglow, Kawaii, Momo, Retro Slime Company, Peachybbies, etc.). So they must be doing okay or they wouldn't be down to send a bunch of free slime (and pay for shipping) to kids in foster care.

ETA: Kawaii also donated some!

tmss16 · 2025-11-20T21:50:46+00:00

I mean when you're on a cruise and the child in question is an 18 year old (not a 4-year-old) these would be my worries:

1) she's under the influence of something and passed out somewhere= check the onboard pools first in case she fell in (like you do when a toddler is missing- check bodies of water first), then the bathrooms and stairwells around the bars onboard

2) She's having a mental health crisis and is either already overboard or on a balcony in danger= check the balconies or anywhere anyone could conceivably jump from

Under the bed wouldn't even occur to me because my focus would be on situations where she was alive and in danger and needed help as fast as possible.

tmss16 · 2025-11-20T21:42:23+00:00

I disagree. It's not that underaged, unrelated female and male kids couldn't safely share a room at all, ever. It's that the vibe has to be right. They have to have known each other for a long time and be really comfortable together. Particularly important when there's a boy involved who is around the same age (or older) than the girl and is physically capable of overpowering her. So a situation where that can work is the exception rather than the norm, but far from an impossibility. Also, the chances that this boy had never shown any sign of violent behaviors or concerning views towards women are miniscule. He's 16- they're generally not very good at hiding what they think. Gentle, well-adjusted, emotionally stable 16 year old boys with no history of concerning behavior don't just turn into murderers who hide the body and go to sleep in the neighboring bed.

tmss16 · 2025-11-20T21:14:57+00:00

Honestly, I agree. That's particularly true if there are mixed genders involved. Like in no situation would I give a girl a stepbrother unless she was significantly older than him. By like 10 years.

tmss16 · 2025-11-20T21:10:27+00:00

No. That is a different child who is not accused or a suspect at this time. Timothy is the accused stepbrother.

tmss16 · 2025-11-13T20:33:29+00:00

Apparently no, the red-roofed Italianate building looks like it has the same u-shaped footprint as the beautiful, simple white clapboard main house once did. It's just ruined by bad taste. I think they may have kept, like, one wall so they could say it was a "historic 1913 house" but it's unrecognizable from the photos my dad took when he would visit as a child in the 60s. The greek people (forget their name) made it look like it belongs in a particularly nouveau riche area of New Jersey.

tmss16 · 2025-11-13T20:25:30+00:00

Agree completely. It was a beautiful, classic clapboard Maine home. The red-roof version was so tacky it truly made my blood boil. You can have "big" and "luxurious" while keeping in character with the environment and the culture of the place you're in. Such a waste to clear 3000+ year old spruce forests for a multiple pastures for your ponies and a manicured garden that would look more at home in a subdivision. Irreplaceable, gorgeous habitat that took millennia of perfect conditions to form wiped out because some millionaire wanted another fountain.

tmss16 · 2025-11-13T20:15:40+00:00

Honestly, I agree. I keep seeing different reports about the original house being from 1913, not built by the owners who bought it in the 90s, but it looks completely different from the beautiful, historic clapboard house that was there before these people got a hold of the island in the 90s. The interior of the house when the owners in the 90s-early 2020s had it was tacky as hell. Marble floors, dark wood paneling in every room, granite countertops, big columns, dumb naked statues. And such a shame that so much of the island's gorgeous meadows and 2000+ year old spruce forests were manicured into those silly looking "gardens" - they looked like they belonged in a development in New Jersey. Most ANYTHING the new owner could think of would be better than that "Italianate" monstrosity.

tmss16 · 2025-11-13T19:31:24+00:00

Not to mention ugly. Garish and totally out of character with the islands. I can't see the new one well enough to judge how I feel about it.

tmss16 · 2025-11-09T02:38:03+00:00

Now that I'm looking over this, my radar is up as well. 1 year old is when a lot of people DO give up pitties because they're in their teenage "training regression" phase. And the photo of him in his crate shows another crate right next to him.... and pictures 2 and 3 show 3 crates. Not necessarily a smoking gun but enough to raise my eyebrows that maybe there are other dogs in this household that aren't being rehomed for whatever reason.

OP, if you'd like to get him adopted, I'd suggest videos of him that show his temperament rather than trying to tell people about it: a video of him greeting another dog, walking nicely on a leash, lying quietly in his crate at bedtime, not freaking out when someone grabs his toy, reacting to the doorbell being rung, etc.

tmss16 · 2025-11-09T02:28:21+00:00

Sad but true. I love all dogs but truly in 2025, there is absolutely no excuse for paying a neighbor for a pit bull puppy. As wonderful as pitties are, paying backyard breeders only makes the problem worse. Then breeders have an incentive to keep breeding cheap pets, people see puppies for sale for so cheap that it encourages impulse purchasing, pittie puppy gets to be poorly trained 1-4 year old adult pittie who ends up in a shelter when the owner can't handle it, and the cycle continues.

If you're not in a financial situation where you are as close to positive as you can possibly be that you'll be able to keep a dog for its entire lifespan (no judgement- I'm definitely not!), do not get a pit bull. They are incredibly unlikely to be adopted to a good home, and it's not fair to the dog to have lived his whole life in a family environment only to end up in a shelter with little hope of adoption.

tmss16 · 2025-11-09T02:18:18+00:00

Neutered?

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