CSD took Tylor into Protective Custody on Nov. 12, 1987. The date as of this writing is Sept. 13, 1991. For all intents and purposes, that amounts to four years he has lived under their supervision, if you use the word Supervision very loosely. For the first 22 months 10 days of that time, he lived with his grandparents.
Several interesting things happened during the course of that time, the most interesting of which was that CSD did exactly - well - nothing. Nothing that was of benefit to Tylor, that is. What they did do was harass his mother and father.
First, there were the allegations that he had suffered emotional and physical abuse and neglect while he lived with his father. Then when proving those allegations was required to continue their custody of Tylor, they did what any Red Blooded American would do, and accused his mother with the abuse during one of his visits with her.
I was told things by them that turned out to be false. An example is that if I attended their parenting classes and went to a counselor, that they would return Tylor to my custody. I did attend the classes with my girlfriend, and I did go into counseling, but Tylor was not returned to my custody.
When Tylor was placed with my parents, he was enrolled in Harding school, the school district which my parents live in. It soon became apparent that Tylor did indeed have more than some social problems and was disruptive to the class in general.
Again the Education Service District was called in. Since Corvallis School District had a class of the type that Tylor seemed to need, he was transferred to Adams School where the class in question was held.
While he attended school there the regression that had been observed since the first part of the 1987-1988 school year slowed. By the end of his second grade year it looked as though he was going to start improving again over time.
It was during the summer between Tylor's second and third grade years that my parents felt they must leave on a long-planned trip across the United States. CSD knew of these plans from the onset of Tylor's placement with them. They were told of the plans when he was placed with them in 1987.
It is interesting that, although they knew they needed to find a place for Tylor for nearly two years, they didn't have enough time to do so. Two years is a long time for CSD not to have any available foster care providers come available in a population center as large as Corvallis.
In mid-August 1989 CSD suddenly decided to keep Tylor in their custody and placed him with a family who lived just outside the Corvallis School District boundary, and in the Monmouth School district. When they were asked why they had decided to place him outside of the School District that seemed the best equipped to handle him, with the resources and staff available, the CSD reply was to offhandedly say there was no foster family available in the Corvallis District.
That was an interesting explanation for any one of several reasons. First of all, all that his mother or I was ever told, (or as we found out later were supposed to know), was that they were looking for a place for him and later that they had found one. It was by accident that I found out that the place they had found for Tylor was outside of the Corvallis School District. As it turns out we weren't supposed to know where he was living, with whom he was living, or that it was outside of the district.
CSD's secrecy in the matter was not complete because I did find out where they were moving him two days before the move actually took place. Obviously they were successful with the information control campaign, because by the time I found out what the plan was, it was to late to do anything about it.
It must be obvious that they didn't really try. Or more likely they didn't bother to look because they didn't want to find a place for Tylor inside the School District. I remember at the time saying to my mother, "They have found the way to make sure Tylor continues to have trouble in school. They have again disrupted any stability of his home life, while at the same time disrupting any stability of his school life."
When the question was put to CSD about the disruptive effect such a drastic change in his living situation and his school surroundings would have on him, the answer was something like this. "Oh don't worry about it, kids are very flexible and adaptable, you know.
That was said by the same agency that just a year and a half later was to insist in court that he needed to be placed in a Residential Treatment Center and further insisted that it be Waverly Childrens Home in Portland. Apparently after two years of being Tylor's legal guardians, they still didn't get the idea that he needed a Special Education Program. The kind of program that was supposed to be in place in Alpine, and the kind that was in place in Corvallis.
(Corvallis School District is the only one that has had the ability to deal with Tylor. They have the space, the personnel, and the program already in place to deal with a student such as Tylor.)
I might add that when Tylor was first placed with my parents, his attitude and actions towards them were much less than civilized. As time had passed though he did simmer down to a large degree, and was in fact nearing the point where he was again in control of himself and his behavior.