Many hours and much expense went into the interviews and examinations that were to be conducted as the preliminary steps to Tylor's entrance into Poyama. They were looking Tylor and his family over very carefully to be sure all the ingredients were present for a successful completion of their program. As all professionals should, the Poyamaland staff was doing all they could to weed out any applicants that lacked the dedicated support of their family.
I would assume that one of the requirements to accepting a case is the certainty that the child in question be in a stable living situation. It is also a requirement that the child's hope be reasonably stable to provide at least the bare minimum support required to retrain a troubled child to act in a civilized manner. During the first interview I was to attend at Poyama the subject of his hope location never came up.
When we received word that Tylor had been passed over for another child, we were, of course, curious as to why that decision had been reached. The reply was something like this:
"We felt that although Tylor seemed to be appropriate for our program, that the instability as to whom or where he would be living in the future was too great to begin therapy at this time." Their letter of rejection went on to ask us to re-apply within six months if a solution to that problem could be reached.
As time will do, it passed, and in six months time we again applied with Poyama to have Tylor considered for treatment in their program. Again we went to their facilities near Rickreall for the interviews and discussions. During the course of this second interview I was asked directly what I planned to do if Tylor was to be returned to me in Philomath.
It was explained that if that were to happen it would immediately disqualify Tylor from attendance at Poyamaland as that location was out of the Monmouth School District. It was further explained that Poyama didn't want to start treatment only to have the child withdrawn from their program prematurely.
My response, then and there, was that while I had never looked into housing inside the Monmouth School District, that I was sure I could find something suitable in relatively short order. In other words if he was to be accepted at Poyama, I would move to Polk County to insure that Tylor would remain in the appropriate District to maintain attendance.
The outcome of that second series of interviews was the acceptance of Tylor into Poyamaland. Again, barely a week after Tylor's acceptance into their program, a second letter was forthcoming. The content of that letter was that the offer was withdrawn and please don't ask again. That second response was in reply to a letter sent to Poyama by Brenda Hermes in which she is reported to have asked some particularly narrow questions.
The Pastres have told me that in telephone conversations with the Poyama administrator, he had been honest and told them what had happened, and then asked not to be quoted on the subject. He apparently went on to say that he was leaving Poyama for private practice in Salem, and that if the mess ever got straightened out to bring Tylor to him there.
The Pastres also reported some other comments he had made with regard to the "System" and "Manipulation", I believe, but it is obvious that the Pastres would be in a much better position to report on that subject.
As I said before, CSD is a past master at pulling some sort of a rabbit out of its hat. As it ended up, they did hold the high trump again. In this particular case it appears to be the purse strings of the institution we were looking at, and who was looking at Tylor.
Isn't it amazing that once again the battle is decided at a financial level, without regard for any other factor. The consequences for the child are the least important.