Foster Children, Families Face Challenges
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Smithson Valley begins 2019 with SMPF investigate apparent stacked victories, losses. murder, suicide. PAGE 10 PAGE 3 TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 19, 2019 | HERALD-ZEITUNG.COM Foster children, families face challenges B R A U N F E The justice system poses unique diffi culties for those who participate in foster care W L E S N SERIES By Lindsey Carnett counterparts who don’t. who grow up in a foster-home set- at sometime in their life. PART The Herald-Zeitung 2 Children who grow up in a ting. Texas teenage girls in foster care Th is is the second of a Statistics show again and again that group home are 2.5 times more About 90 percent of kids who are getting pregnant at a rate five H three-part series. E G R N children who are placed in a stable, likely to become involved in the have five or more foster place- A T U L D - Z E I long-term homes do better than their justice system compared to kids ments will enter the justice system See FOSTER, page 5 Loop 337 signage The heart of the city structures attract attention By Dalondo Moultrie The Herald-Zeitung Don’t fret, wary travelers, those towering concrete structures on the side of the stretches of Loop 337 under construction in New Braunfels don’t signal any double-decker highways or numerous bridges in New Braunfels. We here at the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung have heard the rumors. Some speculated that the Loop project was going to include an upper and a lower level and the struc- tures on the side of the road under construction would support the upper level. Some whispered that the structures would support bridges flying across the Back row, from left, Cathlab RN Brandi Richerson, Dr. Rahul Bose, Cathlab RN Derek Seymore, RT Wade Satsky, supervisor of Cardiac Rehab Services Lori Lee and RN director of the Loop in town. Cathlab Michele Valerio served as Mark’s cardiac team. Front row, from left, is Grace Gettys, Mark Gettys and Wendy Getty. LINDSEY CARNETT | Herald-Zeitung In fact, OSBs — overhead sign bridges — serve a very practical purpose, said Her- CHRISTUS patient shares heart attack experience nan Rozemberg, Texas De- partment of Transportation By Lindsey Carnett home from being out found her father was lying thinking maybe it was one of her daughter, Wendy public information officer. The Herald-Zeitung with some friends when on the ground, twitching of his practical jokes, but Gettys sprinted into the “They go across the road- At 8:15 p.m. on Sunday she heard a strange noise and sputtering, unrespon- when he didn’t take heed room as well, and upon way and hold signs,” he Sept. 30, New Braunfels coming from her parent’s sive. of her pleas, she knew seeing her husband on said. “There will not be any High School senior Grace bedroom. When Grace Grace remembers yell- something was seriously the ground screamed for second level, upper level. Gettys was just getting went to investigate, she ing for her dad to stop, wrong. Drawn by the yells See HEART, page 8 See LOOP, page 3 A special friendship Local getting ready for basic says goodbye to longtime friend with autism By Lindsey Carnett T-shirt emblazoned with the lum from Lord of the Rings The Herald-Zeitung Canyon Lake High School and Steve Irwin or “The Croco- In a back booth at IHOP, mascot, a hawk, peering fixedly dile Hunter” all spill effortlessly donning a gray and black Hur- at passersby. The two 25-year- from his mouth. ley cap, Chandler Faulkner old men sit shoulder to shoul- Still looking down, Faulkner looks down and drinks from a der. smiles, a silver chain around his glass of water, listening steadi- Aseltine switches topics and neck shifting slightly. The sin- gle word ‘Army’ dangles from ly to his longtime friend Alex begins impersonating charac- Chandler Faulkner, right, sits with his longtime friend Alex Aseltine, who has autism. Faulkner Aseltine describe the latest ters from his favorite movies the chain, hardly moving as Faulkner looks up at Aseltine. will be leaving for basic training for the Army National Reserves on Feb. 26, and the two Transformers movie. and TV shows; the voices of friends said their goodbyes Saturday morning at IHOP. LINDSEY CARNETT | Herald- Aseltine is dressed in a gray Stitch from Lilo & Stitch, Gol- See FRIENDS, page 8 Zeitung Abby ······························ 12 Classifieds ····················· 9 Comics ···························· 9 Crosswords ··················· 9 Opinion ··························· 4 Obituaries ······················ 8 Stammtisch ··················· 2 Sports ····················· 10-11 TV ···································· 8 50 41 Weather, 3 @NewBraunfelsHZ Vol. 166 No. 95 $1.00 NO MORE HEARING AID BATTERIES! 1528 Common St., Ste. 11 New Braunfels, TX, 78130 Full confi dence with 30 hours of battery life with ReSound (830) 214-2322 LiNX Quattro™. Learn more and visit us online at listenhearhearingsolutions.com HERALD-ZEITUNG.COM | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2019 | 5 FOSTER “So we have to take that into is no small task, Motl said. Motl said. lectively all across all of our Apart from the long pro- consideration.” As an agency that licenses lo- “The family is trained programs we take care of cess a family faces to get Continued from page 1 After a child is removed cal families for fostering and continually so they have to over 100 kids in the foster licensed to foster or adopt, from their home, he or she adopting, Strawberry Creek get 50 hours per year,” Motl care system every single families face other unique their life. may be placed with a rela- Services helps New Braunfels said. “We’ve been here since day.” adversities as well. However being a foster or tive or godparent. If some- families go through the September … and we just li- According to recent Data shows that about adoptive parent is no small one cannot be found who is process of becoming fos- censed our second family on DFPS figures, 550 teen girls a quarter of foster parents task, and also has unique willing and fit, the process to ter-ready, Motl said. Monday.” out of 5,226 in foster care, quit before reaching the challenges. find a foster family begins. “The licensing process is a or 11 percent, were either one-year mark, and that In part one of this series, Group homes and shelters lot,” Motl said. “I mean they Challenges for the pregnant or parenting. only about only a third of the Herald-Zeitung exam- are typically a last resort. have to tell us everything, “Our location in New foster parents felt “trained ined the numbers and how “Our goal is always to … so that (our case manag- children Braunfels is an emergen- enough” for fostering be- local population growth also find a foster home first, er) can tell where they came Statistics show children cy shelter and a long-term fore taking in a child in means seeing more local because I believe a home from, and we always tell who have been in the foster residential, and the foster need. children enter the system. is the best place for kids,” them, ‘It’s not so much if system — especially teens or youths that live there are Children who are Part two of this series breaks said Sondra Ajasin, found- your experiences were neg- children who have been in pregnant or are parenting, brought into a foster home down the process foster chil- er of TruLight127 Foster & ative, it’s how you came and multiple foster homes — so it’s foster mamas and have usually been through dren go through, the prob- Adopt Ministries. “But, ear- overcame those.’” have higher rates of home- their babies, teenagers,” a lot of trauma in their lems they face and the trek lier teens and large sibling Mary Buchholz, Strawber- lessness, drug or alcohol Roussett said. young lives, and may have and difficulties their caretak- groups, that’s hard some- ry Creek Services case man- abuse, incarceration, teen Data shows that be- different behaviors than ers must overcome. times.” ager supervisor, said during pregnancy, mental illness ing in a long-term foster a lot of children, Lord ex- Located in Guadalupe this phase she gets to know a and more. home can help lower these plained. The child’s journey County, TruLight127 Foster family through a home study. A study in 2003 of 100 rates — research published “About 25 percent of our Reports in 2016 of two & Adopt Ministries is a non- “The home study is based former foster care youth in 2017 by Sage Journals families that come to us children found tied up in profit contracted with DFPS on what the licensing re- found that after they had showed children who have are already at the point of their backyard, beaten and to license families for foster- quires,” Buchholz said. “So been on their own for six been in a long-term foster crisis because the behav- surrounded by their own ing and adopting. I have to follow a whole months, 45 percent had home had less negative be- iors they’re experiencing at feces shook the greater San Typically the court process lengthy guideline, so what I been in trouble with law haviors and more optimis- home are so difficult that Antonio area as people re- for a child who has been tak- ask them, how specific and enforcement, 41 percent tic perceptions of their sur- they are in a place of des- sponded in outrage. en away takes between a year then we just need that infor- had spent time in jail, 26 roundings than those who peration for help,” Lord A late-night phone call to to 18 months, said Tillman.