On October 20, Holly Schlaak, author of the book “Invisible Kids,” was here at RWC to speak a bit about her book and a lot more about her work in the foster care system. Schlaak pointed out that the main goal she had for her book was to figure out how to improve the system, not condemn it. During her lecture, she not only pointed out where the flaws in the foster care system were; she pointed out why things go awry.
It seemed natural that at some point during the lecture, the Marcus Fiesel case would be mentioned. For those few of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me give you a quick overview:
Marcus Fiesel was a child whose foster parents left him, bound and suffering, in a closet, while they went away for a weekend. Upon arriving home, they found that Marcus had died, and in an attempt to cover it up, they burned the body.
When this happened, public awareness of the treatment of foster care children increased, at least, for a time.
Schlaak made a very good point in expressing that a few months of that kind of awareness is not enough. We need to be aware constantly and consistently of what’s going on with these children. At the present time, there are 1200 children in foster care. The author is an adamant activist for this cause, and she hopes that in the near future, we can see a real call for action from the public.