Foster care, laws and schools in San Diego in the 90s

[dweebaked]

Setting: San Diego County, May 1991 - May 1992

Background: 15-year-old protagonist in foster care. His hot-headedness, abandonment and anger issues had him tossed around from foster home to foster home, including several abusive ones, before eventually being dropped in one of the worst group homes where children come and go as they please. One day,

Comments

[laridian]

"Knocking someone unconscious with no other ill effects" is a Hollywood effect. It doesn't happen in real life. If he genuinely knocked someone unconscious, the victim has suffered a concussion and possible brain damage and other trauma. Even if the victim didn't lose consciousness, he could still suffer a concussion and trauma (damage). So you may want to reconsider the damage caused. (Also, if the MC is throwing a table, it's unlikely that that's the only injury caused.)

Also you say he knows nothing about his background - but he must have *some* background - he did not spring into the foster care system as a 15yo - what age was he put into foster care?

[green_grrl]

I am not an expert in any of these fields, but as a reader I would be surprised if a 15 yo were tried as an adult for what amounts to a schoolyard scuffle that escalated. I don't think that the rich family's lawyer would even try for that, especially if this is the kid's first criminal offense. I think of a child tried as an adult being for repeat offenders and/or someone who commits a truly heinous crime-rape or murder. My guess is that the rich family would use their influence to get the longest sentence possible in juvie. I'm still not sure whether a year in juvie is reasonable; someone more versed in juvenile criminal justice would have to weigh in. His poor behavior record at school would weigh in. The victim would maybe have to show some impact-a concussion, a scar on the face, etc.

Part 1

[nagi_schwarz]

So, I don't practice in California, and I know child welfare in the 90's wasn't as informed as it is today, but I do regularly practice in child welfare now

Part 2

[nagi_schwarz]

3 - A presentation on one's family history prior to coming to America is not an unreasonable type of history project in 9th grade

RE: Part 1

[cryptaknight]

Just want to second the stuff about juvenile court. I'm currently a legal intern at a child advocacy agency; I grew up in CA but haven't had experience with the system there, and obviously what I'm aware of is current law, not 1990s. But I wanted to caution OP to be aware that the terminology differs in the juvenile system- it's not a trial, it's a fact finding or a hearing; it's not a guilty verdict, it's a true finding; they're not imprisoned, they're detained. The theory is rehabilitation, not punishment (regardless of what it might actually be in practice). And yes, it would be very rare for a child under the age of 16 to be waived into adult court for anything short of armed robbery, rape, or murder.

[uozaki]

Speaking as a former high schooler in San Diego county in the 90s, freshmen didn't usually do US History. 10th grade typically does humanities or other history-shaped class, 11th or 12th might do specifically US History, but freshmen not really. (If you want to make the character younger, US History WAS required in 8th grade, but that's middle school, not high school.) In our district only 2 years of history were required, and there weren't usually openings for freshman - nor were we really that desperate to get in right away

[uozaki]

I disagree on this, actually. I did high school in late nineties San Diego - 9th grade was World History, 10th European or Asian History, 11th US History, 12th Government/Econ. As part of 9th grade World History, we had to create our family trees for at least two generations back (so parents/grandparents) and do some kind of artsy emblem to describe our family heritage. Most of us Euro mutts did some bastardized version of a European-style coat-of-arms; a lot of the Chinese kids wrote some fairly epic Chinese calligraphy lists of names; that kind of thing

[uozaki]

Interesting. Doesn't really surprise me since our district was kind of a backwater - so it will really depend where this student actually IS.

[laridian]

My kid had to do a "family tree" project going back a couple generations in 4th grade several years ago, so yes, this is completely based on where you are, what the school district is, etc.
But nobody did a presentation, just a report, maybe a powerpoint (nowadays) or a poster, etc.