Taxes and Teachers

Click on this link to read Professor James Edward Maule's blog post from today entitled Taxes and Teachers.  Professor Maule's blog MauledAgain discusses a variety of tax topics and how they affect real people.  Even though I am not in the tax field at all, I enjoy reading his blog on occasion.  As a former teacher, this post really hit home.  I have boxes and boxes of stuff in my basement that I purchased for my classroom to enhance student learning and those boxes don't include all the stuff that was not reusable.  So many people are quick to bash teachers and the excessive salaries and benefits they supposedly receive without understanding the entire picture.  Each year schools are cutting the budgets for classroom supplies to the point where there is almost no budget for that.  One teacher I spoke to last spring stated that she was buying her own copy paper to print student materials because the school only provided enough for a few months of the school year!

Self-care weekend

If you love nature and enjoy camping, you should give this a try:  go camping all by yourself.  Just you, the birds, and stars.  That is where I spent my weekend. and it was well worth it.  It gave me a chance to truly relax, unplug from society's distractions, and rejuvenate.  I spent time writing, bird watching, walking the trails and along the shore, and just listening.

Mandated Reporters

There needs to be more training for mandated reporters.  It seems a far too frequent occurrence to hear a client say their child disclosed abuse to so and so and no report is every made.  If a doctor, nurse, school professional, therapist, etc. hears a disclosure of child abuse, witnesses child abuse, or witnesses signs of abuse (such as bruises in places kids don't normally get bruises), he or she is required by law to make a report to social services.

When I was a teacher, there was very limited training regarding this.  It was very briefly mentioned in one of my classes in college.  And I think it wasn't until half way through my second year of teaching that the school district mentioned it during an in service day.  Why aren't these individuals getting the training and support so that child abuse can be responded to as early as possible?

Representing a client who has experienced trauma

The National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health  published an attorney handbook for working with domestic violence survivors who also have mental health concerns.

It really focuses on trauma informed care and making sure the survivor is making her own decisions after assessing all the risks and benefits.  It also includes some thoughts on whether to bring up mental health concerns, how to cross examine the opposing party, and how to utilize experts.  It seems like an excellent resource for an attorney working with a domestic abuse survivor, especially one who also has mental health concerns.

The one frustration I see though is that private attorneys aren't usually willing to provide this type of time commitment to one client and a survivor likely does not have the resources to pay an attorney's hourly rate.  And with cuts in funding to nonprofit law firms, there just aren't enough public interest attorneys to handle these cases.