This post was originally written on 9/9/2014. Some information has been updated to reflect changes that have occurred since then.
I was just going over my 11-year old son's homework assignment. The assignment was over a poem titled "On Turning 10" by Billy Collins. This poem details the passing of a happy and magical world of make-believe as held by children into a sad world where "pretend" and "make-believe" no longer exists as a result of getting older. It brings me sadness and rage that my children's innocence, as well as that of all of the children that were in our care, were ripped away by Adrienne Driggers, the Southwest District Director of the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division, and her staff. All of these children were simply collateral damage from Adrienne Driggers hatred towards us. They were held in contempt by the very people whose jobs in the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services was to protect them and ensure their well-being. Their little lives meant nothing to Adrienne Driggers and John Specia, Jr. the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.
Unlike what many of you may have heard about daycares like children being denied food as punishment, children being pinned to filing cabinets with service carts, children crying and begging their parents not to take them to daycare, the children in our daycares have always loved being with us. It was common for the children in our care to cry because they didn't want to leave! There was a licensing representative in San Antonio named Cathy Storey, a lady with many years of experience working for the Department of Family and Protective Services in Virginia, who was in awe of how we operated. In her words, our daycare "operated the way daycares should operate." She was disgusted that Adrienne Driggers had closed down Marla's daycare and flatly stated that it was not only stupid of Adrienne Driggers to do so but the worst thing that she could have done to the children of the community. Ms. Storey stressed how it was obvious that our staff was very well trained not only in the State of Texas Minimum Standards for Childcare Licensing but in their interactions with the children and parents. She was overjoyed at how happy the children were to be in our care. She stated that she sensed a genuine love of children. This is what our daycare, Kiddie Care, was all about.
In a scene that I can only imagine was reminiscent of Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jews of ripping them from their families and herding them into rail cars, when Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare, the children were crying horribly as they latched themselves onto our legs and refusing to let go. We will never forget the dozens of children crying as they were being ripped away from caregivers that genuinely cared about them. Just as the parents whose children were in our care will never forget the cries of their children when they were ripped from a daycare that they loved we will never forget the two children that were molested as a result of Adrienne Driggers closing Marla's daycare. They were the sweetest children you can imagine. They did nothing wrong to Adrienne Driggers but had their innocence taken from them as a result of her actions. She is aware of this but it did not stop her from later continuing to target us by closing down our daycare in Corpus Christi.
Our daycare was unique. When parents could not afford to pay we always came up with an arrangement for them to allow their children to continue to receive care. We understood that the daycare was the lifeline to their families. In the thick of "The Great Recession" we were what the depressed area of South East San Antonio needed. At the time that Adrienne Driggers closed my daycare in San Antonio, Kiddie Care and the Abundant Grace Lutheran Church were mere days from opening a food pantry for the poor. Christmas was a wonderful time for the children as our daycare, with tremendous help from the church, were able to provide many toys for the children. For those of you with knowledge of daycares, this commitment to children is unheard of. As you may have already read, Adrienne Driggers had closed my daycare because my wife, Marla, had violated Adrienne Driggers' stipulation on my license of "appearing to be more knowledgeable or appearing to be a go-to person", a rule nowhere to be found in the Texas Administrative Code, by talking to one of the parents about a sale at an HEB plus.
Our importance in Corpus Christi was growing at the time that Adrienne Driggers closed our daycare. We were able to feed over a dozen families for Thanksgiving and were on the verge of opening a food pantry and a kids closet for unfortunate families.
So as I read the poem, I thought of how Adrienne Driggers shaped our children and the children in our care. A generation of children have been taught by the Department of Family and Protective Services Childcare Licensing Division the vices of intolerance, racism, unfairness, and abuse of power. Childcare Licensing has as a result of Adrienne Driggers, with the approval of her superiors, become grouped in the minds of those that she has affected no different than the Hitler's Nazi party and the Ku Klux Klan.
When a child named Jordan Arredondo died at Bethune daycare in Corpus Christi, the parents of the children who were enrolled in our daycare, and apparently many of you who are reading this blog, rightfully asked with anger "why doesn't Adrienne Driggers close their daycare down when a child died in their care and nothing happened to any of the children at our daycare (Kiddie Care)?!" The words racism and double standard on the part of Adrienne Driggers and Childcare Licensing has been mentioned repeatedly. Even though the Department (DFPS Childcare Licensing) ruled that the daycare was negligent, Bethune daycare was allowed to continue to operate!
Adrienne Driggers, the person whose job it was to protect the children of the community, ripped our own children from everything that they loved: friends, their home, school. Our oldest at the time would pray to God for protection from Adrienne Driggers. Those prayers did not stop the nightmares. Our youngest feared for his life and when we were forced to move to Oklahoma, he would cry incessantly for us to return to our home in San Antonio. As a parent, you never forget those cries.
We have been hardened from Adrienne Driggers abuse of power and swear to put an end to her reign of terror. I promise you that in our hearing with the State Office of Administrative Hearings we will prove that she and several of her subordinates committed felonies. We will push for the Department of Justice to prosecute.
The innocence of our children has been lost for ever as a result of Adrienne Driggers rape of our family. Our five year old's entire life has been dominated by the effects of Adrienne Driggers hatred. Our 11 year old has already been hardened by Adrienne Driggers' cruelty and feels an incredible hatred for her and Childcare Licensing. Our oldest son has learned all about intolerance from Adrienne Driggers' and refers to her as a racist animal. She is the devil incarnate. It breaks our hearts that our children were introduced to such an incredible amount of hate and intolerance at such an incredibly young age. Unfortunately, she and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did the same to all of the children that were in our care.
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