Our unborn child was 12 weeks old when she died. I was
three months pregnant when I had a miscarriage as a result of an
incredible amount of stress that resulted from Adrienne Driggers
closing my husbands daycare in San Antonio Texas as a result of my
having spoken with one of the parents of the daycare about a sale at
an HEB Plus grocery store and some blatantly falsified write-ups by
her staff . That closing was a culmination of Adrienne Driggers and
her staff parading me around as if I were some kind of criminal
unworthy to be working with children. In clear violation of the Texas
Administrative Code, Adrienne Driggers had closed my daycare for
repeat write-ups after her office had withheld write-ups from me
bringing them to light only after the time had expired to be able to
challenge them.
We did not know the true gender of our unborn child when she
passed away but we say that our baby was a girl because a little girl
is what we had so prayed for our child to be. Hilario and I were
incredibly happy when we discovered that I was pregnant. We already
had two boys, this little girl was going to be spoiled with love and
dresses, and little tea parties, doll houses, all the little things
that girls love. I was already preparing her room at the time that
she passed away. She was going to be our little princess.
It was in 1993 when I was working at First Baptist Church School
in Corpus Christi, TX that I experienced a life altering event. The
children were being read stories of Job, as well as Jonah and the
Whale when tears began to form in my eyes. That is when I decided
that I was going to dedicate my life to working with children while
spreading the word of God. I did just that for many years. We had
been blessed with two incredible boys and I was now going to have my
little girl.
Adrienne Driggers had other plans.
Retaliation seemed most likely for a number of reasons:
I had reported one of her staff
for not having provided me with write-ups
My staff had reported one of the
supervisors in her office for ordering one of them to leave a child
unattended at a diaper changing table
Hilario reported Veronica Lopez,
another one of the supervisors beneath her, for stealing documents
from his daycare to allow her to falsify write-ups against him
Hilario had reported Geneva Hudel
for falsifying write-ups.
Perhaps it was just my being Hispanic.
Whatever reason she had, it certainly had nothing to do with the
safety of the children.
Never in my life have I witnessed or
experienced such contempt not just towards myself but for children.
Adrienne Driggers certainly does not seem to understand nor care
about the adverse consequences of her actions. Children are given
absolutely no consideration when it comes to her seeking vengeance
even if it means children getting molested or killed. The scariest
thing of all is not just that she has so much power that she can
destroy peoples lives at a whim but that she has the full support of
the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the State
of Texas Attorney General's Office.
When Adrienne Driggers ordered the immediate closing of the
daycare after my conversation about the sale at HEB Plus the stress
of being unemployed and being labeled a danger to the safety of
children was incredible. What compounded the mental anguish of being
branded by the State of Texas as a danger to children and of facing
homelessness was my having to help remove our equipment from the
daycare. We had nobody to help us. Though Hilario did not want me to
help him, I felt that I had no choice because we knew that we would
be able to reopen as Adrienne Driggers did not have justification to
close the daycare. In order for us to reopen we needed our equipment
and Hilario could not empty the buildings by himself.
When I started getting painful stomach cramps and my body began to
expel tissue we knew what had happened. Our child had died. I
had dedicated my life to helping other people's children and now
my child had been killed. We cried and mourned my babies passing but
our agony didn't end there as we were unable to find work in San
Antonio and had to make the agonizing decision to leave all that our
children knew to move to Oklahoma where Hilario found work and we
found respite and escape from Adrienne Driggers and the Texas
Department of Family and Protective Services.
Regardless of where you are, let your voice against injustice and intolerance be heard. Join us in our fight against Adrienne Driggers by signing our petition with change.org. If you have already signed the petition, please sponsor the petition. For as little as $20 you can help us reach 150 like minded people. That donation can be made directly through change.org.
https://www.change.org/p/end-the-abuse-of-power-by-the-san-antonio-department-of-family-and-protective-services-undo-the-unwarranted-placing-of-marla-gonzales-on-the-dfps-central-registry
