SPRING BRANCH NEIGHBORS HELPING NEIGHBORS

Spring Branch and Bulverde Neighbors, 

Recently, a neighbor reached out for help through Next Door.  She and her autistic grandson are struggling with Thanksgiving meals, basic needs and attorney's fees.  This year has been so difficult on so many people.  So many of our amazing neighbors have reached out wanting to help in so many ways.  Hopefully, this enables us all to help in our own way.  (A) is name redacted for privacy purposes.  

Here is her (grandmother) story in her own words:  
I have no problem explaining why I need help, but it will be a long story. (A) is my only grandson. He is autistic, has ADHD, encopresis, and PTSD. His parents began abusing him at two. They took a belt to his bare bottom for most anything, including when he had an accident during potty training, locked him in his room, tried to drown him and withheld food. I offered to pay for parenting classes and bought them books on parenting a difficult child. When he was three, his dad hit him so hard in the face it left a hand-printed bruise, blacked him eye and busted his lip. That was it and I filed a CPS report. I know I should have done it sooner. The case was closed because (A) was threatened by his dad if he told them the truth. His parents sent him to me when he was four voluntarily to go to PreK. From August to December, they only came twice to visit. (A) would have meltdowns that lasted for an hour to an hour and a half. I knew he was ADHD and his doctor finally told me to take him to a pediatric psychiatrist. He was diagnosed with his other diagnosis at that time. His parents wanted him alone at Christmas and he came back horribly bruised. My sister and his teachers all filed CPS reports and we got a restraining order and that started a custody battle. CPS was going to terminate parental rights, but a judge here in Comal gave me temporary custody. When they happens, the child is no longer in danger, so parental rights were not terminated. Also, his mother was a prescription drug addict. In Texas, if you file for divorce, you get another chance at custody. Since they live in CC, I hired another attorney there and got sole managing conservatorship. His father has a no contact order and hasn’t seen him since he was five. His mother only got supervised visits at a visitation center in SA. She went from 1st -5th grade without seeing him at all. Now she sees him every 4-8 weeks for an hour, even though she could see him 2-3 times a month. His dad was convicted of assault and family violence because of the abuse. His mother wasn’t ordered to pay child support and his dad pays less than $500/month. I retired from education because I had the time in and (A) needed me. He had PT, OT, speech therapy, play therapy and social skills training. Please keep in mind I have paid all his medical bills from the time he came to live with me. Attorney fees and medical bills ran me around $100K. His father’s income has more than doubled since I got custody of him and I can’t go to Target and get $5 shorts and tops and he could eat me out of house and him. He wears a men’s size medium and because his fine motor skills are behind, he can’t wear pants or shirts with zippers or buttons, so it’s mostly athletic wear, sweats, hoodies...something with elastic. The OAG suggested I take his parents back to court to increase child support. I told them no because I didn’t want them getting custody again. He does not want to go back, either. The OAG assured me that this court would only be for child support and nothing else. They were wrong.