Retired middle school teacher, Teresa Randall had been teaching for years when she learned a valuable lesson from a student in her 7th grade class who had an attentive Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) looking out for her. Part of the curriculum involved an annual Medieval Fair where students were tasked with creating an item from the middle ages they could sell at the fair. Unbeknownst to Teresa, one student’s mom had gotten overly involved with the project and was trying to collect $50 from each student for materials. Teresa received a call from the first student’s CASA telling her that her youth didn’t have any money and was feeling bullied to come up with the funds. Teresa said of that incident, “I felt so badly for the girl. It changed the whole way we did the project at the school.”
It also changed Teresa’s life trajectory as she approached retirement. After the incident, her student thanked her for listening to her CASA and taking action. Teresa responded to the girl, “I want to be a CASA. I want to be that person for someone like you.” One month after retiring, she attended her first CASA training and has been serving as a volunteer advocate for the past five years. She now says of that incident, “I’m glad it happened because it brought the whole project back into perspective. It reminded everyone that the purpose is learning to work together as a group. It opened all the teachers eyes to what was going on - it wasn’t just my class. That CASA will never know what an impact she had on our whole school.
Once Teresa completed training and was sworn-in, she was matched with two sisters. After working with the girls for a couple of years, the decision was made to assign each girl her own CASA and Teresa was matched with her current youth *Leesa just before the Covid pandemic. It was a challenging start since Leesa, who was only 11 at the time, was quite shy and not comfortable using Zoom or talking on the phone. Teresa did what she could to connect with her by sending small gifts via Amazon. Once they could finally meet, the ice was broken a bit as they both started laughing seeing one another in their masks. The relationship slowly grew as they did fun things together like drawing sillly faces on their masks and working on craft projects together.
Teresa quickly learned that Leesa found being around water soothing so they would do simple things together like walk on the beach or seek out waterfalls. Teresa shared, “One of my favorite outings was sitting on a bench at the end of the Huntington Beach Pier. We watched the surfers and were even treated to dolphins swimming by, it was wonderful.” She added, “One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that I don’t have to be an entertainer - always finding things to do. It’s just being there and being available to listen because you never know when they’re going to share something really important.”
Teresa has contributed to CASA in a variety of ways beyond just being an advocate. She spent time helping with the CASA waitlist - reviewing files and inputting case information to help match up youth waiting for a CASA. She also worked with the Family Connections department trying to track down extended family members for youth in the dependency system. And she went through additional training to become an Educational Rights Holder for Leesa. This was a great fit for Teresa given her extensive background in education and familiarity with Special Education. As CASA “Ed Rights” Holder, she signs off on all Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for Leesa. She also has the ability to meet with teachers and call for an IEP meeting if she feels it necessary.
Living situations for youth in foster care & group home placements can make studying difficult. Leesa has struggled with school assignments, often finding it noisy and difficult to focus in her foster home. Teresa tells of an afternoon where she picked Leesa up, took her to a local library, found a quiet space, and sat there reading for 3 hours while Leesa completed several assignments that she had missed. Leesa told her it was easier to focus with the quiet companionship of Teresa re-directing her back to her work when she’d get distracted.
Teresa has been under the supervision of Cindy Nydell throughout the five years she’s been a CASA. She says, “Cindy is wonderful. I will text her at weird times of the day and night and she’s always very responsive and supportive.” Teresa admits at one point she felt it might be time to move on and Cindy talked her through it. Teresa shares, “Leesa has had four different placements, four different social workers and new therapists every six months. Cindy reminded me that I’ve been the only consistent adult in her life over the past several years. That was wonderful, I thanked her for that.”
Cindy speaks equally highly of Teresa, “I started working with Teresa in 2018 when she was matched with two sisters. She was so good with the girls but we decided the sisters each needed their own CASA. The case for her youth closed but when it was reopened, Teresa was very willing to take on the case again even though she was also working with Leesa. Teresa is such a great CASA and has a strong connection with her current youth.
When asked what her biggest takeaway has been from her CASA experience, she says without hesitation, “Everyone has a story and it’s important to listen to that story. The first I heard much about ‘stories’ was in my CASA training. I wish I’d known that as a teacher when kids were acting out in my classroom. There’s always a story behind their behavior. I remind myself of that every day.”
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*Name changed to protect privacy