LilMtnCbn
01-11-2004, 06:41 AM
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/7674993.htm
A 'Boarder Baby' defies the odds
BY MICHAEL WINERIP
New York Times
NEW YORK — "Who Will Care for the Boarder Babies?" the headline read on the
editorial on Nov. 30, 1986. Social crises are reported in waves, and in the
1980s, a New York City crisis centered on infants and toddlers growing up on
hospital wards because no foster care or adoption placement could be found.
Boarder babies were severely handicapped. They were crack babies, AIDS babies,
or simply babies no one wanted.
They usually were called John or Jane Doe in news accounts, but they were real
people. One was Tamara Morgan, who spent her first five years, beginning on
June 27, 1985, at the New York Foundling Hospital.
Tamara was the sixth of 10 children in a poor family living on welfare. She was
born with three broken ribs, a broken arm and a broken leg, and would most
likely spend life in a wheelchair and grow no larger than a child because of a
rare condition.
Doctors warned that boarder babies would suffer retardation and personality
damage growing up in an institution, but Tamara defied all predictions. Two
traits served her well. She was an optimist. And she had an incredible hunger
for education.
By 1990, New York's boarder-baby story had disappeared. The crisis had been
fueled by the city's poorly run child protection agency. But to the credit of
city and state officials, they recognized this and shifted oversight of these
children to private agencies. Tamara's case was taken over by New Alternatives
for Children.
New Alternatives spent considerable taxpayer money giving Tamara's mother the
training and resources to care for her daughter at home, including a bigger
apartment, a homemaker, a therapist and summer camp for the children. At age 7,
Tamara went home for the first time.
It was not easy. They lived in a fifth-floor walk-up. Her brothers and sisters
had to carry her up and down the stairs for school.
She loved her fourth-grade teacher — "She was always sweet about letting me
rest when my bones were bad" — and her fifth-grade teacher who "instilled in
us that we could do great." When it was time to apply for high schools, most
bright children chose by academic program. Tamara chose by wheelchair
accessibility and wound up at Long Island City High, not a top academic school.
Twice, she said, the guidance department failed to arrange an accessible place
for her to take the SAT. And they kept urging her to go to community college.
Last spring, she was accepted by several colleges, including Barnard, but chose
Hunter in Manhattan because she liked the diversity.
Getting around New York City in a wheelchair, at about 3 feet tall and 45
pounds, is not easy. She rides the Hunter bus 40 blocks between the dorm and
classes. Sitting in her wheelchair, Morgan is placed on a hydraulic platform,
the last one loaded on, the last off.
She often felt she was the unluckiest child in her family, but of the 10, she's
the only one in college. Her goal is to be a child psychologist. "I'm so small,
children think I'm a child," she said. "Plus, I think I have a good
understanding of the kinds of problems children can have."
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
A 'Boarder Baby' defies the odds
BY MICHAEL WINERIP
New York Times
NEW YORK — "Who Will Care for the Boarder Babies?" the headline read on the
editorial on Nov. 30, 1986. Social crises are reported in waves, and in the
1980s, a New York City crisis centered on infants and toddlers growing up on
hospital wards because no foster care or adoption placement could be found.
Boarder babies were severely handicapped. They were crack babies, AIDS babies,
or simply babies no one wanted.
They usually were called John or Jane Doe in news accounts, but they were real
people. One was Tamara Morgan, who spent her first five years, beginning on
June 27, 1985, at the New York Foundling Hospital.
Tamara was the sixth of 10 children in a poor family living on welfare. She was
born with three broken ribs, a broken arm and a broken leg, and would most
likely spend life in a wheelchair and grow no larger than a child because of a
rare condition.
Doctors warned that boarder babies would suffer retardation and personality
damage growing up in an institution, but Tamara defied all predictions. Two
traits served her well. She was an optimist. And she had an incredible hunger
for education.
By 1990, New York's boarder-baby story had disappeared. The crisis had been
fueled by the city's poorly run child protection agency. But to the credit of
city and state officials, they recognized this and shifted oversight of these
children to private agencies. Tamara's case was taken over by New Alternatives
for Children.
New Alternatives spent considerable taxpayer money giving Tamara's mother the
training and resources to care for her daughter at home, including a bigger
apartment, a homemaker, a therapist and summer camp for the children. At age 7,
Tamara went home for the first time.
It was not easy. They lived in a fifth-floor walk-up. Her brothers and sisters
had to carry her up and down the stairs for school.
She loved her fourth-grade teacher — "She was always sweet about letting me
rest when my bones were bad" — and her fifth-grade teacher who "instilled in
us that we could do great." When it was time to apply for high schools, most
bright children chose by academic program. Tamara chose by wheelchair
accessibility and wound up at Long Island City High, not a top academic school.
Twice, she said, the guidance department failed to arrange an accessible place
for her to take the SAT. And they kept urging her to go to community college.
Last spring, she was accepted by several colleges, including Barnard, but chose
Hunter in Manhattan because she liked the diversity.
Getting around New York City in a wheelchair, at about 3 feet tall and 45
pounds, is not easy. She rides the Hunter bus 40 blocks between the dorm and
classes. Sitting in her wheelchair, Morgan is placed on a hydraulic platform,
the last one loaded on, the last off.
She often felt she was the unluckiest child in her family, but of the 10, she's
the only one in college. Her goal is to be a child psychologist. "I'm so small,
children think I'm a child," she said. "Plus, I think I have a good
understanding of the kinds of problems children can have."
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
