Yvonne’s 11-year-old son, Anthony, was suspended from school for sassing a teacher. He did not have a stellar behavior record, and his backtalk was the proverbial last straw. His teacher sent him to the office, and the principal sent him home with a note that said Anthony could not return to school until a parent or guardian came to school in person and talked with the principal.
Yvonne had a new job as a phlebotomist at one of the city’s major hospitals. Her pay was OK, but most importantly, she had a full-time job with benefits. She believed that she and her son might finally be on the road to something good after years of struggle and loss. She left her apartment at 5:30 a.m. each day and took two buses in order to arrive at work by 7:30 a.m. Anthony was on his own to get up and off to school and, with the help of an alarm clock and a telephone call from his mother each morning, he was rarely tardy.
At the end of her workday, Yvonne repeated her two-hour bus trip, arriving home 12 hours after she left each weekday morning.
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