Montanna and Rossy were top in their classes and were offered an interview on the local news. They were doing so well in their classes at SPA that they thought they should be recognized for their accomplishments and good efforts in school. They begged for Beth to let them be on t.v., and Beth just kept saying no because it was for their own safety. Finally, they gave up because it wasn’t worth the fight if they kept getting shot down and rejected. They complained to their house parent that it wasn’t fair that every other teen in San Diego were allowed to be on t.v. and just because they were foster kids they were hidden behind rules and restrictions by the judges and social workers of the court.
SPA students should be able to be shown on television. The odds of Spa kids being in danger of being stalked by a stranger are very low, because we are so far away from civilization that it would be hard to find our current location. My house got the chance to be on the San Pasqual documentary video and it was shown on the news to all of San Diego. Nothing happened to us, in fact we probably were more noticed on a positive note rather than a negative. Most of the time when we are allowed on t.v. it's for a good reason and it makes our school and home look positive and worth filming.
Spa kids should be allowed to be recognized just like any other person. Also, it shows they are the same as any other teen in San Diego by being a part of the local news. If one of the students at Spa were asked to be interviewed on t.v. because they wanted to know their life story they would have to say no because of the restrictions. If they weren't foster youth they would have been able to accept the offer and probably would have even helped them in their future. Why is fair that "regular kids" get to be shown on t.v., but when it comes to foster youth we have to be hidden from the rest of the world. We are all the same. Being a foster kid doesn't define us, and neither should rules that say we can't be shown like everybody else.
Since SPA students are not allowed to be filmed, it leads them to feeling different from non-foster youth. Foster youth only want to feel normal like other kids do. From hearing a story about having to wear a "No Camera" sticker on their shirt for a school field trip just says that they have to be hidden from society even at school events. This shows that they can't even function around their peers without being told to be on the the other side of the film. From personal experience on the D.C. trip in eighth grade I was told that I wasn’t allowed to be in a picture because it was going to go on the school website I could get into trouble with SPA’s rules against it. I was heart broken that I couldn’t even take a picture with my friends without being pushed to the side and told that it was for my safety.
In conclusion, Everyone should be treated the same. If that means that foster has to argue with the court to get the same privileges as the common teen so be it. Foster youth are more likely to be noticed as “regular” if they are given the same opportunities as kids of their age. Being apart of the foster youth community myself I only wish to get the same treatment as my peers off campus. In fact, foster kids not being a loud on t.v. excludes us even more from being considered regular.
