Tamarla is the reformed welfare mother of the 6 year old boy who
recently killed a 6 year girl in school.

Sandy
[log in to unmask]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 11:34:17 -0800
From: Dirk Slater <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
To: "Workfare-WLC-Post (E-mail)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: WLC: WA, WROC: Tamarla Owens story

From: Wroc <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>,
 Welfare Law Center <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Tamarla Owens story
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 14:40:46 -0800

Greetings,

I am not sure who to send this to, so I am sending it to both --

Has anyone been following the case of Tamarla Owens?  She is the mother
of the 6 year old boy who killed the little girl in Michigan.  I saw an
AP article in our local paper that described her situation ? she is
married, but her husband had been in and out of jail, more in than out.
She has three children..  About two years ago, she did what Gov. Jim
Englerís welfare reform program said to do:  she got off welfare with
two part time jobs.  She works 35 miles away and can be gone up to 15
hours a day.  The article did not say, but my guess is that the reason
she was gone so long is that she had to travel by bus.  A week before
the tragedy, she was evicted from her home. She did what many people do
so their kids can stay in the same school ? she had the boys live with
her brother and the girl with her sister.

In the article, a spokesman for the Governor said that the state could
have helped her prevent the eviction and with childcare and
transportation.  Yeah, right!  How many parents are told about support
services?  How many workers freely give that information?

Anyway, she goes on trial May 3 for child neglect.

To me, Tamarla Owens and her family are the symbol for everything that
is wrong with welfare repeal.  Yes, she probably is a success story for
Michigan, because she no longer receives welfare. But at what cost to
her children and community?  She is off welfare, but her family was no
better off, financially or emotionally.

What are we, the welfare rights community going to do about it?  How do
we give her support?  How do we make noise in our own states and
communities about the fall out of welfare repeal on children and
families?  Is anyone in Michigan organizing a defense fund and how do
we, the welfare rights community contribute?

Jean Colman
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
Seattle, WA
--
Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition
2212 S. Jackson
Seattle, WA 98144
206/324-3063; 1/877-330-3063
Web site:  http://www.scn.org/activism/wroc



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