Two ‘Orphans of Addiction’ Move Into Foster Care

Two children whose tragic lives were chronicled in a Times series last fall on substance-abusing parents have been placed in foster care while their father undergoes court-ordered drug treatment.

Eleven-year-old Ashley Bryan and her brother, Kevin, 9, were taken from their father in Kern County last month after he tested positive for drugs three times in six months and was charged with using amphetamines and marijuana.

Child welfare authorities would not comment on the case, including why the young siblings were not removed after their father, Calvin Holloman, had repeatedly flunked urinalysis tests.

Rather than face three months in jail, Holloman agreed to spend 90 days in a residential rehabilitation program in Bakersfield, said Kern County Deputy Dist. Atty. Perry Patterson. Holloman began treatment this week, and said in an interview that he hopes to be reunited with his children soon.

Ashley and Kevin were initially sent to a temporary shelter in Bakersfield for abused or neglected children. Last week, they were placed in a permanent home with a mother who cares for two other foster youngsters, according to Holloman’s longtime girlfriend, Rita Green.

Green, Holloman and the two children moved to the small town of Onyx near Lake Isabella last summer after their squalid Long Beach apartment became overrun with addicts--a period in the youngsters’ lives chronicled in The Times’ “Orphans of Addiction” series.

Back then, Holloman would down beers for breakfast and shoot speed into the night. Before sleep, often lying on the apartment’s floor, his daughter would pray for freedom from this turbulent life, one shared by so many other youngsters across the country. Her brother would simply wish that his father would stop hitting him.

While packing for the move to Kern County, Holloman vowed that he would leave drugs behind, creating a more stable life for Kevin and Ashley.

In fact, the children did begin attending school regularly, something they had not done in Long Beach.

Kevin, a restless boy with violent tendencies, was enrolled in classes for children with learning disabilities and had begun to blossom, according Jay Barrett, coordinator for Kern County’s special education programs. Ashley, who was enrolled in regular classes, also was thriving. Both said things were getting better at home.

Holloman had begun attending parenting classes and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. But he did not stop using drugs entirely.

“It was stupidity on my part,” Holloman said this week, adding that residential drug treatment “is the best thing for me to do--for me and my children.”

In the short run, however, Ashley and Kevin must now adapt to a new school, a new caretaker and a new town--all challenges for children who have known little stability.

Holloman--whose family was subsisting on a $534 monthly welfare check--blames his current problems on two factors commonly cited by impoverished addicts: finding affordable drug rehab and somewhere for children to stay during treatment. Most residential drug facilities will not allow children to stay with their parents.

In all, there are only 50 publicly funded residential drug treatment beds in Kern County.

“There are not enough drug treatment beds, not in Kern County or anywhere else,” said Zane Smith, director of Jason’s Retreat, where Holloman is receiving help.

A 1994 California study concluded that for every $1 invested in treatment, taxpayers saved $7 in law enforcement, welfare, public health and crime costs. A recent study by the Government Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said that 20% of the nation’s drug control budget is channeled to treatment, with the bulk going to law enforcement efforts.

Treatment advocates argue that jailing nonviolent drug offenders does not deal with their core problem, virtually ensuring that addicts will continue to inflict this cycle of crime and punishment on society.

Underlying the argument that treatment is more effective than incarceration is the medical evidence that addiction is not a moral failing but rather a progressive disease in which the brain’s circuitry is essentially rewired.

The potential of this approach can be seen in the early recovery of another addict profiled in The Times series--Theodora Triggs. This week, the recovering heroin addict celebrated her sixth month of continuous sobriety.

Just last summer she was shooting up in sheds and cheap motels while her daughter, 4-year-old Tamika, was either left alone or dragged along.

Today, Tamika is in a loving foster home and visits weekly with her mother, who now is on the 11th step of her 12-step recovery program, focusing on honesty, discipline, accountability and reliance on a spiritual force to overcome her addiction.

In an interview this week, Triggs said she is working with Tamika on anger that stems from what the girl endured when her mother was on drugs and the separation from her now that she really doesn’t grasp.

“I tell her it’s gonna be OK. Mommy promises it will be OK,” Triggs said.

Being sober and off the streets has also helped Triggs on another front. Triggs, who is HIV-positive, recently began taking a combination of drugs that have caused the virus to diminish to near-undetectable levels in her blood.

What’s more, she just registered for classes at a Santa Ana community college, hoping to someday get a degree in child development.

“I’m looking at the beauty of things rather than the ugly side,” said a tearful Triggs. “I’m 35 years old. And I’ve got my life back.”