On December 16th, my group and I interviewed Coe Booth, a current writer (author of Tyrell) and former ACS (Administration for Children’s Services) worker. Coe is extremely knowledgable about child abuse and neglect, specifically in NYC. While working at ACS, Coe’s job was to investigate reported abuse/neglect cases and ultimately, make a decision whether or not to remove the child from their home. Coe would look at a report, normally made from either a friend, neighbor, or teacher of the child, and then go to the home and interview the child (or children) and their parents. After doing a thorough investigation of the home and the suspects, Coe would have to carefully decide whether or not she would make an intervention.

One of Coe’s recent publications, Tyrell.

Throughout the interview, we asked her many questions about the effect that seeing the extreme cases had on her personally, as well as details about the different scenarios and what steps she took to intervene when needed. Coe told us specifics about several of the most intense cases she saw, and really shocked us with the scary realities of how intense abuse and neglect can be. She described horrifying cases, about parents raping their children, other parents purposely failing to provide their child with basic necessities, and many other wicked forms of abuse and neglect. Listening to her talk about her past experiences as an ACS worker was very inspiring and the more she shared, the more I began to look up to her. Her job was very difficult, due to having to view scary realities every day and make tricky decisions about them, and she managed to do it successfully. In doing so, Coe created safer lives for many children who were at harm in their own homes. Overall, from the interview, I took away new and crucial information about the high intensity levels at which abuse and neglect can get to, as well as what is being done and what can be done to stop it.