Real Life Issues
Harrison Forlines
Mental Illnes
In the article it states that "Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by severe, unstable mood swings, impulsivity and instability, poor self-image and stormy relationships." This relates to Jeannette's father because He is always disappearing for days and he drinks all the time and argues with Rose Mary a lot.
Parenting
A parent can also lose his or her parental rights after being convicted of certain felonies. This applies to Jeanettes parents because they could have been convicted of neglect to the kids because they could not provide properly for their kids.
School Attendance Laws
Truancy is a child's willful absence without lawful excuse from one or more class periods on seven different school days. This applies to Jeanette and the others except they couldn't get to school because of other reasons like there parents. They mostly had to take care of their basic needs wich comes before school.
Alcoholism
"One type of alcoholic is the belligerent type who is verbally abusive and is consistently looking for an argument. The recipient of these attacks is exposed to high degrees of verbal and emotional abuse." This applies to Rex because he would stay gone for days at a time at bars getting drunk. When he would come heme he would be destructive like when he destroyed the Christmas tree. He would also say inappropriate things to his family and he liked to pick fights wherever he went.
Civil Disobedience
"On this account, people who engage in civil disobedience are willing to accept the legal consequences of their actions, as this shows their fidelity to the rule of law."
This applies to Rex and Rose Mary because they don't follow any laws or live by any standard rules. They don't care that they are homeless or that most of the things that they do are illegal like taking someone out of the hospital without checking out.
Homelessness
I think that the government cold have provided an affordable house and could have provided Rex and Rose Mary with a job and the kids with food or they could have taken them to a different family because they are bad parents.