WESTFIELD — When Westfield High School English teacher Jill Keenan started this school year with 15 duffel bags stuffed with plush towels, blankets and toiletries for students in foster care, she wasn’t sure how long the supply would last.
By the beginning of this month, she had her answer — half of the bags were gone, given to students plucked from their homes and tossed into foster care with little or no warning.
“They have a blanket they can call their own, that they can bring with them to sleep on a couch or a bed that’s not familiar,” Keenan recently told The Republican.
“This is made to (smooth) their transition. They might be getting pulled from one place to another very rapidly,” she said.
It is one of the most extreme emergencies students can face — and they are usually the la