She most certainly could not go to school, as the superintendent, principal, and head of special education in her school district were all aware.
“For the past two and a half years of her life, she was in and out of the hospital,” her mother, Martha, said. “She went from being this chatterbox to not talking at all.”
But someone else at the school nevertheless dropped Lisa from enrollment after seeing she had been absent since spring 2012, when she suffered a stroke. By October 2014, Martha was told by the state of Michigan that her application for welfare was denied—because her daughter wasn’t going to school.
“I checked my [benefits] card monthly to see how much I would have, and thought, Why is my amount less? Then I got a letter in the mail,” Martha told The Daily Beast. (She asked that she and her daughter be allowed to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy.)
Michigan kicked Martha, Lisa, and her two siblings off welfare.
“They’re supposed to be a help department, but I think they actually hurt you more than help you,” Martha said. “I don’t want her death to be in vain. If her situation can help another family, I really want it to be done. I hate to have anyone go through what I went through.”