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Arizona - It's high time that CPS, police communicate
It's high time that CPS, police communicate
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...berts0123.html Jan. 23, 2008 12:00 AM One of the last people to see Brandon Williams alive was a Pima County sheriff's deputy. She had been assigned to check on him and his mother last March at the request of the boy's grandfather. While there, the deputy saw the bandages on the 5-year-old autistic boy's legs and heard the mother's explanation that he'd fallen into a cactus. She was suspicious enough that she sent a report to Child Protective Services. CPS got it - seven days after Brandon was beaten to death. What that sheriff's deputy didn't know was that CPS had been looking for the boy the previous fall, worried that he might be in danger due to his mother's increasingly bizarre behavior. A caseworker even asked the sheriff's office for help one day when she spotted mother and son in a car. But the car got away and CPS gave up looking and word never trickled down to the officers on the street. Brandon died the day after that sheriff's deputy saw him, beaten, police say, by his mother and a friend. Brandon died because CPS couldn't find him and the police, who could, didn't know caseworkers were looking for him. Now there's a bill in the Legislature to correct that absurdity, one of seven aimed at shoring up the agency that represents the last thin line of defense for children in this state. "The biggest thing is opening up records," said House Government Chairman Kirk Adams, who with Rep. Jonathan Paton is leading the push for reform. "We believe that more openness and transparency leads to more accountability. When people are being watched they do things in the right way and when there's a veil of secrecy, you see a system that doesn't operate in the right way." Among their proposals is one that would require CPS to notify police when they can't find a child they consider to be in danger, so that maybe when an officer encounters a boy like Brandon, she'll know not to walk away. Paton says 400 to 700 children go missing on the agency's watch every year, yet CPS has no system in place to ask police for help. "It was easier for me in Iraq for Coalition forces to communicate with Iraqi police than it is for CPS to communicate with the cops, apparently," he said. Another bill would open disciplinary files of state employees, so that maybe supervisors will think twice before looking the other way when a caseworker helps an abusive father hang on to his kids, and then starts dating him. Another would require CPS to obtain and abide by court orders, so that maybe caseworkers don't tell police to leave children with a father denied custody because he was violent. So that maybe kids like Ariana and Tyler Payne live long enough to make it to kindergarten. But the most important of the bills, by far, is the one that would open CPS records in cases when a child dies of abuse or nearly so. This newspaper had to sue to find out what happened to Brandon and Tyler and Ariana. State law bars CPS from releasing the records, due to privacy. Why a dead child needs privacy is beyond me. I can see, however, why CPS might want it. The law has for far too long allowed bureaucrats to hide their foul-ups and failures to follow through. Even now, this newspaper is headed back to court because CPS is contesting release of the full record of their involvement with 12-year-old Trenay Duchane, who was beaten, scalded and left to die in November. Maybe this is one of those cases, unlike with Brandon and Ariana and Tyler, where CPS did all it could. Maybe no one could have saved Trenay. But there's no way to know if we can't see the records and history suggests that there's no way CPS will mend the holes that let children fall to their graves if we don't find a way to lift that well-worn rug they're standing on. You know, to see what they've swept under the thing. Reach Roberts at laurie or 602-444-8635. Read her blog at robertsblog.azcentral.com. CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS.... CPS Does not protect children... It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of Child Protective Services. every parent should read this .pdf from connecticut dcf watch... http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US These numbers come from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN) Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS *Perpetrators of Maltreatment* Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59 Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13 Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241 Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12 Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5 Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per 100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a bunch of social workers. CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON... BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION... "SAVE THE FAMILY AND YOU SAVE THE CHILD" |
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