Studied to death

Studied to death

http://www.starbanner.com/article/20...4/1008/OPINION

Another child, another task force. Or maybe two. Last week, the
13-member Task Force on Child Protection, a group of judges, police and
child welfare advocates appointed by Florida Department of Children and
Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, went to work to discover how
2-year-old Courtney Clark slipped through the agency's cracks.

Courtney was missing for four months before anyone noticed. She was
recently found in Wisconsin unharmed but amid a gruesome scene of
torture and murder, in which her mother has been arrested as a suspect.

Besides Butterworth, Democratic leaders in the Legislature also want
answers. Citing Courtney's case, House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber and
his Senate counterpart, Sen. Nan H. Rich, have asked Republican leaders
to name a special committee of lawmakers to investigate DCF's role and
that of the community-based care agencies that had oversight. Such
groups were the prominent feature of former Gov. Jeb Bush's efforts to
improve child welfare services through privatization.

In a depressing turn that goes beyond Courtney, both lawmakers support
their argument by citing the cases of Ian Garrick and Stephanie
Dorismond. Garrick, a 42-year-old Miami man, is charged with molesting
an 11-year-old girl and raping an 8-year-old girl in the care of his
girlfriend, a foster parent; 15-year-old Stephanie of Miami was beaten
to death, reportedly by a 36-year-old man she lived with. News reports
say Stephanie's family was long afflicted by violent child abuse and
behavioral and mental health issues, but that a DCF investigator who
learned she had run away two years ago did nothing to alert anyone to
search for her.

House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate President Ken Pruitt should heed
the lawmakers' request and convene a committee to work with
Butterworth's panel. In Courtney's case specifically, lingering,
unsettling questions need to be answered.

The Sarasota Family YMCA, DCF's private contractor, managed Courtney.
The youngster was sent to live with a Lake County family after her
mother, Candice Clark, was arrested on fraud charges. Clark later
kidnapped the girl but child welfare authorities failed to report her
disappearance until four months later. Why?

Secondly, Courtney's aunt Stacye Scarborough, who lives in Ocklawaha,
had been petitioning DCF for a year for custody of the little girl and
her younger sisters. Why did Scarborough's request apparently go
unaddressed? Why was she dismissed in favor of the Lake County family,
reportedly Clark's friends, when DCF's priority is to keep families
together when at all possible?

If you sense resignation in our comments, you'd be right. We sincerely
hope Butterworth's panel and state lawmakers, if they actually form an
investigative team, will succeed in closing loopholes that will lead to
real reform. But we, as a state, have been here before.

In 2002, Bush created a blue ribbon panel to investigate and recommend
reforms for DCF after 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared from her
custodial home. The Miami youngster had been missing for 15 months
before DCF discovered she was missing. Two years ago, a woman who was
Rilya's caregiver was charged in her murder.

The committee's chairman, former Miami Herald publisher David Lawrence
Jr., noted in the final report that since 1985 DCF had been investigated
11 times by a governor-appointed task forces and five times by grand
juries picked by prosecutors. Moreover, Lawrence wrote, during the
previous 33 years the Legislature had mandated that DCF be reorganized
22 times.

Yet despite all that turmoil, which would prove fatal to almost any
other outfit, DCF had managed to implement a "great majority" of the
recommendations made after all those investigations, Lawrence wrote.

DCF also supported the ones that weren't as goals, but couldn't take
action because they were either the purview of the judicial system or
because "the Legislature either did not pass the required implementing
law or did not provide the necessary funding," Lawrence noted. Why
doesn't that surprise us? He added that allegations DCF ignored all that
advice were "manifestly untrue."

"When a child dies, is injured, neglected, or abused in the state's
care, it is everybody's responsibility," Gelber wrote to Rubio. So true.
But except for appointing another task force and writing more useless
recommendations, when are we going to do anything about it? And how many
more children will suffer in the process?





CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

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

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS 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...