Canada -- Foster child complained about treatment in care

Foster child complained about treatment in care
Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, October 31, 2007

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...d2d8d5&k=96444

PRINCE GEORGE -- A jury at a coroner's inquest heard shocking
allegations Tuesday from a former foster child who said he was struck
over the head with a wooden spoon so hard it broke, he was put in cold
showers fully clothed as punishment and sometimes went without food for
four days in a local foster home.

The allegations were in a statement by the child, identified only as
Child 46 to protect his identity, which was read into the record by
coroner's counsel Chris Godwin.

The child had complained about his treatment in the foster home of
Patricia Keene, who also looked after three-year-old Savannah Hall, who
was rushed to hospital on Jan. 24, 2001, and died two days later after
being transferred to B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver.


The inquest into Savannah's death has heard how the boy's complaint was
received by a social worker and an investigation was ordered Nov. 28,
2000, but it wasn't carried out until Savannah became gravely ill.

Usually an investigation would be launched within a day for a serious
allegation and should be completed within 30 days, but the standard of
the Ministry of Children and Family Development wasn't met in this case.

Former ministry social worker Katrina Ludwig testified she was assigned
to investigate the allegation of abuse and neglect, but she sent an
e-mail to her supervisor on Dec. 4, 2000, saying she was too busy.

Another social worker wasn't assigned to investigate the boy's complaint
until Jan. 25, 2001, and the boy was interviewed the next day. The
inquest was told the boy had put a blanket over his head while he was
being interviewed.

The boy, then in Grade 7, said he and his sister were both mistreated in
the Keene foster home. He said Pat Keene would hit him on the head,
hands and feet with a wooden spoon if he didn't do his chores.

"She hit me so hard on the head, it [the spoon] broke," the boy
recalled, adding his sister was also hit with the spoon.

He said he would be put in a downstairs bedroom that had no windows and
a bed with no blankets .

Pat Keene also gave the boy and his sister cold showers as punishment,
he said, recalling he was sometimes pushed in the shower fully clothed.

He also had his mouth washed out with soap if he didn't speak loudly
enough to be heard, according to the statement read in court.

He said he once bit Pat Keene while she was putting soap in his mouth
and she bit him back, advising him she could bite twice as hard.

He said he didn't want to tell anyone because he thought his foster
mother would get angry at him.

Coroner Scott Fleming warned the jury of five women to use caution in
assessing the statement of a child, who did not attend court to be
cross-examined.

The inquest also heard the testimony of Robert Watts, the regional
director of child welfare in the northern region, who outlined a series
of changes to the ministry made after Savannah's death.

He said there used to be one director of child welfare for B.C., based
in Victoria, but now directors are assigned to regions to oversee child
protection.

Peter Grant, the lawyer representing Savannah's birth mother, Corinna
Hall, at the inquest, asked Watts whether the investigation of Child 46
would "fall through the cracks today" as it did in 2000.

Watts said ministry staffing levels had improved in the north since
2001, and there are more team leaders to supervise smaller groups of
front-line social workers.

"I think the system we have now is better than we had before," he said,
but added under further questioning that he couldn't give an absolute
guarantee the system would protect all children.


Watts agreed with Grant that the ministry is the guardian of children in
foster care, who deserve protection.

"We are the guardians of these children and we owe them a very high
standard of care," he testified.

The inquest is expected to hear the testimony of the foster mother today.

Earlier Tuesday, a doctor who examined Savannah Hall at B.C. Children's
Hospital before the child died, testified she was concerned about
bruising on the child and the fact that there was massive brain swelling.

"I was concerned about the location of some of the bruises," Dr. Jean
Hlady, one of the province's top experts in child abuse, recalled.

Hlady said she examined the girl on Jan. 25, 2001, a day after she had
been admitted to the emergency department of the hospital in Prince George.

After the child was transferred to Children's Hospital in Vancouver,
Hlady interviewed the foster mother, who reported the child had had a
mild cold, had fallen twice the day she was admitted to hospital, and
wasn't feeling well, so was put in bed early.

Hlady recalled the child was initially admitted to hospital with massive
brain swelling, was comatose, had a very low temperature and a low salt
level.

"The history I was given didn't add up," the doctor recalled.

The child was determined to be brain-dead and life support was
discontinued on Jan. 26, 2001, and the child was declared dead when her
heart stopped, Hlady said.

(The girl's birth mother, who was in court for the testimony, wiped
tears from her eyes as the doctor described the end of the girl's life.)

Hlady said she was still puzzled by the case to this day.

The inquest, now in its second week, is trying to determine the facts
surrounding the little girl's death and has heard that the ministry had
received a series of allegations about mistreatment of foster children
in the home.

The inquest jury is expected to make recommendations to try to prevent a
similar death.