If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Is it abuse or bad parenting?
Is it abuse or bad parenting?
BY LIZ STEVENS Knight Ridder Newspapers FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - The caller spoke calmly, but her request was urgent. A 5-month-old baby girl was in danger. On the other end of the phone line, an intake specialist for Child Protective Services asked for details: Had CPS been involved before? In what way was the infant at risk? The caller explained: The baby's 19-year-old mother, abandoned by the child's father, had talked about smothering the infant. The mother would leave the child with the baby's godmother even on days when she had nothing to do. And today, the caller said, the mother was especially on edge. "If (the baby) came home right now," the caller relayed, "it would be a problem." The phone call lasted 15 minutes; a report was made, a CPS investigator immediately dispatched. In the end, the child was removed from the home. This wasn't a typical call to the Texas Child Protective Services' statewide intake office in Austin: The person making it was the baby's own mother - reporting herself. The vast majority of calls to the CPS hot line come from people who can only guess at whether a child is being abused or neglected, or is about to be. So how do you know when to make the call? After all, parenting is a highly subjective topic. Some mothers and fathers spank, some leave their children alone in the house after school, some don't pay much attention to their kid's dirty face and fingernails. One person's definition of effective child-rearing may be another person's definition of bad parenting and still another person's definition of abuse. "And there's also the worry that you don't really want to get into anybody's else's business," acknowledges LouAnn Pressler, a prevention educator at the Parenting Center in Fort Worth. But Pressler, like other children's advocates, views the issue of when to call CPS as black and white. "The law is very clear," she says. "If you see it, hear it, suspect it - report it." In Texas, state law defines abuse and neglect in the Texas Family Code. And CPS follows the letter of that law when determining whether to investigate an alleged case of either. Certain situations meet definitions in the code and certain ones don't, says CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. In and of itself, spanking does not meet the code. Head lice does not meet code. And a family whose electricity has been turned off is not necessarily abusing its children, Meisner says. "Again, all of these are in and of themselves," she adds. "It's very important to remember that we look at risk, and if you have 10 of these (risk factors) . . . then certainly we look at the whole picture." In 2003, CPS received 186,160 reports of alleged abuse or neglect of children. Twenty percent of those calls came from school-district employees, 15 percent came from medical professionals, 13 percent came from law enforcement personnel and 12 percent from relatives. The rest were a combination of calls from friends, parents, the victims themselves, child-care facilities and anonymous sources. Most of those calls came through the statewide hot line in Austin, where up to 100 intake specialists at a time staff the phone lines, says Pam Chick, statewide intake program administrator. It's these folks who decide whether a report meets the criteria for abuse and neglect and assign the case a priority depending on its urgency. The intake specialists receive three weeks of classroom training. They learn state law, CPS policies and how to interview callers to get the information that they need. They spend several days listening in on calls made to the hot line. And they spend a period of time taking calls with a supervisor's help. The calls they handle can be as easy as providing a referral phone number or as difficult as "a long, drawn-out, multi-family, multi-dynamic" situation, says four-year intake specialist Eric Semlear. Most of the everyday people who use the hot line (i.e. nonprofessionals) aren't sure what CPS needs to know, he notes. The caller might say, "I saw this kid, and this kid was dirty, and the house was filthy," Semlear says. "But we can't go by adjectives . . . so we try to (get them to) be as specific as we can about what's going on. 'When you say dirty, can you describe that, tell me what it looked like?' " "There can be some emotionally heavy lifting in what we do," he adds. Texas law states that "any person" who thinks a child might be abused or neglected is required to report it. But individuals who work directly with children - school-district employees, mental-health and medical providers, and day-care workers - "can be reprimanded up to termination," says Meisner, for failing to do so within 48 hours of first having suspicions. "It's a hard call, and I want to tell you that we have many times done it," says Nancy Cotten, director at All Saints Episcopal Hospital Fort Worth Child Care and Learning Center. In a day-care situation, Cotten says, teachers might see children act out their experiences in play and/or talk about things that might merit calling CPS. "It can be violent and it can be of a sexual nature," she notes. But Cotten says she never places a call to CPS "lightly." "It is so hard because what happens is that it just turns the parents' world upside down," she says. At the 38 day-care centers run by Child Care Associates in Fort Worth, which provides subsidized day care for at-risk families, teachers begin the day with a "morning health check," says Bob Duke, vice president for direct-care services. It's "no more than a real quick, warm hug of the child, feel body temperature, rub their hand across the (child's) back and see whether they flinch," Duke explains. All employees of the Fort Worth school district receive a "safety management procedures flip chart" from Director of Health Services Jackie Thompson at the start of the school year. The chart includes a section with Texas Family Code definitions of abuse and neglect, and stresses to employees their responsibility to call CPS, whether they are a custodian or a principal. You can risk making a family uncomfortable and embarrassed, "or a child can be abused and end up sustaining bodily injury," Thompson says. "If in doubt, call it in," adds Meisner, a former CPS caseworker. "If you truly believe that a child is being abused or neglected, if you don't necessarily know what meets the criteria for abuse or neglect, put that burden on CPS." http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssen...8693383.htm%3E Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
| | Kids should work... | Kane | General | 13 | December 10th 03 02:30 AM |
| | Kids should work... | Kane | Spanking | 12 | December 10th 03 02:30 AM |
Kids should work. | LaVonne Carlson | General | 22 | December 7th 03 04:27 AM |
Kids should work. | ChrisScaife | Foster Parents | 16 | December 7th 03 04:27 AM |