Pull incompetents off the child-protection beat

Pull incompetents off the child-protection beat

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: August 3rd, 2007 01:00 AM

http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/story/124826.html


Two terrible child-abuse cases this summer had made the Children’s
Administration of DSHS look bad enough. A new one makes it look even worse.

In June, The News Tribune documented the horrifying case of a girl who
was apparently tortured at the hands of her foster mother for 10 years –
despite numerous complaints to Child Protective Services.

That was followed almost immediately by a report that an adoptive mother
had starved and beaten children for many years, leaving a 7-year-old
dead in 2005 – weighing 28 pounds. Again, DSHS caseworkers had failed to
pick up on a pattern of cruelty.

Those cases involved some abuse complaints from years ago. Recent
reforms – like responding far more rapidly to reports of mistreatment –
might conceivably have made a difference.

But there’s no such excuse for a very recent blunder involving a
12-year-old South Hill boy. According to police, the boy told them he’d
been brutally tormented for years by his step-grandmother, who shared
custody of him with his maternal grandfather.

The abuse, he said, included beating his soles until he couldn’t walk,
scalding him with hot water and scratching his legs with a fork – then
pouring vinegar into the wounds. He also said that his grandfather had
recently punched him in the stomach for leaving a leaf blower on the
garage floor.

That’s another case of abuse reports – some of them from schools – going
unheeded for years. But even after CPS workers seemingly wised up and
pulled the boy from his grandparents’ “care” last June, they were
appallingly oblivious to his predicament. They actually returned him to
the home. The boy was rescued only when Pierce County sheriff’s deputies
found out that he was back there; they took him into protective custody.
The grandfather and stepgrandmother now face charges of assaulting a child.

This week, sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer asked a good question: When
people suspect a child is being abused, why don’t they call the police
instead of CPS, given this kind of performance?

Certainly the police should be involved quickly when reports of abuse
come in. Gregoire on Wednesday said she has ordered DSHS to come up with
clear guidelines on how to do that.

The larger question is why some supposedly professional caseworkers are
still making such appalling errors of judgment.

As Gregoire noted, legions of caseworkers won’t do any good if they
don’t have the sense to recognize when a child is in grave peril and do
something serious about it.

Once again, DSHS officials are talking about a “system” that failed. But
this system consists of people. When those people fail so disastrously,
they need to be disciplined, reassigned, shown the door – whatever it
takes to remove incompetents from the job of protecting children.





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...