Wichita, kansas: Family's case illustrates SRS dilemma

Family's case illustrates SRS dilemma
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/story/267234.html

Since 2004, a Wichita father has contended that the state wrongly took
his two daughters, then 14 and 8, and put them in foster care for
several months.

Things got worse when his 14-year-old daughter contracted a sexually
transmitted disease twice and became pregnant while in foster care, he said.

A joint legislative committee has recently proposed paying him $16,850
as reimbursement for expenses he incurred fighting the state.

His children were returned to him and his wife in 2005.

The case raises the question of whether the state, in investigating
alleged child abuse, is sometimes too quick to take steps removing
children from homes, said state Rep. Steve Huebert, R-Valley Center.

Legislative committees dealing with child protection issues should also
review the case, said Huebert, chairman of the Special Claims Against
the State Committee. The panel voted to pay the Wichita father from the
budget to be considered in the upcoming legislative session.

The system has to be a balancing act, Huebert said, between protecting
children and preserving families.

In 2006, SRS received criticism for not acting faster to help remove two
young girls from a Wichita home where they had been systematically starved.

A spanking

The father said he and his wife lost their two daughters for several
months after he spanked his then 13-year-old daughter in February 2004.
The belt he used left minor bruises on her legs, he said.

The Eagle is withholding the father's name to protect the identity of
his daughters.

He said he spanked his daughter as a last resort to keep her from seeing
a man who was 20 or 21 at the time. The same man gave her the sexually
transmitted disease, the father alleges.

She later became pregnant, at 14, after having sex with that man and
another man while in foster care, he said. It's not clear who
impregnated her, he said.

Because of the spanking and the marks, his two daughters were initially
taken to the Wichita Children's Home for six days before being returned
to their parents' home, he said. They were later taken again and put
into foster care after the older daughter ran away.

The father said he received some vindication in March in a letter from
Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and
Rehabilitation Services.

In the March 3 letter, a copy of which the father provided to The Eagle,
Jordan wrote: "You will be receiving a formal notice of action
indicating that, at my direction, the substantiated finding of physical
abuse has been changed to unsubstantiated. The reality is that today,
based on the facts of your case, there would not be a substantiated
finding. Today agency policy clearly distinguishes between an isolated
incident of inappropriate discipline and physical abuse. Your story
demonstrates the correctness of this change. The fact that you never
again used corporal punishment in the ongoing effort to protect your
daughter from her own immaturity is a credit to you.

"... I applaud your courage in coming forward with your concerns," the
letter says.

SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce confirmed that Jordan sent the letter but
said that the letter should be considered in context:

Although SRS investigates child-abuse allegations, a decision to remove
children from a home rests with law enforcement or a judge, Ponce said.

SRS uses a finding of "substantiated" or "unsubstantiated" abuse to
determine if someone is placed on the Child Abuse and Neglect Central
Registry, used by potential employers or licensing agencies doing
background checks.

The policy referred to in the SRS secretary's letter to the father was
established in July 2004 and did not stem directly from the father's
case, she said.

"We don't make any policy changes based on a single case," she said.

A runaway

In late 2004, the father said, his older daughter ran away with the man
she had been involved with. That prompted the parents to let police put
their daughter in a juvenile detention facility -- so she couldn't run
away again.

"I thought my prayers were answered," the father said. "I thought I
didn't have to worry about this guy messing with my daughter anymore."

Around the same time, he was frustrated that authorities weren't
prosecuting the man he alleges was involved with his daughter, he said.

If prosecutors had intervened, he said, he wouldn't have resorted to
spanking his daughter.

"She was continuing to have sex with that guy," the father said. "That's
why she got the spanking."

Kim Parker, Sedgwick County's chief deputy district attorney, said
confidentiality issues limit what prosecutors can say.

Asked to respond to the father's criticism, Parker said: "We cannot
proceed with a criminal prosecution when an alleged victim refuses to
give information and there is no independent corroboration."

Foster care

Also in late 2004, the father said, authorities moved his older daughter
into foster care and placed his younger daughter in protective custody,
then foster care -- citing the February spanking and his older
daughter's running away.

His younger daughter stayed in foster care from September 2004 to March
2005, he said. His older daughter was in foster care from September 2004
to August 2005.

Both daughters have been back home with their parents since 2005.

"They're doing great," he said.

During the period his daughters were in foster care, the state charged
him $9,500 for child support. He struggled to raise the money, he said.

He said he lost a second job, which paid a gross income of about
$20,000, because he had to attend visitation with his daughters and
court-ordered anger-management classes.

State's reimbursement

Meanwhile, the father says the proposed reimbursement of $16,850 is not
enough, calling it "a slap in the face."

Based on earlier discussion by legislators and state officials, he said,
he thought the amount could be at least $43,000.

"A million dollars for what they (the state) did to me still wouldn't be
enough," the father said.

More important than the money, he said, is airing his concerns so "that
the truth be told."

Huebert, the Valley Center legislator, said of the father's case:
"There's empathy for what he went through."

SRS has "acknowledged that they erred on the side of caution, and they
went too far," Huebert said.

After holding three hearings on the case since September, the panel
proposed awarding the father $16,850 as part of the 2008 budget
legislation. Of that amount, $9,500 would come from SRS to repay the man
for child support he was ordered to pay to the state, Huebert said.

The rest of the money would partially reimburse the father for his
expenses dealing with his case.

Told of the father's criticism of the proposed reimbursement, Huebert
said: "This is in no way considered to be a slap in the face.... We were
wanting to make things right as best we can. We want to acknowledge the
pain and suffering that his family has been through."

In his three years serving on the committee, Huebert said, he can't
remember hearing another case like the father's.

The panel hears grievances or claims against the state after people have
already sought remedies through agencies or the courts, Huebert said.

He said he has requested of the House leadership that committees dealing
with SRS and children's welfare address the man's case "so hopefully we
would not let this happen again."

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or .





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...