Child Protective Services, CPS, has devastated and destroyed hundreds of thousands of families in America during the last thirty years leaving a trail of broken hearts, broken dreams, and shattered childhoods.
Rather than helping families, government agents have used unconstitutional laws in Juvenile Court to rip children away from their loving parents, break asunder God-given, natural, parent-child bonds, and adopt the children of the grieving out to others who profit financially with large monthly adoption subsidy payments.
Child Protective Services must be stopped! The law that started this, CAPTA, must be repealed. We must work tirelessly to inform the public of this very dangerous travesty of justice. We must keep faith knowing that if there is a God, there is an answer and a way to end this heartache.
Child Protective Services Agents - please come to your senses! Family destruction on false or trivial grounds is wrong, reprehensible, and inhumane.
Fosterers - be aware that for the money you get you are holding much-loved children away from their grieving families while the parents are forced to perform a service plan that is anything but a service to them. I call this hostage holding for the government. This is not kindness - to help misguided government agents destroy family relationships and break loving bonds.
CPS workers and fosterers - I ask that you now give up these unworthy professions and find something more dignified to do with your lives. Let the children of the innocent return to their homes where they are truly valued, adored, and loved by the parents God gave them.
Family rights are God-given rights. And they should not be ignored or postponed. Every moment these loving parents and children spend separated from one another is a torment beyond what anyone should ever have to bear.
It is unworthy of human dignity to allow this terrorism and torture of families to go on without saying something, speaking out, and trying to make a change.
Site mission: To provide information and support for families attacked by Child Protective Services and child welfare agents, especially those families facing false or trivial accusations of child abuse or neglect; and for researchers working to protect natural family rights.
ST. LOUIS - Democrat Claire McCaskill said Wednesday that as governor, she would overhaul Missouri's child protective services agency in ways that would help the state do a better job of safeguarding children.
McCaskill, the state auditor, said her plan draws on insights gleaned from past audits of the state's child abuse hot line and her experience as Jackson County prosecutor.
She said her plan, announced at a news conference here, would not require statutory changes, but change the way the agency runs. It emphasizes better training of child abuse workers, classification of cases and management of caseloads, along with improving communication with schools, law enforcement and other partner agencies.
It calls for improvements to ensure abusers can be prosecuted, and more careful monitoring of abuse cases that need family services.
"We will put more resources into the agency, and we will make progress every year," McCaskill said.
McCaskill in April released an audit report on the handling of abuse cases in Jackson and Greene counties and the city of St. Louis in 2003 - a follow-up to her office's child abuse hot line report in December 2000.
She found that improvements had been made, but that response to child abuse hot line calls was still too slow, complex cases lacked sufficient followup and monitoring, and that worker training was lacking, resulting in 40 percent of cases of substantiated abuse being overturned for poor investigation and documentation.
McCaskill would correct that by training workers in how to screen, assess and investigate cases and provide enough caseworkers and supervisors to monitor complex cases.
McCaskill said she'd lower caseloads to more manageable levels - and prevent caseworker burnout, turnover and mistakes - by assigning difficult cases to more experienced workers, instituting better management practices and reducing attrition through financial and professional rewards for outstanding performance.
McCaskill's plan also calls for:
-Creating settings statewide to conduct interviews with children apart from the alleged abuser or other influential people.
-Continually identifying best practices in the nation to implement in Missouri.
-Identifying trained specialists to work with prosecutors and caseworkers on investigations.
-Assigning a liaison to law enforcement, social services, the child's advocate and family courts to ensure the child's best interest is being served.
-Establishing a link among juvenile court, schools and child protective services to detect early signs of abuse or neglect, and track and monitor an at-risk child.
-Working to meet federal standards, including seven deficient areas regarding safe and stable placement of children in foster care. The state could lose $1.5 million in federal funding if it doesn't fix its system for caring for abused and neglected children.
A spokesman for Republican Matt Blunt's gubernatorial campaign said Blunt would "aggressively pursue and penalize abusers" of children and seniors.
John Hancock said that as state auditor, McCaskill has not produced an action in pursuit of child abusers and "clearly did not follow through on her campaign promise (in 1998) to stop payments to bad nursing home operations."
McCaskill said the auditor's job is to point out problems in government, and it's the officeholder's responsibility to take action. "That's the reason I'm running for governor," she said.
She said she is a champion of nursing home reform, and as governor will make them even safer.
I have quoted the New Freedom Commission's final report on my legislative alert page and have the entire final report linked there.
"If ever there existed a reason for citizens to rise up against the governing elite, this is such a cause. It is imperative that the citizens of this state recognize both the folly and offensive nature of this program."
- M. Dennis Paul, PhD
I suggest you take time soon to write to your legislators to let them know your feelings about the New Freedom Initiative. Write letters to the editors of your newspapers too. It is important to let people know what's being perpetrated against the people of the United States.
California: Baby permanently disabled by drugging in foster home
This was a crime perpetrated against a five-month-old baby in Los Angeles County fosterincarceration eight years ago. Why in God's name were doctors prescribing psychotropic drugs to a baby? The fosterer, Lynette Harms of Carpenteria, recently pled no-contest to felony negligent child endangerment. Get this: the woman still has custody of her children adopted out of fosterincarceration including the older sister of the child she negligently injured, and she will not be doing prison time. Now you know if any of us natural parents were to commit a crime like this we'd lose our kids and be in prison too. Where's the justice? -LJM
"Baby S's body contained an array of powerful medications - including phenobarbital, Xanax, Prozac, Depakote and clonidine..."
By DAWN HOBBS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
December 20, 2003
(The original case was in 2000)
Expressing regret for criticizing Los Angeles child welfare authorities at his Michael Jackson press conference, District Attorney Tom Sneddon said Friday his comments were triggered by their handling of a lesser-known child endangerment case he personally plans to prosecute - not by the Jackson matter.
The case involves a girl who fell into a coma after allegedly being overmedicated by her foster mother, Carpinteria resident Lynette Harms, and while under the supervision of Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services. Mr. Sneddon said in an interview that it was the Harms case that was on his mind Thursday when he took a public jab at the agency, as reporters asked him about DCFS's finding in the Jackson matter.
"As I was answering that question I was thinking about this case," he told the News-Press. "This kid is a vegetable and there was an $8 million civil judgment."
In the interview, Mr. Sneddon added that he regretted assailing the Los Angeles officials before a worldwide audience as he announced felony child molestation charges against Mr. Jackson.
"I should have just shut up," he said.
A telephone request for comment from the department was not returned.
On Jan. 26, Mr. Sneddon is set to try a child endangerment case against Ms. Harms, who is accused of overmedicating a 3-year-old foster child in her care. Court papers say the child, identified as Baby S, fell into a coma in January 1999 after receiving an array of powerful anti-seizure and psychotropic medications from the woman.
The child now lives in a specialized care facility in Ventura County and, according to the prosecution, suffered brain damage as a result of the medication. She was originally placed in Ms. Harms' care by the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services and that agency was among several defendants - including Ms. Harms, her roommate Julie Smith and the child's doctors - who settled the multimillion-dollar civil suit on Baby S's behalf. The money went to a trust fund for the girl's care.
Mr. Sneddon alleges that Ms. Harms drugged the baby to get higher disability payments from the state and lied to doctors in order to receive multiple prescriptions.
But Ms. Harms and her defense team swear by her innocence, saying there is ample proof that Baby S, like the four other special-needs children that Ms. Harms has adopted - including Baby S's sister - suffered from severe medical problems due to prenatal exposure to methamphetamine and other drugs.
They argue that Ms. Harms has been made a scapegoat for the agencies and doctors that oversaw the child's welfare, in order to deflect blame from themselves.
Mr. Sneddon apparently was thinking about that case when reporters pressed him on a DCFS memo stating claims of child abuse against Mr. Jackson were unfounded. He told an international media contingent gathered at the Santa Maria courthouse that the inquiry amounted to an "interview" and didn't qualify as an investigation.
Mark Geragos, Mr. Jackson's attorney, lashed out at the district attorney for denigrating the skills of the Los Angeles investigators. Commentators worldwide quickly picked up on Mr. Sneddon's jab.
On Friday, Mr. Sneddon repeated the sentiments he expressed a day earlier about the Jackson case: "It wasn't an investigation - it was an interview. They did nothing. "
Los Angeles authorities launched their investigation on Feb. 14 after a school official called a hot line and raised suspicions of child molestation. The school official said he had seen a BBC documentary aired Feb. 6 on ABC's "20/20" that showed Mr. Jackson and a boy holding hands. In it, Mr. Jackson says during visits at his Neverland Valley Ranch he let the boy sleep in his bed and slept on the floor.
The Los Angeles authorities then interviewed the boy and his family, who told them no molestation had occurred. The allegations were deemed unfounded and the case was closed Feb. 27.
"But it wasn't an investigation," Mr. Sneddon insisted Friday. "An investigation is when you talk to people and do follow-up on information and take into consideration the circumstances of who was present when all of that occurred.
"They interviewed the kids and the parents all together," he added. "They didn't separate them out. I don't know the particular people, but I would be willing to bet the investigators were not trained in these types of interviews. They were staffers sent out to interview the family because the kids hadn't been in school."
After Mr. Sneddon scoffed at the Los Angeles investigation Thursday in Santa Maria, Mr. Geragos told the News-Press he was shocked the district attorney would undermine the efforts of skilled investigators who spent considerable time on the case.
"I'm flabbergasted by this campaign of us versus them," Mr. Geragos said. "I don't understand this L.A. versus Santa Barbara divisiveness. It's just absolutely stunning to me."
The only reason Santa Barbara authorities went ahead with their own investigation and, now, the filing of charges, Mr. Geragos said, is because "they have an ax to grind."
Initially, Mr. Geragos said the District Attorney's Office was out for "revenge," referring to a 1993 child molestation investigation Mr. Sneddon had against Mr. Jackson that crumbled when a settlement was reached with the accuser's family in a simultaneous civil suit.
On Friday, Mr. Geragos said: "The L.A. authorities might have accepted his apology, but it doesn't appear to be an apology. It's a further condemnation of an agency and all of its hard-working people with a sweeping generalization. The people involved in this case had nothing to do with the case he's talking about. It's the ultimate mixing of apples and oranges."
News-Press staff writer Rhonda Parks Manville contributed to this report. Dawn Hobbs can be reached by e-mail at dhobbs@newspress.com.
By RHONDA PARKS MANVILLE
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
December 21, 2003
As Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon prepares a child molestation case against Michael Jackson, the veteran prosecutor is readying for another trial involving a child, Baby S.
Both cases were at one point under review by investigators from the Los Angeles Department of Children and Families. And in both cases, Los Angeles County authorities had made decisions about the cases before Mr. Sneddon got involved. He said L.A. County authorities did a poor job in both.
The cases have another similarity: Mr. Sneddon rarely tries his office's cases, typically trying only one case a year. And though he has attorney Ron Zonen helping with the Jackson case, Mr. Sneddon is personally handling it and the Baby S case.
In the Jackson case, Mr. Sneddon will try to show that L.A. County's Department of Children and Family Services was wrong when its investigators concluded on Feb. 27 that the molestation allegations of a then-13-year-old boy were unfounded.
In a press conference Thursday, Mr. Sneddon derided the Los Angeles agency for finding no merit to the latest child molestation allegations against the pop star and proceeded to file nine felony counts, seven of them involving sex abuse.
In the endangerment case of Baby S, Mr. Sneddon will try to show that Los Angeles child welfare officials were negligent when they allowed the baby, who was born to a drug addict, to be taken into the home of Carpinteria foster mother Lynette Harms.
In People v. Harms, set for trial Jan. 26 before Superior Court Judge Thomas Adams, Mr. Sneddon will try to prove that the foster mother intentionally drugged Baby S in order to receive higher disability payments for the child's care. Ms. Harms' defense team strenuously denies this.
He will also try to prove that Ms. Harms suffers from "Munchausen syndrome by proxy," in which individuals are compelled to invent illnesses or injuries for another person in order to fulfill a hidden need in themselves.
In previous interviews, Ms. Harms and her attorneys maintained her innocence and said they look forward to going to trial to prove it.
Ms. Harms brought Baby S to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in a coma on Jan. 7, 1999. The child was 3 years old and near death. Subsequent tests showed that Baby S's body contained an array of powerful medications - including phenobarbital, Xanax, Prozac, Depakote and clonidine - that likely caused an overdose.
Baby S has been characterized by the prosecution as severely brain-damaged ever since. She now lives in a special care facility in Ventura, which is paid for by an $8 million trust fund that came from a settlement in a civil lawsuit against Los Angeles County, the doctors and the pharmacies that filled her prescriptions, Ms. Harms and her roommate Julie Smith, and the dependency attorneys that handled her case.
Ms. Harms' defense lawyers, Patrick Smith of Burbank and Margaret Oppel of Santa Barbara, have previously stated that Mr. Sneddon's case against the foster mother is seriously flawed because the evidence for it comes from agencies and doctors - including Los Angeles child welfare authorities - who heaped blame on the mother in an effort to deflect it from themselves.
The defense has argued that the baby, exposed in the womb to methamphetamine, alcohol and other drugs, was sick when Ms. Harms took her. Court records show that all of Ms. Harms' adoptive children have taken medications similar to those prescribed to Baby S to address a range of problems ranging from hyperactivity and failure to sleep, to hair pulling, head banging and compulsive self-injuring.
Ms. Harms has three disabled adopted children, including Baby S's older sister, all born to drug-addicted mothers, and she had hoped to adopt Baby S, as well.
In May, Ms. Harms pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment charges - against the advice of her attorneys. She took the plea bargain, she said, to spare her family the expense, publicity and stress of a trial.
But Judge Adams rejected the plea, leaving it unclear if he considered the punishment too lenient or too harsh.
After the hearing, Ms. Harms put her head in her arms and sobbed.
Mr. Sneddon said he agreed with the ruling, noting that he never would have agreed to the plea bargain if he had known that Ms. Harms planned to continue maintaining her innocence.
"I am not interested in someone pleading guilty who says she's not guilty," he said then, though a no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt. "That's what trials are for. We are ready and willing and gratified to go to trial."
In a surprise move Tuesday afternoon, Lynette Harms - the Carpinteria woman accused of overdosing her foster child with anti-depressants and tranquilizers - entered a plea of no contest to the felony counts of negligent child endangerment, thereby ending the emotionally charged trial that's been going on for six weeks and was expected to take three more months. Testimony to date included a doctor who said that the now eight-year-old foster child - who was brought to the hospital in a coma in January 1999 - was stuck developmentally at the level of a three-year-old. According to the plea bargain, Harms will avoid jail time unless she fails to adhere to the terms of the settlement, which will be made public at next month's sentencing, and will have the charges dropped to misdemeanors if she completes counseling and drug treatment.
I am deeply shocked at the outcome of the Lynette Harms trial. This woman gave a healthy baby an appalling array of pharmaceutical drugs, beginning with Phenobarbital, to keep her from crying at the age of five months. As any parent knows, babies do not cry because they lack drugs but because their needs are not being met. The fact that her drug-based approach to parenting was supported by Dr. Steven Clarke and Dr. Chris Elstner does not mean Harms is innocent of destroying the health and life of another human being. If these doctors share the responsibility for this crime, they should also be held accountable.
District Attorney Tom Sneddon believes that keeping Harms out of prison will "protect the kids" in her care. Considering her role in Oei Mae's liver failure and coma, the question arises as to the condition of these other children. The birth mother testified that Oei Mae's older sister, who was adopted by Harms, was also healthy at birth. What is this child's condition now? Considering her own problems, why should Harms be entrusted with children? Will the same system that failed Oei Mae protect them from Harms?
I met Oei Mae in 2003 while providing music therapy to children at her home for the disabled. Now when I hold her painfully thin body in my arms, it breaks my heart to see her frequent seizures and loss of consciousness as they alternate with moments of enthusiasm and joy. Even four years after the coma, she is frequently hospitalized and requires constant care. Oei Mae wants to live like any other 8-year-old girl, but she has been robbed of her future by incompetence, negligence, and greed.
This outrageous settlement appears to be motivated by Mr. Sneddon's desire to focus on the upcoming Michael Jackson trial. Will he also decide to protect the right of Jackson's children to their father instead of ensuring a just outcome?
LOS ANGELES - The county should pay $4 million to care for a child who was left severely brain-damaged because her foster mother fed her Prozac, Xanax and other drugs for years, a panel recommended.
The lawsuit settlement, if approved by the Board of Supervisors on Jan. 9, would be among the largest the county has ever paid to a single plaintiff, County Counsel Lloyd W. Pellman said. It was recommended Monday by the county claims board.
The money would provide overall care for the 4-year-old girl, who is in a round-the-clock care facility, said attorney Richard Voorhies, who filed the negligence lawsuit in Superior Court on the girl's behalf.
"What happened to this child was absolutely horrendous," Voorhies said.
- The Associated Press
In a memo to supervisors, county lawyers said the county failed to follow its own guidelines for supervising the girl, identified in legal papers as Baby S.
The girl, then 6 months old, was placed with Lynette Harms of Carpinteria in 1996. According to the lawsuit, Harms, who had adopted Baby S’s older sister, was a drug addict and over several years gave the child Phenobarbital, the sedative Xanax, the antidepressant Prozac, the sleeping drug chloral hydrate and other drugs.
Some drugs were prescribed by a local pediatrician but required court approval was never sought, according to the lawsuit.
In 1999, the comatose girl was taken to Santa Barbara Hospital, where she was found to have brain and liver damage.
The lawsuit, alleging negligence, said some of the five social workers on the case failed to make legally required visits to the home. None were made between April and October 1998, according to a claims board document.
Harms was convicted of shoplifting in Santa Maria in 1998 and her foster license was revoked the next year, the lawsuit said.
Harms, the pediatrician and pharmacies previously agreed to settle their parts of the lawsuit for $3.45 million.
North Carolina: Jack Stratton heart condition- Situation Update
Jack Stratton is the father who was in court a few months back when he had a heart attack in the middle of making a motion for the return of his 10 abducted children. -LJM
From Leonard Henderson at AFRA:
August 19, 2004 4pm PST
I just got off the phone with Kathy Stratton a few minutes ago.
After Jack had a heart catheterization last week, he continued to have severe pain. He complained to the medical staff about it and apparently they brushed it off.
Jack checked himself out of that hospital and went to a different hospital, where yesterday, they ran a spectrum of tests.
They found that one of his arteries had apparently been PUNCTURED during the catheterization and he had been BLEEDING internally and CLOTTING inside the artery at the same time.
So now the quandary is how to treat the situation. This is NOT good.
Kathy asks the prayer warriors to intercede on Jack's behalf. And if you don't believe God can help, there is the on-going situation of extreme legal abuse by North Carolina and now, possibly malpractice.
People can't live like this.
Leonard Henderson
American Family Rights Association
http://familyrightsassociation.com
CPS was started in the 70's to help kids who were being beaten and otherwise seriously abused. But as time goes on the research teams they employ find more and more reasons to insert the misery of government control into the lives of families. Apparently teen pregnancy is now one of their reasons to muck up families and make people more miserable than ever before. I don't know why it surprised me. It used to be that if a teen got pregnant it was a family problem that had to be worked out with loving (hopefully) counseling of the teens by the parents. Or it could be handled as a law enforcement matter (statutory rape). But here comes Big-Daddy Nanny-State Government nosing in on a family problem... anytime it possibly can. No matter how stressed and upset a family may be over problems they may be having in the course of normal life, CPS can always show up and make matters 110 times worse. What will they think of next? -LJM
Speaking for People Helping Women, lawyer Richard Munzinger said members of the group have called the Police Department repeatedly about young, apparently pregnant girls entering an abortion clinic.
The fact that a girl younger than 17 is pregnant is evidence of sexual assault of a minor under Texas, he said, but there is no indication that police have ever investigated the group's reports.
Police Chief Richard Wiles said such cases are legally complicated and very hard to investigate. But, he said, cases that the department does look into are turned over to the district attorney's office for possible prosecution.
Wiles said medical personnel who encounter a pregnant girl who is 16 or younger must report it to the health department or the state's Child Protective Services.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Prosecutors charged a teenage boy with first-degree murder and aggravated battery after police responded to a house fire Tuesday evening and found one woman dead and another stabbed, authorities said.
Overland Park police responded to the small fire in the Kansas City, Mo., suburb at about 5 p.m. and arrested 17-year-old Andrew Ellmaker, who was running from the home, according to police Capt. Simon Happer.
Inside the home, police found the body of Teri Zenner, of Lenexa, who would have turned 27 on Thursday. The teenage suspect's mother, Mary Ellmaker, 61, was found outside of the residence with non-life threatening injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital.
While being taken into custody, the teen was seen with what appeared to be blood on his hands, face and clothing, according to KMBC-TV. The station also said the murder victim was employed by the Johnson County Mental Health Center. Happer said he could not confirm those details.
Ellmaker is being held in the Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center and was charged Wednesday afternoon with first degree murder and aggravated battery, according to the Johnson County prosecutor's office.
The charges have been filed in juvenile court, but Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison has filed a motion to have the juvenile waved into adult court. Ellmaker will have his first court appearance Aug. 24.
Tennessee: Couple accused of beating 13-yr-old adopted child
By TIM MILLER
6 News Anchor/Reporter
August 18, 2004
HUNTSVILLE (WATE) -- A judge in Scott County Wednesday decided there's enough evidence against a couple charged with aggravated child abuse and neglect to proceed to a grand jury.
The prosecution did not hold back in presenting evidence to show Aaron and Linda Mann beat their 13-year-old adopted daughter. They used photos and the words of the girl herself to persuade the judge to pursue the case against the couple.
Before the child at the center of the case testified, sheriff's deputy Randy Lewallen took the stand. He testified the Mann's adopted daughter had injuries on many parts of her body.
"It was obvious by looking at her that she had injuries," Deputy Lewallen testified. "She had a bruise on her chin and a big bald spot on the back of her head."
The deputy also told of bruises on the girl's right arm, a large bruise on one of her legs, and injuries to her skin. He said officers recovered a bloody PVC pipe in a garbage can, which the prosecution alleges the Manns used to beat the girl.
But on cross examination, Aaron Mann's attorney, Herb Moncier, suggested the girl was just trying to get attention and her injuries may have been caused by riding an ATV or a bike.
"Did she tell you about stealing the bicycle and riding down into the woods and wrapping it around a tree?" Moncier asked Lewallen.
"No," the deputy answered.
"She didn't tell you anything. You didn't ask her, did you. You didn't ask her any of those questions because you had already made up your mind as to what happened in this case, isn't that correct, Officer Lewallen?" Moncier continued.
Lewallen said he believed the girl was telling the truth from the start.
But the most compelling testimony came from the 13 year-old girl herself. She told the court that Linda Mann hit her on the head and arms with the pipe and Aaron Mann also beat her several times.
The girl testified that the injuries leading to her adoptive parents' arrest were at least a week old. She said that if she failed to clean the Mann's air conditioned dog house properly, she was beaten.
A doctor who examined the 13-year-old girl also testified, saying that her injuries were between six to eight-days-old.
According to the girl's testimony, Aaron Mann kicked her and beat her with a PVC pipe at the end of July. The girl said she laid on her stomach during the beating and Mann sometimes put his knee in the small of her back.
The girl said she ran to a neighbor's house the night the Manns were arrested because she feared another beating, then spent two days in the hospital recovering from her wounds, including a collapsed lung.
The girl also testified that some of the Manns' adopted children were fed more than others. She said she climbed in a window and took food from a neighbor's house, until they found out and told the Manns.
But on Moncier's cross examination, the girl said she disliked her living conditions enough that she would lie to get away from her adopted family.
The defense worked to imply that deputies who arrested the Manns didn't act in the right order. Attorneys asked the first deputy who testified several questions about a secretly taped conversation they had with Aaron Mann when he arrived at the sheriff's department to find out why his daughter was there.
Attorneys for the Manns also asked the deputy about the order in which arrest warrants and search permits were obtained. Their questions focused on whether the search was planned for the time while the Manns were in jail.
Defense attorneys even posed questions about whether the girl at the center of the charges just wanted attention.
The girl's nine year-old brother was also called to the witness stand.
After all testimony was completed, Judge Jamie Cotton decided there was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury.
The next court hearing for the Manns will be November 12 or 19.
The Manns and their five adopted children live in a large home in Oneida. Scott County deputies arrested the couple on August 2. They were released from jail two days later after posting bonds of $200,000 each. [ couple charged ]
6 News found that the Manns have been the focus of three DCS investigations, dating from September 2001, and there have been at least four other reports alleging neglect. [ past reports ]
ENID - When Emma Moser took her sick 3-year-old son to the hospital 28 years ago, she never thought that might be the last time she'd see him.
The Enid resident has searched the past seven years for her son, John Daniel Bolin, whom Kentucky social workers took in 1976.
No one to visit
Moser, known then as Josephine Bolin, took Johnny to the Beaver Dam, Ky., hospital in June 1976, but said she couldn't stay the whole time because she had to care for her daughters, who were 9 and 5. Moser, now 61, said she returned the next morning to visit and then left again to care for her daughters. When she returned the second day, Johnny was gone.
"I went to the nurses' station and they said the welfare took him and I wasn't allowed to see him," Moser said. "I took him to the hospital, I mean, like a mother should."
Leaving the family
Lisa Wallace, with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said although she could not comment directly about Moser's case, children are taken into custody in cases of neglect, abuse, abandonment or when the parents, for reasons beyond their control, cannot care for the children. For example, if the parents cannot provide for children because of illness or financial reasons, the agency might take custody of children.
In a case like Moser's, the child might have been adopted, Wallace said.
According to Kentucky law, the child must make the first contact with the agency before it will release any information to a biological parent searching for the child.
If anyone has information about her son, Moser would like to be contacted at (580) 237-0553.
"I don't know why the welfare took him," Moser said. "I tried to get ahold of the welfare, and they wouldn't talk to me."
A week or two later, Moser decided to give her two girls to those who could care for them because she had no money or job.
"I didn't want my kids to starve or freeze," Moser said. "I didn't have a place to stay."
Moser turned the oldest girl, Darlene Brothers, over to the girl's father. Her youngest daughter, Sandra Bolin, was given to relatives but eventually was put into the foster care system and adopted.
"I disappeared for 21 years because I was embarrassed because I didn't have any money," Moser said. "A lot of people hold that against me. I didn't want to face my family. It hurt me to leave my kids."
No luck yet
In 1997, a friend took the children's names and searched on the Internet for them. She found a man named John Bolin.
Moser said she found her daughters through relatives in Kentucky. In 1998, Moser went to Kentucky to visit them.
Johnny would now be 31. He was a blond with blue eyes, but his hair has probably darkened as did his sister Sandra's, Moser said.
"I think he's in Kentucky," Moser said. "He was adopted out, I think."
Moser said she regrets leaving the children and not trying to find them earlier.
"I just want to see him," she said. "I'm very sorry."
Tanya Barragan's newborn son was taken away after allegations she abused him in a local hospital.
Barragan is still charged with felony injury to a child, but today Associate Judge Richard Garcia told her that she could take her son, Tyree, home.
Tyree has spent the past three weeks in foster care. Authorities took the child away from her after a photographer at North Central Baptist claimed Barragan shook the baby to wake him up.
Barragan, who is a registered nurse, claims she was trying to stimulate the baby.
The Bexar County District Attorney's office told the judge that during their investigation they had not been able to find any evidence of abuse.
Garcia ruled mother and baby could be reunited.
However, the criminal charges have not yet been dropped. A hearing on those charges is scheduled for August.
The DA's office says in light of all that has happened in San Antonio lately with children and abuse they would rather be safe than sorry.
Missouri: Heartland Ministries case settled; juvenile officer must pay hundreds of thousands for legal costs incurred after false accusation
I just heard on the Derry Brownfield radio show that the Heartland Ministries case was settled recently. This is a case they filed against Michael Waddle, the juvenile officer who started the scandalous CPS abduction of Heartland Ministries children. The court found that Waddle and Cindy Ayers, another juvenile officer, violated the 4th Amendment rights of the students to be free from unreasonable seizures and detentions. Waddle is now ordered to pay several hundred thousand dollars for court costs after starting the unjustified child welfare case against Heartland.
By Anthony M. DeStefano
Staff Writer
August 17, 2004, 6:31 PM EDT
A city deputy sheriff and an employee of the Administration for Children's Services were arrested Tuesday on charges they took part in a tax scam that exploited the names and Social Security numbers of children in foster care, officials said.
The deputy sheriff, David Thomas, 39, was arrested by federal agents after a year-long probe that also involved the city's Department of Investigation.
According to a federal search warrant affidavit unsealed Tuesday, Thomas, in addition to his job as a deputy city sheriff with the Department of Finance, ran a tax preparation business on the side.
The identity of the ACS employee who was allegedly feeding Thomas information on the foster children's identities was not made public pending her arraignment today.
Confidential informants told federal and city investigators as far back as April 2003 that an ACS employee was providing a tax preparer with information that allowed taxpayers to falsely claim earned income tax credit. The credit can save a person several thousand dollars in federal and state taxes.
According to the affidavit, undercover investigators with the U.S. Postal Service went to Thomas' home at 220th Street in Springfield Gardens earlier this month.
Thomas told the undercover agents that adding dependents to a tax return cost $500 and that "there is a $50 charge for a babysitter," the affidavit said.
Thomas explained that the dependants are from foster homes and that he had a connection who provided him with their information, the affidavit stated. Information about the babysitter was apparently used in claims for refundable child care tax credits, officials said.
The ACS employee was identified as a data entry clerk who has worked for the agency since October 2000.
It was unclear late Tuesday how many names of foster children had been used in the alleged scheme. The search warrant affidavit mentioned four cases but a source said more information might be revealed Wednesday at the ACS employee's arraignment.
Thomas has been a deputy city sheriff for 11 years, according to a spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. attorneys office.
He was released Tuesday after his arraignment on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond, the spokesman said.
HOUSTON - Seven Texas children were discovered abandoned at a Nigerian orphanage, suffering from disease and malnutrition, and have been brought back to the United States.
Child Protective Services, which received emergency custody of the children Monday, is investigating accusations that the children's adoptive mother abandoned them in Nigeria in October and later went to work in Iraq (news - web sites) as a private contractor. The Houston woman, whose identity was not released, allegedly left them at a Nigerian school that later discharged them for nonpayment of tuition.
The children returned to Texas on Friday.
Three of the children were hospitalized with malaria and later released, said CPS spokeswoman Estella Olguin. They all were thin and covered with mosquito bites and scars, officials said.
The three boys and four girls, ranging from 8 to 16, were discovered in late July by a visiting Texas missionary, who notified House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), both of Texas, said Stuart Roy, a spokesman for DeLay.
The lawmakers contacted CPS and the U.S. State Department, along with the ambassador in Nigeria, and the children were given papers allowing re-entry into the United States.
Now, they are living in two Houston foster homes.
"It's horrible, horrible," Olguin said. "I haven't seen anything like it. Seven children fending for themselves in a foreign country where they have no family members."
Four of the siblings were adopted from Houston in 1996, followed by a set of three siblings from Dallas in 2001, according to authorities who interviewed the children and their adoptive mother.
The woman took all the children in October to Nigeria, where a relative of her fiance lived. The children were enrolled in school and the mother returned to Houston about 30 days later. She went to work in Iraq in April.
But the children were removed from school because payment for their tuition stopped. Nigerian child-protection authorities found the children in a wooden shack, malnourished and sick, and moved them to an orphanage in late July.
A minister from a San Antonio church alerted lawmakers after he overheard the children speaking with American accents and talked to them.
The minister said the children told him the name of their adoptive mother and said they liked the Houston Rockets. In a final effort to prove they were Americans, the seven children stood shoulder to shoulder and sang the national anthem, San Antonio pastor John Hagee said.
The children wanted pizza after returning to Texas on Friday, Olguin said. They're saying: "God bless America. We love America," she said.
She said their adoptive mother was at the hearing Monday at which a state district judge ordered the children to be returned to CPS custody. State officials will determine whether criminal charges will be filed against the adoptive mother, who is due back in court Aug. 26.
CLEVELAND -- A woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangering in the death of a foster child has been sent back to jail for another 80 days after an appeals court ordered her resentenced.
Jacqueline Clark, 65, had been caring for 2-year-old Devin Wilder, who died after he was shaken by Clark's teenage granddaughter.
Clark was sentenced in 2002 to three years in prison, but Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul reduced it to probation after Clerk served 100 days.
Prosecutors and Devin's parents say Clark should have served a minimum of six months in jail. The Eighth Ohio District Court of Appeals ordered her to be resentenced.
Judge Gaul told Clark Monday that he thought she'd paid her price but that the appeals court disagreed.
California teen: Dear Abby, My social worker lies...
No, social workers don't lie... they just twist the truth to smithereens. This teenager is learning how the system works. Her social worker most likely HAS TO SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT HER... to keep the extra "special needs" funding. I wonder how unsettling it was to this teenager's parents when they were robbed of the opportunity to raise their daughter... by other social workers who don't lie but just twist the truth to unrecognizable proportions. -LJM
DEAR ABBY: I am 16 years old and a ward of the court. I have a social worker who never looks at the positive things I do. I have good grades and rarely do anything wrong. Recently, I have been doing things that they call "acting out."
At our last court appearance, her report stated that I'm a juvenile delinquent who is in need of serious help. I am consistently told by the people at the group home where I live that I am none of those things.
How do I tell my social worker that she needs to see the positive things I am doing and not just look at the negative? - Confused
in Redwood City, Calif.
DEAR CONFUSED: The caseload social workers manage these days is overwhelming, which means that they often are unable to give each client a lot of personal attention.
"Acting out" is misbehaving and expressing angry feelings in inappropriate ways. When a child is separated from home, school, family and friends, that's a good reason to be angry. However, if you and the people at your group home feel that the social worker is mistaken, then the administrator should write a letter to the court explaining that fact. I'm sure the judge would take it into consideration.
P.S. If the social worker thinks you need "serious help," which I assume to mean psychological counseling, go for it. Almost everyone can benefit from having a trained person listen to his or her concerns, pains and problems.
A town of Madison man with a history of low-level sexual crimes stabbed and tried to rape a social worker who was delivering medication, according to police.
Richard Alan James, 41, was jailed on tentative charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree sexual assault, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and intimidation of a victim.
Police investigator Robb Hale said James - who lives at 2025 Sherman Ave., a small island of the town adjacent to the village of Maple Bluff - attacked the 26-year-old woman at about 9 a.m. Saturday as she was making routine medication deliveries.
Our state child abuse and neglect laws are vague on the issue.
"There is no clear law regarding the specific age at which a child can be left unattended," said George Hartwell, intake supervisor for Child Protective Services.
What his agency tells parents is that children age 5 or younger should never be left unsupervised.
"For children ages 6 to 9, it depends on how far away a parent is and for how long." Hartwell said. "For example, going to the neighbors briefly might be fine."
Children ages 10 to 12 are a gray area. "Some kids are responsible enough to be left home alone for short periods at this age. Ultimately, it's up to the parent's judgment of their child's maturity and comfort level" he said.
The Thurston County SAFE KIDS Coalition recommends that children not be left unsupervised for any length of time until they are at least age 12 year.
I listen to Alex Jones' InfoWars radio show every day and subscribe to his Prison Planet TV site to watch his movies. One thing he's been talking about a lot lately is the "New Freedom Initiative" that Bush supports. The plan is to make it mandatory for every man, woman, and child in the USA to be psychologically evaluated - just like all you CPS victims.
The obvious place to start is to evaluate all school children and school employees. This will spread to cover all members of the population starting with the weakest links. Even people needing admittance to a hospital are targeted for these "New Freedom" mental health evaluations. This will naturally lead to forced medication, chemical restraints for all free-thinkers, and further control of the people by the control-freak fascists running our government these days.
by Michael F. Cannon and Marie Gryphon
August 15, 2004
Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies and Marie Gryphon is an education policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
The Department of Health and Human Services will announce this fall a plan to improve access to mental health services. The initiative follows the release last year of a report commissioned by President George W. Bush recommending that "schools should . . . play a larger role in mental health care for children," screening public schoolchildren for mental illness (with parental consent) and providing counseling and referral services.
The HHS should reject these recommendations. Until parents can choose their children's schools, expanding public schools' role in treating mental illness could be harmful to both students and parents.
At first glance, public schools seem like a great place to address childhood mental illness. The 2003 report notes that "more than 52 million students . . . [pass] through the Nation's schools on any given weekday," and early diagnosis improves the odds that medical treatments will succeed.
But consider Daniel Taylor. Like more than one million American children, Daniel was prescribed methylphenidate (a.k.a. Ritalin) to control his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Ritalin is at the center of an emotional debate. Though apparently a safe and effective treatment, many believe the drug has become a convenient means of quieting unruly children. Even with a correct diagnosis, some experts worry that doctors, parents, and teachers have become too quick to medicate.
Thus, when Chad Taylor noticed that his son was losing sleep and his appetite -- two of Ritalin's known side effects -- he took Daniel off the drug. When Daniel's school found out, it reported the Taylors to child welfare authorities.
Soon the New Mexico Department of Children, Youth and Families dispatched a detective and social worker to visit the Taylors. Chad Taylor told a reporter: "The detective told me if I did not medicate my son, I would be arrested for child abuse and neglect." Though the police dispute that charge, they did claim, as an ABC News story put it, "parents could be charged in situations like his."
Or consider Patricia Weathers. According to the Christian Science Monitor, "When Patricia Weathers' son Michael had problems in his first-grade class, a school psychologist told the New York mother he had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and needed to be medicated with stimulants. If not, he would be sent to a special education facility near his Millbrook, N.Y., school." Weathers complied, but soon noticed "the medicines were making Michael psychotic" -- another of Ritalin's reported side effects. When she stopped Michael's drug regimen, "the school reported her to state child protective services for child abuse." Charges were later dropped.
By law, public schools must serve all children in their neighborhood using limited resources. When their obligation to a special needs child conflicts with their obligation to the majority of students, public schools will attempt to minimize that conflict. The Christian Science Monitor reports even educators worry that "teachers in crowded, cash-strapped classrooms are more likely to steer a disruptive child toward medication." At the same time, public schools do not bear the costs that are sometimes associated with medication -- as the Taylors and Weatherses did.
Given these incentives, empowering public schools to "play a larger role in mental health care for children" could do special needs students and their parents more harm than good.
While special needs children in private schools can avoid such conflicts by choosing another school, public school students typically do not have that choice. A better way to help public school children with behavioral problems would be to let their parents choose the school that best fits their needs.
In Florida, children with disabilities, including ADHD, can request a voucher to attend an alternative school that their parents choose. School choice encourages collaboration -- rather than conflict -- between parents and teachers over how a child's mental health and educational needs might best be met. If the two cannot agree, the parents are free to seek educational services from another willing provider, often a mainstream private or parochial school.
The McKay Scholarship Program serves over 12,000 Florida students. It transforms children from hostages into customers, and families love it.
Empowering public schools with more power over children's mental health treatment invites conflict. Instead, states should empower parents to choose the school that meets their children's needs. That would improve the mental health of all involved.
President Bush announced on 26 July that his administration has begun implementing the recommendations of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health to "improve mental health services and support for people of all ages with mental illness" through comprehensive screening.
The plan states that schools are in a "key position" to screen the "52 million students and six million adults who work at the schools" and includes recommendations for screening preschool children (19 June, p 1458).
Mr Bush's announcement comes after new reports showing that increasing numbers of toddlers and children are being prescribed amphetamines, anti-depressants, and antipsychotic drugs. Concern that widespread screening will only increase the number of young people taking drugs has triggered criticism of the plan.
Dr Daniel Fisher, one of the 22 commissioners responsible for writing the final report for the president, said that widespread screening—at a time when medical education was "geared to the biomedical model and teachers want to get kids fixed"—could result in greater numbers of children being given "a label, a diagnosis, and a medication."
"What troubles me a little bit," said Dr Fisher, "is that mental health will continue to be used as a substitute for addressing the social, cultural, and economic needs of children."
Addressing those needs and heeding the recommendation of the plan to transform the system to one based on fostering recovery and resilience could, he said, "solve many behavioural problems." But, he added, widespread screening before systems are transformed could undermine some very positive elements of the plan, including its focus on care that is driven by patients and on housing support, educational rights, and employment.
Concerns about the increasing number of children taking psychotropic drugs were heightened by a study published in this month's issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine ( 2004;158: 753-9)[Abstract/Free Full Text]. The study, by Dr William Cooper and colleagues at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, found that in 2001 nearly one in every 100 adolescents enrolled in TennCare, a programme for families in Tennessee on low to moderate incomes, became new users of antipsychotic drugs. The six year study followed the 313 454 children enrolled in TennCare in 1996, just under 30% of all children in Tennessee.
Dr Cooper said that he and his colleagues are currently studying nationwide data on the use of antipsychotic drugs among children covered by private insurance. He said that they expect they'll see similar findings nationally, given preliminary results from current research at Vanderbilt and reports from doctors at other institutions.
The Tennessee study found that a minority of children who were prescribed antipsychotic drugs were psychotic. The two main reasons for new prescriptions of antipsychotic drugs were attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (23% of prescriptions) and conduct disorder (20%). Most of the prescriptions were for the newer "atypical" antipsychotics.
"We don't know if these drugs are helpful in conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder," said Dr Cooper. Although the atypical antipsychotics reportedly cause fewer dyskinaesias than the older antipsychotic drugs, they are associated with serious problems, including weight gain (one study showed that 11% of children taking the drugs gained 10% of their body weight in six months), diabetes, fatal ketoacidosis, and potentially lethal cardiac dysrhythmias. "You're just trading one set of side effects for another," said Dr Cooper. "We don't know if the benefits of these drugs outweigh their risks."
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President Bush's proclamation on the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act is at www.whitehouse.gov
Our position is: The state must undertake a comprehensive reform of Indiana's child welfare system.
Overworked and under-trained caseworkers. Supervisors who work part-time. Training that barely covers the identification of sexual abuse. A reluctance to try new practices. All this, along with Indiana government's history of penny-pinching its child welfare system, explains the state's failure to save children like Anthony Bars, a 4-year-old who died at the hands of his adoptive parents.
Now the Commission on Abused and Neglected Children and Their Families has sent the governor a $212 million list of improvements, including hiring more caseworkers and boosting training.
Most of the commission's recommendations are sound. It's essential that the state hire more child abuse investigators. It's vital that training is improved and caseloads are reduced. But it's also crucial for the state to undertake comprehensive reform of its child protection system.
None of this will be cheap. And it comes at a time when the state is saddled with a budget that is badly out of balance. Fixing the system, and protecting children, will require an extraordinary commitment from the governor and the legislature for years to come.
If state leaders fail to act on their own, however, the courts may step in to force change.
Courts already have ordered New Jersey and Connecticut to overhaul their child welfare systems. In fact, Marci Robinson Lowry, director of Children's Rights, says the organization is considering a lawsuit in Indiana. The legal group brought the suit that forced changes in New Jersey.
The problems with Indiana's child protection system are heart-rending. One child has died on average each week for a decade. Indiana is one of two states not in compliance with the Federal Child Abuse and Treatment Act. It does a poor job of moving children into permanent settings. It took an average of 13 months for the state to find adoptive parents for children permanently severed from their parents, longer than 27 other states; 18.7 percent of the state's foster children were sent to group homes or other institutionalized settings in 2001, higher than the national average of 10.7 percent.
Although the number of caseworkers has doubled to 800 over the past decade, each one still carries an average of 35 cases, more than twice the recommended load. Many caseworkers also report to part-time supervisors, which weakens oversight.
Caseworkers are supposed to complete a six-week training course, learning such things as how to distinguish between natural spots and marks of abuse. But they're not required to do so before being sent out into the field. The course itself barely touches how to identify symptoms of sexual abuse -- that's handled later -- or deal with families plagued by crystal meth.
The state has been slow to embrace innovative programs that help restore those families that can be saved. FSSA has had success with its Healthy Families program of intense home visits. But it needs to explore wrap-around services in which troubled families receive a customized array of treatment and assistance.
Some of the commission's suggestions -- including the addition of 103 new supervisors -- touch on these issues. But the report is not a blueprint for full reform.
To avoid the risk of intervention by the courts, the next governor and the legislature must lead the way to a true rebuilding of the system.
The first step: Follow the example of Alabama, which as part of its own court-ordered overhaul agreed to a list of 40 principles governing how the child welfare system should handle everything from its approach to dealing with failing families to training caseworkers.
State leaders also need to examine whether FSSA has enough experience within the agency to guide major reforms internally. It might be wise to bring in adminsitrators from Alabama or New Jersey who have seen first hand a top-to-bottom overhaul of the child protection system.
Reforming voluntarily now will keep the state from being forced to do so later. More important, it will help save thousands of children who deserve much better.
Now here's something you don't see much of in mainstream news. The media wouldn't want all those do-gooder prospective social workers with the rose-colored glasses to know how dangerous social work really is. But this article comes from Malta where apparently the media isn't as quiet regarding this dreadful fact of caseworker life. -LJM
Although there are no official figures available, Malta has a very low incidence of assault and violent attacks on social workers compared to other countries.
In the US, assaults and violent acts are the third-leading cause of work-related deaths. In Pennsylvania and California, 57 per cent of social workers (678 out of 1,129 respondents) reported they experienced one or more types of client violence. Another 43 per cent said they experienced property damage and 83 per cent said they were threatened by a client.
In a study carried out in Ontario, Canada in 2001, 87.8 per cent (144 out of 171) reported being verbally harassed and 29.3 per cent were sexually harassed. Another 63.5 per cent reported being threatened with physical harm, and 28.6 per cent were physically assaulted but not injured.
At present there are about 200 social workers employed in various hospitals and with different agencies, including Appogg, and Sedqa.
About two years ago two separate incidents involving social workers occurred within the span of a week. In the first case, the social worker’s car was vandalised, and in the second case two social workers were attacked by a client. Luckily both social workers were unharmed.
Soon after, the board of the Maltese Association of Social Workers (MASW) met to discuss safety procedures that could be implemented to protect social workers. The board met again last Monday to discuss a list of health and safety policies that were drawn up recently.
Manwel Mangani, secretary of MASW, said the reason that such a long time had elapsed since the first meeting was that no serious incidents had occurred since that period.
Mr Mangani stressed that social work does not involve a high number of assault and violence-related incidents, and the incidents that took place were few and far between. These mainly involved verbal abuse and very few social workers were threatened physically over the years. In fact, Mr Mangani pointed out that as far as he could remember, no case of physical assault was ever taken to court.
When dealing with a tricky situation, a social worker should remain calm and try to alleviate the tension. However if the social worker still feels threatened, then the best option would be to leave quietly. Unfortunately, Mr Mangani added, social workers receive no training on how to deal with such situations and the health and safety policies would thus act as guidelines to minimise possible risks. As regards safety in the physical environment where social workers meet their clients, it was suggested that fire-fighting equipment, a security system, appropriate fire exits and possibly an intercom and an alarm buzzer should be standard. Social workers, especially women, should wear appropriate clothes, and all house visits by social workers should be carried out in two’s, especially for the first time.
Several of the policies were adopted some time ago. It is extremely important that a social worker out on a home visit informs colleagues about his/her whereabouts in case of an emergency.
Personal information about staff must be kept confidential – no member of staff should give personal information about another colleague. If a social worker is out on duty, other members of staff can’t provide information as to their whereabouts.
It is also important to keep in mind that the health and safety procedures discussed are only a general outline and will be further developed according to a specific unit’s needs.
Unsafe fosterincarceration? That's been a proven fact for years...
Isn't that the point King Solomon was trying to make back around 970 B.C.?
When I was starting to fight the system in 1990 I learned about the statistic that children are ten times more at risk of abuse in foster homes than in their natural homes. Its been nearly 15 years since I first heard it and still the system grinds on, decimating families, ruining childhoods, depriving children of parents who love and long for them. And who really cares? Most of our legislators are not following the will of the people. Something is really wrong with this country and I believe its Democrats and Republicans. They both take orders from the same overlords, and their agenda is not to make strong healthy families. So long as we Americans keep voting these scoundrels and their henchmen into positions of power the draconian laws controlling child welfare services will only gradually get worse. -LJM
Web Posted: 08/15/2004 12:00 AM CDT
Joseph S. Stroud
Express-News Staff Writer
SMITHVILLE - Late last year, Rick Allen called the state's abuse and neglect hot line to say one of his fellow counselors at Woodside Trails, a man, had kissed and "rubbed on" boys, crawled into bed with them and engaged in other inappropriate behavior at the Bastrop County wilderness camp.
Allen called again in April, on the verge of quitting his job, to report an assortment of other problems at the camp, which takes in male juvenile sex offenders and other boys with emotional issues.
He believed many of the 9-to 17-year-old boys there remained vulnerable, and that others were dangerous sexual predators, some about to become adults and be released into society.
In neither case did the person assigned to investigate call Allen back.
"They never interviewed me after I called," he said recently. "They interviewed two or three people. I don't think it's right."
State officials say they investigated but couldn't prove Allen's claims.
But within the past month, two counselors, neither the one Allen named, have been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting camp residents.
Finally, after more complaints were called in on the state's abuse and neglect hot line, officials with Child Protective Services on Friday began removing children from the facility.
The handling of Woodside Trails raises fundamental questions about how vigorously the state works to keep residential foster care facilities safe.
It also shows how a penchant for secrecy has sometimes kept important information about allegations involving facilities from the people who place children in foster care.
And some say it suggests the threshold for acting to prevent serious problems in foster care in Texas is incredibly high.
"These places just get unlimited second chances," said Lee Spiller, an investigator with the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an Austin-based advocacy group, after learning of the new charges Friday. "That is heartbreaking. I'm just absolutely stunned to think that there are new allegations of the same kind of stuff."
In the last five years, state officials have revoked only 10 of 575 foster care licenses statewide.
Two more facilities voluntarily relinquished their licenses while they were under investigation.
Facilities allowed to stay open include one where a resident was raped and another where a child died while being restrained.
State licensing officials say they stepped up monitoring and enforcement late last year, and five of the closures have occurred since December.
One of those homes, Coastal Bend Youth City, Inc., in Corpus Christi, had serious health and safety violations for years but was allowed to stay in business.
The state finally suspended its operations in December after licensing officials received a report that rodents were crawling over children as they slept.
When they inspected the group home, state officials found mouse and rat droppings in the kitchen and bathroom areas and mice caught on paper traps and ordered the children removed.
The facility agreed to close for six months but did not lose its operating license.
Ed Jarvis, a recently retired investigator with the Department of Family and Protective Services, said investigators hesitate to close facilities for two reasons.
First, they have to find new placements for the children; and second, many of the facilities wield political clout with the Legislature, which incidentally funds the regulatory agency.
"The department doesn't want to get into political problems," he said. "The people that serve these functions, that have these centers, they a lot of times have solid political connections, and a lot of times the department is loathe to cross that.
"It doesn't seem like the way it should work, but it is."
Five years outdoors
The Woodside Trails case, which culminated Friday in an emotional day of reckoning, provides a rare public glimpse into a place and a process normally shrouded in secrecy and seclusion.
A wooden sign hanging at one of the Woodside campsites reads "May Love Wash Over You Like a Gentle Rain."
The camp's philosophy, which the Internet proclaims is one of "ruthless compassion," calls for helping troubled teens by teaching them responsibility and independence.
The camp's director, Bebe Gaines, said the best advocates for Woodside Trails are its former residents, an argument that seemed to be borne out by the tearful scene that played out Friday.
But Allen, the former employee, said the boys love Woodside because "it's Never-Never Land."
"You don't have to grow up, and Bebe makes excuses for them," he said. "I think what that program teaches them more than anything is how to hide it — not get over it, but how to conceal it."
But if the residents of the camp were Lost Boys, the state moved slowly to come to their rescue.
Woodside Trails, which occupies 137 acres of Bastrop County, in the Lost Pines area east of Austin, kept the boys in primitive shelters they built themselves at three camp sites.
A school building, dining hall, office and shower building occupy the center area of the camp, which began taking in troubled teenage boys in 1982.
They received family, group and some individual therapy, attended school and carried out work assignments, and tried to come to terms with the issues that sent them there, according to Gaines.
The camp became the target of intense media scrutiny earlier this year, after Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn made it a focus of "Forgotten Children," her report on foster care in Texas.
Strayhorn criticized the facility, one of six wilderness camps licensed to operate in Texas, for housing children in the elements throughout the year.
Some boys have lived at the camp for as long as five years.
Allegations of abuse and neglect are not new to Woodside Trails.
There have been at least 22 such allegations since 2000, according to state records, including 20 against staffers at the camp.
Only one of the allegations has been confirmed — it led to the dismissal of a female office worker — and until last week the facility remained in business.
Documents released recently by Strayhorn's office show that complaints came in regularly alleging that consensual sex among the boys was commonplace, a claim echoed by Allen, the former counselor.
Gaines, the camp's director, said boys at the camp occasionally "act out sexually," but she insisted that such instances were always reported to the state.
She said false allegations are common at the camp because of the kind of work it does.
Almost all of the boys who lived there were dealing with serious emotional disturbance, and most had sexual issues, she said.
Gaines, who vowed to cooperate in the current investigation of her two former employees, said Allen was a disgruntled and embittered former employee who was about to be fired when he quit last spring.
She said he had issues of his own that caused him to act inappropriately with the children.
At one point, Gaines said, Allen promised a boy he could live with him until he turned 18 if he ran away from the camp.
Charlene Bateman, director of the licensing division at the department, said consensual sex among teenagers is not condoned but does happen occasionally at residential facilities.
If it's provable, she said it generally leads to a citation for inadequate or neglectful supervision.
"We don't say it's OK for kids to have sex," she said.
The department doesn't compile statistics about the number of allegations against a facility, but they can be found in the investigative files.
And while there's no provision for citing a facility that becomes the subject of numerous allegations, she said that would lead to increased scrutiny by the agency — as has happened with Woodside Trails.
The two recent arrests of Woodside staffers both came as a result of referrals from the Department of Family and Protective Services, according to the Bastrop County arrest affidavits.
And Steve Suriano, the detective who handled the investigation for the Bastrop County Sheriff's Department, said he works closely with state officials to investigate complaints.
But Suriano, who said he has responded to some 25 allegations of abuse and neglect at Woodside in the last year alone, said the investigator assigned to facilities in his area is badly overextended.
Based in San Antonio, she covers an area that extends from El Paso to the Rio Grande Valley all the way north to Bastrop County.
Bateman acknowledged a staffing problem, saying two Austin-based investigators recently left their jobs.
As for Allen's complaint, Bateman said calling him back might have been a good idea but is not required by department regulations.
She said investigators had thoroughly investigated his complaints and were continuing to do so.
Communication breakdown
Although the department posts violations by a licensed facility on its public Web site, it does not circulate allegations or complaints publicly.
And if abuse and neglect are verified, the posted violation is usually listed as inadequate or neglectful supervision.
That caused a problem for the Bexar County Juvenile Probation Department, which began hearing about problems at Woodside late last year.
David Reilly, the county's chief juvenile probation officer, asked Jeannie Von Stultz, director of mental health services for the department, to look into conditions at the facility.
When Von Stultz called the state, she was told that all violations about Woodside or any other facility were posted on the department's Web site.
Recently shown copies of multiple abuse and neglect allegations about Woodside, including a flurry of complaints late last year, Von Stultz said she hadn't seen them.
"This would have been good information to have," she said.
The county stopped referring juveniles to the camp anyway.
District Judge Andy Mireles, who monitors juvenile foster care cases for the county, said he felt Bexar County boys who had been at Woodside were there too long and didn't seem to be getting better.
He said he was unaware of multiple abuse allegations at the camp.
Gaines, the camp director, speaks passionately about the work done on behalf of boys at Woodside Trails.
She said many of those who spend time there learn to face their demons, much more so than they would in a facility that encouraged less independence.
"I only do this because I love it," Gaines said. "I love helping the kids. The kids are heroes, in my opinion. They've been beaten and dragged through the dirt and they're still like 'Where's the good life?' They're fire-tested kids."
If counselors at the facility have abused children, she said, she wants them put in jail.
But she insisted that the work the camp was doing had value for boys who in large part were given up on by other foster homes.
The boys themselves are perhaps the best spokesmen for the camp, but current residents aren't allowed to talk with the media.
When state workers removed them from Woodside on Friday, however, many if not most left in tears.
Some who have left Woodside Trails in recent months say it has made them stronger and helped them deal with the issues they were confronting.
Michael O'Toole of Leroy, Ala., left the camp in February.
In an interview this spring, he said he went in with a severe anger problem, which hasn't gone away, but feels he has learned how to channel his anger.
He has obtained his Graduate Equivalency Degree and plans to attend community college.
The four sexual assaults that landed him in Woodside in the first place were safely in his past, he said.
"If I get mad, I go out of the house and get on my bicycle until it calms me down," he said.
O'Toole now lives with his grandmother, Sandy Klinko, and she said she sees a difference in him.
"I think they've done a fantastic job," she said. "Quite a bit had changed in Michael."
Allen, the former employee who now lives out-of-state, scoffed at that assessment.
He said O'Toole bit another boy on his ear two weeks before he left the camp.
O'Toole could not be reached last week to ask about that incident.
Gaines said some boys act out just before they are released, a phenomenon she called "trying on old clothes."
Allen said another boy who is on the verge of being released was "a dangerous kid."
He said Gaines had told him the boy had made "incredible improvement," but he begged to differ.
"When he ages out, he goes out in the street," he said. "He's done. That's scary as hell. The kid is still a sexual predator, he's an anger management problem, and when he's done he's out walking the streets."
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