ANOTHER NORTH CAROLINA CHILD IS DEAD “WITH DSS INVOLVEMENT”

Death of 8-month-old prompts Social Services to launch campaign to prevent child deaths from co-sleeping

 

http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/042909-DSS-response-to-child-fatality

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 3:00 AM  By Jessie Burchette jburchette@salisburypost.com To avoid more child deaths from co-sleeping arrangements, the Rowan County Department of Social Services will launch a public awareness campaign and provide cribs and suitable beds. The department will also do more drug screening of potential caregivers and seek court action when parents or caregivers don’t make adequate progress. And other in-house changes will be made in how Social Services staff handles cases. The changes outlined Tuesday evening to the Rowan County Social Services Board follow the recommendations of the State Child Fatality Review Team, which investigated the death of an 8-month-old child on May 2, 2008. The cause of death is officially “undetermined,” but officials concluded the child may have suffocated because of co-sleeping with his father. The 8-month-old and another child slept on a sofa with the father and apparently never had a bed. Social Services was involved with the family and received reports about neglect, but the case was assigned to an intern. Social Services Director Sandra Wilkes and Children’s Services Administrator Tom Brewer outlined the plan and provided a timeline for the various actions to be carried out. The first action will start today with a session at Rowan Regional Medical Center where representatives of the hospital, law enforcement, the schools and Social Services will renew training on requirements to report suspected child abuse or neglect. Social Services will develop a community-wide program to let people know the danger of co-sleeping arrangements for children ages 2 and younger. A community round table will be held June 30 on the risks of co-sleeping. Staff will document sleeping arrangements in homes and work to end dangerous situations. Effective immediately, supervisors will not assign immediate cases to a social worker who has less than six months of experience. Social Services administrators will develop a job description for student interns. Brewer also outlined several ongoing efforts including coming up with more money to pay for drug screening. The department has $1,200 a month budgeted for drug tests, but has exceeded that for several months. Brewer said that program is in danger of running out of money completely this budget year. John Blair, board member, questioned whether the child’s mother was tested for drugs shortly after he was found dead. Wilkes said the mother, who had a history of drug abuse, was not tested because the child was with his father. The plan will involve supervisors and the Social Services attorney in a coordinated effort to seek help from District Court judges when parents are non-compliant with the home service plan. Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254.

Yes, lets talk about responsibility and accountablitiy….DSS was involved with this family and using the excuse that an intern was assigned to this case as a reason for why this child was not protected by DSS is a cop out and a line of BS….”Social Services was involved with the family and received reports about neglect, but the case was assigned to an intern.”

 

Even an intern should know that children need beds and if there was none in the home, then something should have been done by DSS to help fix the problem…It should have been put in the case plan or the father should have been told in order for the children to remain with him, he would have to get them beds….Reports had been received for Neglect….Neglect by definition is the failure to provide needed care or needed necessities.

 

Furthermore…all DSS intern’s and Social Workers are supposed to run everything that they do by their supervisor, so why did the supervisor not make sure that this intern was doing their job as provided by law…

 

Yes the father is guilty in this case for not providing a safe sleeping environment for this child, but DSS is just as guilty for not doing the same when they were involved with this family. It was their job to ensure this child safety as well and again they dropped the ball. Now they are trying to blame their failure on inexperience…when in fact, it is a failure of not only the intern, but the supervisor and the multi-response team that they are supposed to have in place.

They never take responsibilty for their mistakes and wrong doing.

UPDATE ON THE HORRIFIC DEATH OF DANIEAL KELLY

Posted on Tue, Apr. 28, 2009

 

Mother to enter plea in death of girl, 14

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20090428_The_mother_of_a_14-year-old_girl_who_starved_to_death_NO_HEAD_SPECIFIED.html

By Joseph Tanfani

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The mother of a 14-year-old girl who starved to death while under city supervision will “accept responsibility” for the crime and plead guilty to third-degree murder charges, her attorney said yesterday.

Andrea Kelly, 39, will agree to serve 20 to 40 years in prison for the 2006 death of her daughter, Danieal, said lawyer Richard Quinton Hark.

The girl, who suffered from cerebral palsy, weighed just 46 pounds when she died in a sweltering apartment. Her legs looked liked bare bone and her back was full of gaping bedsores infested with maggots.

Danieal’s death and other failures by Philadelphia’s Department of Human Services resulted in nine indictments, the firing of the agency’s two top officials and a number of reforms at the agency.

Hark said Kelly was acknowledging her failures as a parent.

“It’s a very difficult time when you have to accept responsibility for starving your daughter to death,” Hark said.

The girl’s slow death happened while the family, which included 10 children, was under the supervision of DHS. Prosecutors say the DHS caseworkers failed to do their jobs, which was to protect the child from neglect.

The agency had hired a private social services agency, Multi-Ethnic Behavioral Health, to visit the home and make sure the Kelly children were being cared for.

Charges of involuntary manslaughter are still pending against a caseworker from Multi-Ethnic, Julius Juma Murray, 51. He failed to make the required home visits and the agency falsified records to cover it up, according to the indictment issued last summer.

Murray’s lawyer, William Spade, said his client did his job and Andrea Kelly is right to accept the primary responsibility for Danieal’s death.

“He did what he was supposed to do,” Spade said of Murray. “He made the visits he was supposed to make. He tried to get the girl services, and he wasn’t successful because of the inaction of the parents.”

Officials from DHS and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment yesterday evening.

Danieal Kelly’s father, Daniel Kelly, has been charged with endangering the welfare of children. Also charged in the case were Multi-Ethnic’s founder and two former DHS case workers.

Hark said Andrea Kelly’s plea agreement does not address whether she will cooperate in any of the other cases.

If she had gone to trial, Hark said, Kelly might have been convicted of first-degree murder and sent to prison for life. He said any jury would have been moved by the details of the girl’s death, and the pictures of Danieal’s body.

“If you have complex issues of an extremely malnourished mentally and medically disabled child in a mother’s care, it will really affect the jury,” he said.

The plea hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. before Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner.

Along with the murder plea, Kelly is also pleading guilty to child endangerment.

“It’s the appropriate thing to do to bring closure to a very unfortunate circumstance in her life, and her family’s life,” Hark said.

LA COUNTY SOCIAL WORKERS DENY BLAME IN DEATHS OF 14 CHILDREN ON THEIR WATCH!

 

 

Social workers protest perceived role in children’s deaths

Fourteen children died last year from abuse or neglect while on social workers’ watch. The county workers say huge caseloads are to blame.

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-social-workers29-2009apr29,0,4661265.story

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
8:23 PM PDT, April 28, 2009

Nearly 100 Los Angeles County social workers protested outside a county supervisors’ meeting Tuesday, complaining that they had been unfairly blamed for the deaths last year of 14 children whom they had monitored.

Social workers arrived toting handmade signs that read “So many children, so few social workers,” and several spoke during the meeting about “systemic problems” with the child welfare system that lead to such deaths, despite what they called their “heroic” efforts.

“I’m here today because I want you to know I believe in my work and the work of my colleagues,” said Taunya Taylor, one of 53 county staff members involved in the cases and restricted to desk jobs while the Department of Children and Family Services investigates.

The deaths, all stemming from abuse or neglect, were first publicly reported in The Times last week.

Though supervisors had previously been informed of the deaths, the public tally last week caused some to express shock and outrage. Supervisor Michael Antonovich demanded an investigation into the deaths.

On Tuesday, supervisors unanimously approved a proposal by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas calling for a report from the county chief executive, Family Services, and the Probation Department about the deaths and social workers’ training.

Supervisors then met in a closed session to interview candidates for the position of lead attorney for the Children’s Special Investigations Unit, who will be charged with identifying systemic problems in Family Services. The post has been vacant for more than a year.

“We have tremendous social workers and some of our children have been saved by them. But some of them need training and need to follow their own policies,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, citing cases in which a child died after months of malnourishment or soon after a social worker’s visit.

The problem of children dying on social workers’ watch was not isolated to 2008. In 2007, there were 12 such deaths reported that were attributed to abuse and neglect; in 2006, there were 14. (40 total that we know of….)

Shortly after the 2008 deaths became public, Trish Ploehn, director of Children and Family Services, launched investigations into 10 of the cases. Ploehn has assigned all staff involved in the cases to desk jobs, including 23 social workers, 21 supervisors, eight managers and a public health nurse. The investigations are likely to result in disciplinary action, department officials said.

On Tuesday, Ploehn told county supervisors that she has changed department policy to require a review of social worker conduct within two weeks of a child’s death, including a random review of a sample of the social worker’s cases. If sampling shows evidence of improper conduct, the social worker will automatically be referred to internal investigations and assigned a desk job. If there is no such evidence, he or she can return to work, Ploehn said.

“I don’t want to pull people who don’t need to be pulled,” Ploehn said. The department employs about 3,300 social workers, she said.

Ploehn said she pulled the workers involved in the 10 cases from 2008 because, “I have some concerns about the social workers’ performance.”

But social workers told county supervisors it was unfair to reassign them because of the deaths.

They said the 14 deaths resulted from outdated technology, understaffing and unmanageable caseloads — problems Ploehn cited last week when she appeared before supervisors.

“We are tired of being blamed for a system that is broken and over which we have no control,” said Tony Bravo, a supervising children’s social worker in Commerce who has worked for the department for 28 years. “We want to be part of the healing process. We know what it takes to keep children safe.”

Bravo and other social workers conceded that the circumstances of many of the 2008 deaths were shocking, indicative of “systemic problems” in the way the department monitors and protects children.

The 14 deaths included that of a 1-year-old girl left alone with her mother last March despite a court order requiring monitored visits, and another 1-year-old who died May 8 after a baby-sitter allegedly punished her for jumping on the bed. Family Services had received 11 complaints to the child abuse hotline related to the second child’s family.

David Green, who has been a social worker in Pasadena for nine years, said that for social workers to better monitor such cases, they need new computers and background-check programs similar to those used by police.

Green and Bravo serve on the executive board of the union that represents most county social workers, Service Employees International Union Local 721, which sent a busload of social workers to Tuesday’s meeting. They and other union leaders met with supervisors’ deputies Monday and urged them not to bench social workers at a time when caseloads are nearly double what’s recommended, about 30 cases per worker.

They said deputies seemed receptive.

“My hope is we continue to work together to make sure our families and children are safe,” Green said.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

 

Shocking News, Yet Familiar Too

 

 http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-death222009apr22,0,4734711.story

 

Shocking news, yet familiar too

L.A. County supervisors are shocked at reports of more deaths from child abuse and neglect, but the pattern is familiar.

By Garrett Therolf and Kim Christensen
April 22, 2009

One county supervisor expressed shock, another fired off a press release demanding an investigation. But Monday’s revelations that 14 children died last year as the result of abuse or neglect despite being under the watch of child welfare authorities should have come as no surprise to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

In 2007, the number was 12, according to figures released Tuesday. In 2006, the number was 14. The types of systemic failures that led to the deaths also were the same.

“The only difference really between 2006 and ‘07 on the one hand and 2008 on the other is that 2008 is public and it made the front page of the newspaper,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky acknowledged at the board’s regular meeting.

Turning to Children and Family Services Director Trish Ploehn, he asked:

“This is not news to you or to us, correct?”

“That’s correct. I know about the deaths and you’ve known about the deaths,” Ploehn replied.

Indeed, the supervisors were notified every time a child who had at least one prior contact with Family Services died. Case after case landed on their desks in which children died despite multiple complaints against their parents and repeated visits from social workers. Many of the investigations, however, did not substantiate the earlier allegations.

In addition to the 14 cases where abuse or neglect was determined to cause the deaths in 2008, supervisors were notified of 154 deaths that occurred the same year from other causes, including accidents, shootings, and natural or undetermined reasons.

Supervisor Gloria Molina, who Monday had called the 14 deaths shocking, said Tuesday that some of the others might also have been caused by abuse, neglect or county errors.

In some of the cases, she said, “you’re still looking at not-high-quality social work.”

Child welfare officials say they have repeatedly recommended a key reform: more social workers.

“In our budget every year,” Ploehn said, “we have made it clear that the ideal is to have a caseload of between 12 and 15 children per social worker. That’s what the research bears out. That’s what they have in New York City. We are unable to have that caseload because we would have to have over 1,000 new social workers hired, and obviously, in this budget situation, that’s impossible.”

Yaroslavsky responded, “Of course it’s not possible, and so you do the next best thing. . . . You try to have some organized information about your caseload so that the social worker you send to a person’s home has as much information about the background and the history of that household.”

But confidentiality rules stand in the way of developing a computer system that would allow social workers to efficiently share data with other agencies so they might learn about a parent’s criminal history or a child’s unexplained injuries. Adjusting those rules would require legislation.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, whose motion to launch an investigation into the 14 deaths was approved Tuesday, lamented the county’s slow progress. “Why is it taking so long?. . . . I don’t understand why it takes so long to make recommendations when as we speak there are children right now who are asking for help and not receiving it,” he said.

Adelina Sorkin, a member of the county’s commission for children and families, said recommendations had reached supervisors’ desks years before.

“In 2001, we made a report to the department as well as this board regarding the issue of sharing information,” she said. “We have missed opportunities. . . . We have to move faster.”

The issue has only now gained momentum with the release of 14 files Monday detailing the circumstances that led to children’s deaths in 2008. The information was released in response to a California Public Records Act request by The Times. Child welfare officials said Tuesday that 53 social workers are assigned to “desk jobs” pending investigation of policy breakdowns involved in 10 of the 14 deaths. Officials said information was not immediately available regarding any discipline for 2007 or 2006 cases.

The 2007 deaths follow a similar pattern to those in 2008, according to additional records obtained by The Times.

One involved a 2-year-old boy whose mother said she found him unconscious after he made a “gurgling sound,” according to a child fatality questionnaire submitted by the county to the state.

The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital, where the attending physician discounted the mother’s explanation, noting that the child had “swelling to his face, a hematoma and swelling to the side of his head, bruising to his forehead and cheeks, red marks covering his nose, a distended abdomen” and small scars on his forearm and knee.

“He also had what was determined to be a healing femur fracture and his upper teeth were missing,” according to the report.

The dead boy’s family had had four previous contacts with county child welfare workers, who in August 2004 substantiated an allegation of general neglect.

A month later, an allegation of physical abuse was deemed inconclusive.

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

kim.christensen@latimes.com

 

 

Files detail deaths of 14 children

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-death21-2009apr21,0,3948277.story

 

 

The abuse cases came from families that had been under scrutiny by L.A. County child welfare officials.

By Garrett Therolf and Kim Christensen
April 21, 2009

Fourteen children died of abuse and neglect in Los Angeles County last year despite coming from families that had been under the scrutiny of child welfare officials, records released Monday show.

The family of a boy who died of multiple skull fractures had been reported 25 times to the Department of Children and Family Services and the mother had a known history of methamphetamine use. In other families, children died within months or even one day after a social worker’s last visit.

The records, which included previously confidential family services and police reports, medical charts and other documents, were obtained by The Times through a California Public Records Act request and provide the first comprehensive snapshot of child fatalities countywide.

A new state law that took effect last year loosened the confidentiality requirements that had kept most such information from public view.

All told, the records show, 32 children in the county died in 2008 from abuse and neglect, including physical assault, drowning and malnourishment.

Eighteen of the children were in families that had never been in contact with the family services agency.

But the other 14 families should have been well-known to child welfare officials, based on previous referrals and investigations. For whatever reasons, many of the earlier allegations were not substantiated.

In 10 of those cases, the agency has launched investigations that will probably result in discipline against social workers, agency officials said.

“These are shocking cases,” said county Supervisor Gloria Molina, who contends that disciplinary and training procedures need to be dramatically improved in the department. “The biggest problem is that no lessons are learned.”

Agency officials say they lack adequate resources to handle daunting caseloads.

The heavily redacted files paint a horrific picture of the circumstances in which the children died. Among the cases:

* A 1-year-old girl who was left alone with her mother last March, despite a court order requiring monitored visits. The girl had fallen down the stairs and hit her head, her mother told authorities, explaining that she gave the girl an ice pack, put her to bed and went back to doing the laundry.

Only three hours later, when the child’s grandmother returned, did the family realize that she was unconscious. Doctors found the scenario described by the mother as “highly unlikely,” concluding the girl had died of blunt force trauma “consistent with being thrown or slammed against a hard surface.”

Child welfare records show the mother had a history of neglect.

* Another 1-year-old girl who died May 8 after a babysitter allegedly punished her for jumping on the bed. The sitter allegedly knocked the girl’s feet out from under her and slammed her head against a dresser, according to police.

Family Services had received 11 complaints to the child abuse hotline related to the baby’s family. One call occurred four months before the child’s death, when her 18-year-old mother was arrested for petty theft.

Police at the time discovered extensive “unexplained injuries” on the infant, including “dirty and pink eyes” and rashes on her buttocks that were “almost bleeding.”

Still, social workers determined that the allegation of general neglect was “inconclusive.” The child remained with her mother after a social worker overruled a computer-generated recommendation that stronger action be taken.

* An 18-month-old boy who was found breathing but unconscious last May. His mother’s boyfriend told them that the child had choked on a penny. When patting the boy’s back didn’t dislodge it, the man told medics and a sheriff’s deputy, he tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him.

At the hospital, however, tests revealed that the boy had suffered hemorrhaging on the right side of his brain, an injury that was “indicative of shaken baby syndrome,” records show. He was declared brain-dead two days later. Caseworkers had previously substantiated allegations of emotional abuse and “caretaker absence.”

* A 2-year-old Pomona girl died May 19 as the result of “severe nutritional neglect,” according to an autopsy report. She weighed only 18 pounds, 7 ounces, comparable to a 5-month-old.

 

Injuries on her body included scabbed toes, wounds on her arms and legs and a contusion on her forehead, the report said.

Earlier, police records state, she had been removed from her parents and placed in foster care, where she grew normally before being returned to them in the summer of 2007. She later was frequently visited by a child social worker and died just two months after the last visit.

* A 2-year-old girl who died on Sept. 20 after 12 days in a coma. Her mother’s boyfriend reportedly shook and dropped her, according to a report filed with the California Health and Welfare Agency.

The baby’s family was the subject of eight previous calls to the child abuse hotline. All eight complaints were determined to be “inconclusive” or “unfounded.”

Records show that social workers did not follow up on inconsistencies in the family’s explanations for previous burn marks on the child’s arms, nose and face.

Family Services investigators also failed to take note of the mother’s developmental disability, which might have impaired her ability to follow a “safety plan” that allowed her to retain the child.

* An 18-month-old who went into full cardiac arrest while en route to the hospital in an ambulance. A doctor who examined him there suspected abuse when he found bruising to the back of the child’s head.

Two months earlier, another doctor had found bruising on the child’s ear, cheek and buttocks. His mother had told the doctor that she “had an issue with alcohol” and suspected that her son was being abused at her boyfriend’s house, after she fell asleep while drinking. That allegation was deemed inconclusive.

Until the investigations of the 10 cases are resolved, all workers involved have been placed in “desk jobs,” said Trish Ploehn, director of the family services department.

Ploehn acknowledged that the county’s review of child-death cases has been insufficient in recent years. The department did not have enough staff to review the actions of the social workers promptly.

There is supposed to be an independent monitor to identify systemic problems in the department, but that position has been left vacant by county supervisors for more than a year.

Ploehn said the department needs a better computer system for child social workers to help them access vital information held by other departments. For instance, a social worker has no way of knowing automatically whether a child has a history of being treated at a county hospital for unexplained injuries, or if a parent is receiving county mental health services for a disorder that might impair parenting.

The department has previously come under withering criticism for similar cases, but the deaths always came to the attention of the public and the Board of Supervisors one by one, and resulting reforms did not always take hold.

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich will call today for an investigation of the 14 deaths, as well as enhanced accountability measures and information-sharing across county agencies.

“This shocking report reveals very serious procedural errors and a lack of accountability that has resulted in tragedy,” he said in a press release.

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

 

 

ATTENTION LOS ANGELES COUNTY AND CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS:

 

Contact the reporter and share your story…

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-childdeath-form,0,3502325.special

STATE AGENCY BREAKS LAWS, ROBBING FOSTER CHILD OF STABLE HOME

Investigators: State Agency Breaks Laws, Robbing Foster Child Of Stable Home

 

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_042809INV-kids-in-limbo-SW.11d2b688e.html

The only stable home the little girl has ever known is with her foster parents Amy and Dick Langley of Snohomish County. Poca’s about to turn 4, and about to be taken away.

“It’s like being told your child’s going to die in front of you and you have this amount of time before your child dies,” said Amy. “It’s grief. It is unbelievable grief.”

Poca was born a very sick preemie. She weighed just 2 pounds, 4 ounces and had several neurological problems.

Doctors suspected she’d been exposed to drugs in utero, but couldn’t prove it. Her parents were young and troubled: the dad is a convicted felon for selling meth.

The mother had a prior baby die after testing positive for meth at birth.

Child Protective Services, CPS, took Poca away when they thought she was at risk of being abused or neglected. That’s how she ended up with the Langleys at 4 months of age.

The Langleys are well respected, well trained foster parents who have taken in 20 special needs children like Poca over the years.

“It’s our passion. Our passion is medically fragile and drug affected babies,” said Amy. “We really wanted to help the children who can’t find homes otherwise.”

The Langleys were praised for their work with Poca by state social workers, the biological parents, and her doctors.

The only stable home Poca has ever known is with her siblings and foster parents, Amy and Dick Langley of Snohomish County, WA.

“Her foster family, they’re not just good, they’re spectacular. In this environment she (Poca) has prospered, made great developmental gains and has become a very different child,” said her pediactric neurologist, Dr. Stephen Glass.

As months, years, and milestones went by: birthdays, holidays, and summer vacations, Poca bonded with her foster family. When asked if the Langleys consider her their child, Amy said, “I do. She’s our little girl. She’s our baby. She tells me all the time, I your baby, Mama.”

There’s a federal law  that applies to children like Poca who are taken away from their birth parents. When a child has been in foster care for 15 months, and the biological parents still haven’t proven they can do the job, the state is mandated to file papers to terminate parental rights. But in Poca’s case the state hasn’t filed any papers, and it’s been nearly four years. State workers have clearly violated this law and state laws.

DSHS officials say this case is taking longer than most, but their mission is to place kids back with their biological families.

“That’s what we’re here for, to reunify families,” said Sandy Kinney, who heads up children’s services out of the DSHS Everett office, where Poca’s case is being handled. (Read Senator Roaches blog and you will see that this statement is indeed FALSE….)

Kinney says some parents take longer than others to get it together, “In any case where we can reunify families successfully and safely that’s the right thing to do, so sometimes change takes a little longer for people to do.”

KING 5 has found many efforts to help the biological parents get Poca back haven’t gone well.

- An occupational therapist reported the dad slept through most of the sessions.

- A traveling nurse said the mother “refused to cooperate” when she was trying to teach her how to care for a medically fragile baby.

- The mother’s MySpace page talked of drinking, clubbing, and bailing friends out of jail.

- In November, the dad admitted drinking again, which violated a court order to stay clean and sober.

Dave Lindsey was a court-appointed investigator for Poca. Five times he recommended the birth parent’s rights be terminated and five times he was ignored by DSHS workers.

Lindsey quit the case in protest.

When asked how strongly he felt that the child should not return to the birth parents he said, “I wouldn’t have recommended it if I wasn’t strong about it. I mean that’s a tough decision to take your kids away. It wasn’t in the child’s best interest to go back to that home.”

He wasn’t alone. We’ve uncovered documents showing a social worker, who quit the case out of frustration, wrote Poca would be at “significant risk to thrive in the family home.” She also wrote “it is very concerning that after nearly 3 years of being in foster care, the parents still do not seem to understand (her special needs) and how to address them.” A state evaluator said she should be “adopted by her foster parents.”

Poca’s neurologist wrote because of her developmental disorders it’s “crucial” she stay with the Langleys. After that DSHS removed Poca from his care. “The decision to remove this child from their care is unconscionable,” said Dr. Stephen Glass. “I am irate. I am in disbelief that this happened.”

There’s a reason federal law requires a speedy, permanent solution for foster children like Poca. It’s traumatizing to yank children from the place they call home.

“It’s being in limbo that’s most damaging to the child because the child doesn’t know where they’re supposed to go and where they’re supposed to be,” said Gary Malkasian of the Foster Care Justice

“This has a cost.

Whenever they’re moved they feel like, you don’t want me, you got rid of me.”

People who’ve worked on the case tell KING 5 DSHS had a one track mindset: place Poca with her parents no matter what. No matter how long it takes.

Dr. Glass has worked on CPS cases for years, and says he hasn’t seen anything like this. He describes the case handling as “capricious, bumbling, disorganized, haphazard, and decisions have been made that are unfounded and unbelievable.”

New experts assigned to the case, and a judge, say after all these years Poca’s birth parents are finally ready take care of her, with a strong possibility she’ll never see the Langleys again.

“We’ve tried to explain to her that no matter what, we will fight for her, her whole life,” said Amy. “We will not give up. We will love her no matter where she is.”

Update: There has been an abrupt change in this case. An emergency hearing was held yesterday to postpone Poca’s reunification with her biological parents. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anita Farris said in open court that the birth parents are “lying and hiding” information from social workers and she was suspicious they were drinking and doing drugs again. Despite that, the judge also ruled Poca cannot stay with her foster family. Why’s that?

There’s something you don’t know about the Langleys and their battle with DSHS. We’ll expose that side of the case on KING 5 News at 11 p.m. on Thursday and on KING5.com

BACKGROUND CHECK BILL PROPOSED

Bill would require background checks for child services workers

 

http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1818224.html

By Marjie Lundstrom and Sam Stanton
mlundstrom@sacbee.com
Published: Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2009 – 12:00 am | Page 3A

Pressure mounted Tuesday for a requirement that California’s child protection agencies conduct criminal background checks on prospective social workers before they can be hired.

A bill that would require county child welfare agencies to conduct such checks passed its first test Tuesday in the Legislature amid guarded questioning by state senators.

The proposal by Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, would bar counties from hiring child protection social workers who have been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, felony spousal abuse, child abuse or a sex offense that requires registration.

“It only makes sense to me … ,” said Ashburn. “We’re trying to narrow the possibility that children are further neglected or abused – or worse.”

Ashburn said his SB 774 stemmed from a Bee series published last month revealing that at least 7 percent of the employees at Sacramento County’s Child Protective Services had criminal histories in this county.

The Bee found that at least 68 Sacramento County CPS workers had a variety of convictions or arrests for crimes that included drug possession or sales, weapons possession, spousal abuse and prostitution.

Ashburn’s bill would apply only to social workers, rather than other employees who do not have direct daily access to children or their families.

None of the Sacramento social workers found to have criminal histories was convicted of crimes that would be covered by Ashburn’s bill, although four had multiple convictions for driving under the influence or drug possession.

Crimes involving other employees who were not social workers included grand theft, spousal abuse and witness tampering.

Ashburn said he would have made the bill tougher if he thought it would succeed, specifically citing concern over the multiple DUI convictions by workers who transport children.

But he said the background checks for the serious convictions he listed will “provide a greater degree of safety” for vulnerable children.

“We will get something out of the Legislature that will be better than what we have today,” said the senator, who has written previous background-check legislation. “Given the revelations – especially in your articles – every county ought to be on this voluntarily.”

Several senators were skeptical, among them Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who said he believed that banning a social worker’s hiring based on a list of offenses was “kind of a harsh position.”

“Where is the leeway?” he asked.

Frank Mecca, executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association, told the Senate Human Services Committee that he generally supported the bill but wanted it amended to apply only to those workers who have direct contact with children.

Mecca, whose group lobbies the Legislature on behalf of county welfare agencies, was critical of The Bee’s coverage of Sacramento CPS, saying the agency had taken “quite a beating from its local paper and, to a large extent, unfairly.”

But he said the coverage has revealed a lack of uniformity in California in how counties screen new and existing workers at the county-based child protection agencies.

In a separate action, the State Department of Social Services issued a notice Friday to all county child welfare agencies urging them to “consider the options available … to conduct a criminal record background check for both prospective and current employees.”

The Bee found that practices vary widely in California, where some counties pay extra for an FBI background check of CPS employees, while others limit the search to the state level.

Some counties request “subsequent arrest notifications” from the state Department of Justice, while others do not. The notifications, also known as “rap-backs,” inform the agency if an employee is arrested later.

State Social Services Director John A. Wagner told The Bee that while the state cannot mandate how counties administer their programs and screen their workers, he said he believed “there’s definitely room for improvement.”

A spokeswoman said for the state Department of Social Services said the agency has not yet taken a position on Ashburn’s bill.

Ashburn’s proposal makes clear that those who have received a “certificate of rehabilitation” after a conviction would not be subject to the hiring prohibition.

To avoid the state budget hurdle, the bill allows counties to pass on the costs of processing criminal histories to applicants.

A representative of the Service Employees International Union expressed concern about that aspect, saying some young social workers fresh out of school might be unable to pay the fee of about $70.

Ashburn said he believed it was reasonable.

“People who want to work for a government agency should pay the cost of having their background cleared,” he said. “I don’t know why the taxpayer should pick up that obligation.”

The senator said his home county, Kern County, has faced public scrutiny similar to that in Sacramento County over child deaths.

“IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING AT DSS…YOU’RE EXAGGERATING”

I found this article at:

http://mkg4583.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/is-this-really-happening-at-dss-%e2%80%a6you%e2%80%99re-exaggerating/#comment-100

It was originally posted here….

 

DSS Abuses are painfully real, and hidden by media silence

By Marvin B. Cohen “The Crime Dog”

http://familyrights.us/news/archive/2009/feb/is_this_really_happening_at_dss.html

http://www.piedmontcrimecontrol.com/index2.htm

 

PIEDMONT CRIME CONTROL

MARVIN COHEN

Voice: 336-951-2007 P.O. Box 10678 Greensboro, NC 27404-0678

Piedmont Crime Control is a Non Profit 501 c3 corporation helping to Identify problems in the Triad area of North Carolina.

When the public reads about parents who claim that their children were taken by DSS without any abuse taking place, most people are skeptical. It’s only natural to think; “There must be more to it…”

After all, these kinds of things – government agents forcing their way into people’s homes, abducting children based on no evidence, children stolen and sold. Well, those kinds of things only happen in other countries, right? They don’t happen here! This is a democracy, based on freedom, law and justice.

In this country people have rights.

We have a Constitution and Bill of Rights. We have protections, damnit! We assume that before a child is forcefully removed from his home, the police must have been called to investigate an act of abuse to the child, an act inflicted with the intent to cause harm. Assault & battery. Beatings. You might assume that the parents you read about have been charged with something. After all, they must have had to do something for DSS to be called. Right?

That’s the way I used to think, too.

The fact is that these parents are rarely charged with anything at all. Meaning that there is no police involvement, no evidence of any crime having been committed whatsoever, and no charges pressed. You must be convicted of a crime to lose your driver’s license, but you can lose your children simply because a neighbor or social worker doesn’t like you.

A large percentage of reports of child abuse are made vindictively by disgruntled neighbors, perhaps in the course of some type of neighborhood dispute. Others are retaliatory actions in bitter divorce & custody battles. A disgruntled employee whom you fired could call DSS , or someone whose romantic interest you rejected, or some busybody who witnessed you yell at your child in the grocery store or swat them on the bottom, or your new date’s ex-girlfriend or boyfriend. Or, any sad, pathetic, lonely person who has nothing better to do than try to cast their own pain onto others. The fact is that any mentally unstable busybody can file a report of suspected child abuse.

So, why wouldn’t such obviously faulty reports is screened out? Many of them are. Out of the three million filed per year, over two million are screened out eventually. (Meaning that over one million parents a year are falsely reported for child abuse in this country.)

But when an agency is rewarded financially, based on their numbers, with intense federal pressure to increase the numbers, the motivation is to create clients by any means possible. The more documented and even false charges DSS makes, the more funding they receive from the federal level, the state level, and the local level. So, not only are the parents, children and families are being abused, the public government coffers are being defrauded by DSS.

Majority of Cases Not Maltreatment

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services documents that around 68% of all substantiated cases do not involve child maltreatment. Well, you might ask, what the heck do they involve then? The majority (55%) are due to “deprivation of necessities” due to poverty. So, if your electricity gets shut off, you may lose your kids.

Others are “emotional maltreatment” which is: “denial of child’s wishes” (now there’s a can of worms!), “immature parents,” “failure to individualize children and their needs,” and “parentifying the child” (letting child help with chores, do dishes, help prepare meals or help with younger siblings.) So, if you thought that you were being a good and responsible parent by teaching your children tasks and to be helpful, self-sufficient and competent, I guess you might be a little surprised to learn that you, too, are a child abuser.

Other supported child abuse reports are typically for school absenteeism, head lice (which they usually get in school), diaper rash, not sending a snack or mittens to school, “parents argue in front of child,” leaving kids in the car for a second while you run into the store, “risk of homelessness,” unsuitable housing, leaving kids with a teenage babysitter, messy house/house “too neat,” mothers being “over nurturing,” or any scrape, bruise, bump, or injury inevitably incurred in the normal course of childhood play.

Christians and homeschoolers are frequently targeted. Christians are accused of having “religious mania” due to bi-polar disorder. Homeschoolers are trying to isolate their children to hide the bruises.

If you have a little boy who is a good all-American Huck Finn, beware! I remember when my brother and I were little. We lived in Miami, Florida, and we were tree climbers/explorers from the time we could stand. If we were not 40 feet up in some tree, then we were climbing on buildings or crawling through a bee’s nest. We had a huge dog names Scrappy as stubborn as we were and we tried riding him like a horse and he bucked us off frequently.

We had semi-permanent eggs in the middle of our foreheads, and bruise’s and scrapes all over. I think our knees stayed skinned until we were about 17. We spent so much time in the ER that they jokingly said they were building us our own cubicle with our names on a brass plaque.

Boy would our mother in trouble if we were little in today’s America. If the school wants your kid on Ritalin and you refuse, you could be reported for “medical neglect.” But if you take your adventurous or sickly child to the emergency room too often, you most definitely will be reported for “suspected child abuse.” You could even be charged with “Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy.” If you aren’t familiar with Munchausen’s, it’s the new rage.

Parents are accused of deliberately injuring their child or making them sick because they like the attention they get spending so much time in the hospital. If you have a child who wets the bed or a daughter who is prone to yeast or urinary tract infections, you may find yourself charged with sexual abuse, even though yeast or UTI’s are commonly caused by careless toilet hygiene, antibiotics, or a diet high in carbohydrates.

Did you ever take any cute pictures of your kids in the bathtub? Or running through the sprinkler nude or the traditional bear skin rug pictures? Those are now reported to DSS by film developers as suspected sexual abuse. I see many nudie baby pictures in television and print advertising, including from Beechnut and Gerber. But, if you take them, you could be reported. I heard of two little girls in DSS custody who like to do the hula dance to the opening music of the TV show “Home Improvement.”

DSS reported that doing the hula dance was “sexualized behavior” that led them to believe the girls might have been sexually abused by their father. (Suspicion naturally falls on the father rather than any other party.) Stemming from the hula dance the girls were forced to have sexual abuse evaluations at ages 4 and 6. They were questioned ad nauseam and exposed to anatomically correct dolls. They were taught about sex by the child savers and their innocence was removed forever. (Just in case you are wondering how DSS ever saw the girls’ hula dance while they watched “Home Improvement,” they were in a women’s shelter due to temporary homelessness and the shelter staff thought the dance was “suspicious behavior.”)

How Did DSS Get Into It?

How did DSS get so far removed from child abuse? They operate by following something called the “Clinical Model.” They see themselves as “clinicians.” In other words, they use psychology as the basis for intervention.

No, they are not qualified or licensed as psychologists.

But, even if they were, I do not feel that psychology can be a basis for social service intervention. Why? Well, because as human beings the nature of the beast is that we are all walking balls of pathology. If you go in search of pathology, you are going to find it.

There is no such thing as a “normal” rating. If you’re too “normal,” then that’s abnormal. No one can “pass” a psych evaluation and get a piece of paper that says: “This person tested as normal.” Psychology is a soft science, meaning that it is comprised of theory and interpretation.

As opposed to a hard science such as forensics, biochemistry, or medicine where results are proven based on concrete facts and evidence (i.e., x-rays, DNA, and blood chemistry). By using the Clinical Model, anything can be interpreted to mean whatever the interpreter wants it to. How convenient. And how very dangerous when the interpreters may have “issues” of their own or be motivated by money to produce a certain result.

Using the Clinical Model, DSS does not take children based on inflicted injuries or evidence of a crime of child abuse. Rather, they use the behaviors of the child to “prove” that there is some sort of hidden abuse occurring in the home. I think that most of us humans who are actually from this planet, and were children ourselves once, know that all children act up at various times, and in various ways.

We earthlings call this: normal human behavior. Children play, children have tantrums, children threaten to hold their breath until they get what they want, little boys used to dunk little girls pigtails in inkwells. We don’t always know what causes human behavior. Behavior could be due to neurological causes, or genetic, or bio-chemical.

There is no expert in the world who can definitively state what causes any particular behavior unless it is a result of physical brain damage. Maybe we don’t always have to find a reason or someone to blame.

But, with the Clinical Model any behavior of the child can be used to “prove” that the child has been abused by the parents. (It only works for parental abuse) Therefore, if your child is shy or just well behaved, that is documented as “fearful and withdrawn.” If they are active and noisy they are “acting out their inability to verbalize the trauma.” If they run to their dad and climb up into his lap, they are “identifying with the aggressor.” If the child says his parents never hurt him, he is “in denial” and “protecting the abuser.” If children say they love their parents, then they have the Stockholm syndrome. Or even more stupid: parents are told by social workers, “All abused children say they love their parents so their parents won’t hurt them anymore.”

Nothing is just normal, predictable human behavior. If children are outgoing, quiet, placid, disobedient, too obedient, neat, messy, loud, easy-going or temperamental ­everything has some deep, dark, obscure “meaning” that “proves” the parents have committed some type of hidden abuse and thus supports the DSS theory that all parents are inadequate and abusive.

Therefore children must be raised by the State.

To build an airtight case, DSS provides “proof” supplied by junk psychologists who work for them. DSS holds multi-million dollar contracts with privately owned “counseling” agencies. Many of them work exclusively for the business that comes from DSS. Their very existence is dependent on DSS. It orders clients to attend their own contracted vendors, sends a referral sheet to the agency basically outlining what they want the reports to say, and the whore-psychologists provide the “proof” needed by DSS. Most of this is billed to MassHealth (Medicaid).

If you came into contact with DSS initially due to poverty reasons, like your electricity being shut off or “risk of homelessness”, then you must have counseling to find out why you are poor. God forbid the government could own up to playing a role in poverty and social problems. This method allows the politicians to feel alleviated of any responsibility for people’s problems and allows them to cast the blame on the citizens for being so dysfunctional and stupid to become poor.

David Gill, one of the nation’s leading child abuse researchers, and one of the first to question the Clinical model, writes: “Whatever problems which are actually rooted in societal dynamics are defined as individual shortcomings or pathology, their real sources are disguised, and interventions are focused on individuals…and the social order is absolved by implication from guilt and responsibility and may continue to function unchallenged in accordance with established patterns.”

Richard Wexler writes: “Why does the Medical (Clinical) Model persist in the face of so much evidence to the contrary? Probably because it confers enormous prestige on the child-savers. Rather than being glorified welfare workers trying to get a poor family’s electricity turned on, the Model transforms child savers into doctor-like experts on the cutting edge of ‘treating’ a ‘syndrome.’ It feeds the egos of the narcissistic and allows those who are haunted by their own feelings of powerlessness and inadequacy to feel powerful by dominating others, unchecked.

Armed with the Clinical Model, social workers, politicians and the public can remain comfortably free of any feelings of responsibility or guilt: it’s the parents’ fault ­ they are “sick.” If you can convince yourself that this is so, then you need not feel guilty about the enormous harm done to children by placing them in foster care; you may be able to convince yourself that it is the “lesser of two evils.”

Richard Gelles, former director of the Rhode Island Family Violence Research Program states that “We have created a child protective system designed to cure symptoms that in many cases do not exist.”

Social Workers Are ‘Superior’.

When the first social workers hit the streets in the late 1800s, they were mostly Christians and Jews and were helping those who needed some assistance over a rough spot.

Now, they are pseudo-psychologists with a little knowledge of sociology and child-care. They are no longer just helping those who need a hand. They are far “superior” to those people they meet.

They are foot soldiers in the movement to have the state control the children, not the parents.

Most of the DSS cases involving seized children have mock court hearings. DSS presents the created and trumped evidence against the parent to the judge. In 99% of these cases, the judge generally rubber stamps whatever DSS wants. These children are alienated from the parents that love them and trusted into foster care with people that have little care for them. Foster parents are not volunteers! They are paid by DSS to house these children.

Many foster parents medicate the children to make them fall asleep earlier. There are scores of cases where the children have truly been abused by foster parents. I’m currently talking with a mother whose 15 year old daughter was placed in foster care by DSS. After several months, she was suddenly returned to her mother, about 2 or 3 months pregnant. She later delivered a little girl. The father is unknown and DSS will never admit any wrong doing in the matter.

DSS Works in Secrecy!

Trying to get the case history from DSS is impossible.

Everything DSS does is held in strict secrecy. Because their work involves minors, they do not have to deliver or show proof. Their records are subpoena proof. This means that even if everything in a case is a complete provable lie, it is automatically sealed. Even the original accuser remains unknown to the family victims of DSS’ greed for funding.

LENIENCY URGED FOR TAJANAY’S MOTHER

 

She loved girl, says advocate; boyfriend gets 65 years in death

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090425/NEWS02/904250480

By Jon Murray
Posted: April 25, 2009

A judge who gave the killer of 3-year-old TaJanay Bailey a 65-year prison sentence Friday will next consider the fate of the girl’s mother.

Charity Bailey, 22, could face decades in prison at sentencing next month on guilty pleas to four counts of neglect in connection with her daughter’s death from abuse. But an advocate touched by Bailey’s own turbulent upbringing said she has gathered dozens of signatures for a petition urging compassion and minimal time in prison.

“Charity did not kill her child,” said Jennifer Cobb, whose group, And Justice For All Inc., has been an advocate for Bailey. “Charity loved all her children, particularly TaJanay.”

Cobb was in the courtroom Friday when Marion Superior Court Judge Kurt Eisgruber gave Lawrence L. Green, 22 — Bailey’s live-in boyfriend — the prison term set by his plea agreement with prosecutors.

The judge dispatched the case by branding Green a “child killer.”

TaJanay’s death in November 2007 captured attention on several fronts. Prosecutors said Bailey stood by while Green inflicted abuse bordering on torture, including hanging TaJanay by her T-shirt on a coat hook, in part because of trouble with potty training.

TaJanay had spent most of her life in foster care, but the state Department of Child Services sent her and her younger half brother home for a trial reunification about a month before her death.

No penalty could be enough for Green, TaJanay’s former foster mothers said Friday. Kristen Foster and Janice Springfield, who cared for TaJanay at different times, said she loved Dora the Explorer and McDonald’s french fries and delighted in new experiences with her foster families.

“Lawrence, I will tell you this. I will pray for you every day in prison,” Foster said to Green from the witness stand.

But as soon as he leaves the prison gates, she said, “I pray that you die instantly and never get to see another day of freedom on this earth.”

Green said little. He could be released in about 31 years, with credit for good behavior and time already served in jail.

Prosecutors dropped a request for a life sentence without parole after Green agreed to the 65-year term, the statutory maximum for murder.

Bailey’s sentencing, set for May 22, won’t be as clear-cut. She could receive anything from no prison to 56 years.

Two of her neglect charges involve violence against TaJanay and failing to seek treatment. The other two, which likely will be merged, involve unsafe conditions in the apartment, including mice, cockroaches and filth.

Cobb predicts the judge will deliver a stiff sentence. But she prays he will take into account Bailey’s difficult life — a consideration that others, including Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi, say shouldn’t discount her role in TaJanay’s death.

The Indianapolis Star’s review of unsealed juvenile court records last year showed that Charity Bailey was born in California with cocaine in her system. Sexually active by age 9, she later had two delinquency cases and dropped out of Tech High School.

DCS removed TaJanay from her care twice. Caseworkers noted that Bailey refused to leave Green despite alleged domestic abuse.

Bailey and Green have two sons, both in foster care.

DISTURBING DETAILS IN MURDER/RAPE OF THREE YEAR OLD GIRL

 

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/rape_977771___article.html/details_three.html

April 27, 2009 – 6:59 PM
John Madewell

We’ve learned many disturbing details in the rape and murder case of a three year old girl and arrest of a 14 year old boy. Gracie Ann Trentham died last week after being rushed to T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital. We want to warn you that the new details in this case are disturbing.

From what we have been able to establish little Gracie was a foster child. And investigators say this brutal, sexual attack happened while she was in foster care and led to her death.

The little girl’s life ended in a horrible and violent manner. Her life started with an uphill track. According to the obituary listing, little Gracie was a foster child. We found pictures of her on the Facebook page of the woman claiming custody of her. Through our own research, we discovered she lived here in this home in Georgetown community of north Hamilton County.

Trentham lived there with other foster children. People familiar with the death call it horrific. Sheriff Jim Hammond says the sex attack factored into the death, “It does appear as part of the homicide, there was rape involved in it.”

Hamilton County detectives charged the 14 year old last week with Felony Murder by Aggravated Rape of a Child and Aggravated Rape of a child. We learned little Gracie died last Tuesday.but before that she went to T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital with trauma, including vomiting.

Although she lived here with other foster children, investigators do not believe another foster child killed her. “We know at this point, it does appear that the victim was a foster child at the house and there was no blood relationship,” Sheriff Hammond said.

Meanwhile, neighbors have not seen the teenager since his arrest. He is believed to remain in juvenile custody. Juvenile Court and the District Attorney’s office must decide if he will be tried as a child or adult. We asked the sheriff.if any charges could come against the foster parent.

Sheriff Hammond says he doesn’t think so, but didn’t rule it out. “Obviously, the ball was dropped somewhere in regard to this child being in the foster care. What we have to determine is who did what.”

We did not find out until this afternoon that Gracie Trentham was a foster child as confirmed by her obituary page and foster mother’s Facebook page. However, late this afternoon the Department of Children’s Services did not show a record of Trentham.or her foster mother.in its system.

This is something the state and we here at NewsChannel 9 will be digging into as this story develops.

SOMETHING IS NOT ADDING UP IN THIS STORY!!!!

Babysitter Describes Foster Boy’s Alleged Suicide

 

http://cbs4.com/iteam/7.Year.Old.2.995881.html

19-Year-Old Says Dead Boy Spoke, Even As He Hung By His Neck

 

Reporting: Gary Nelson

Apr 27, 2009 7:57 pm US/Eastern
MARGATE (CBS4) – A foster child who allegedly killed himself 11 days ago cursed at his babysitter and announced his intention to commit suicide, even as he hung by his neck in a bathroom shower. That is the account the babysitter gave CBS4’s Gary Nelson Monday.

Nineteen year-old Miguel Gould was watching the foster child, seven year-old Gabriel Myers on April 16th when Gould says the boy threw a tantrum, angry about a lunch of crackers and soup the sitter had given, and locked himself in a bathroom. Gould is the son of the foster father at the home where Gabriel died.

Gould told the CBS4 News I-Team he went to check on the boy when he heard a “loud noise” from the bathroom. Gould said when he looked through a window in a patio door to the bathroom, he saw that Gabriel “had used a shower hose to wrap around his neck.” He said the boy spoke to him, as he hung by his neck, his feet suspended off the floor of the bathtub beneath him.  (REMEMBER THIS PART!)

“I told him not to do anything crazy or stupid. He told me was going to kill himself,” Gould said. “I told him to unhook himself, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

Gould and CBS4’s Nelson had this on-camera exchange as they stood in the bathroom of the foster home Monday:

Gould: He spoke to me as soon as the hose was tightly around his neck, and he was able to speak.
Nelson: He was hanging there, his feet were suspended off the bathtub?
Gould: Uh huh.
Nelson: And he spoke to you as he was hanging there?
Gould: Yes.
Nelson: And he said?
Gould: He said that he was going to kill himself.
Nelson: Even as he was hanging by his neck?
Gould: Yes.

The babysitter said he ran and got a screwdriver to open a door that leads to the bathroom from an interior hallway of the home. He said it took him “about two minutes” to find a screwdriver and pop open the lock on the doorknob.

“As soon as I unlocked the door, he was, you know, lying in the tub, dead,” Gould said. “I believe he fell into the tub. His head was leaning against the wall. As soon as I saw him lying there dead, then I unhooked him.” >(THIS STORY DOES NOT ADD UP!!! IF HE WAS HANGING WITH HIS FEET OFF THE TUB BY HIS NECK…HOW IS HE THEN LYING ON THE BATH TUB BOTTOM???? I THINK THERE IS MORE TO THIS STORY THEN WE HAVE HEARD!)

The babysitter said he tried to “breathe” for the boy but was unable to revive him.

Gould said he moved into the home in Margate “three months” ago, after living with his “stepfather” in Canada “for 18 years.”

Gould said we would frequently watch Gabriel and another foster child in the home while his father was at work as an assistant principal in a Miami-Dade school and his mother worked as a nurse.

Margate police say the investigation into the foster child’s death remains open and no manner of death has been officially determined. Police Chief Jerry Blough declined to comment further.

Gould told CBS4 News he has been interviewed at length by Margate investigators.

The Department of Children and Families released nearly 1,500 pages of case file on Gabriel Myers over the weekend. The youngster was taken from his drug-abusing mother less than a year ago. He had apparently been sexually abused and exposed to adult videos since the age of three. Teachers had reported that he had exposed himself, and touched other children inappropriately.

CBS4’s News partner, the Miami Herald reported last week that the boy had recently been prescribed powerful, psychotropic drugs not approved for use in children. Some of the drugs are known to increase suicide risk in children.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

THIS STORY BREAKS MY HEART…THIS POOR BABY

Seven-Year-Old Suicide Victim: ‘I’m a bad person’

 

http://cbs4.com/local/april.25.2009.2.994414.html

By Gio Benitez, CBS4 I-Team Producer
MIAMI (CBS4) –
A 7-year-old boy who allegedly hanged himself complained to his therapists that he was “a bad person,” and “born a liar,” taught to lie by his own mother, according to newly released documents.

The nearly 1,500 pages released late Friday night by state officials paint the portrait of a terribly troubled child in the foster care system — going from home to home with a repetitive sentiment: loneliness and anger. In just seven years, Gabriel Myers seems to have experienced a life no parent would want for any child.

Myers, who turned 7 in January, died on April 16th when police say he hanged himself using the extendable shower-head in his foster parents’ Margate home. But according to the documents obtained by the CBS4 I-Team, the child’s troubled life began long before.

In 2003, the 7-year-old’s mother, Candace Myers, was arrested by Hallandale Beach police on charges of cocaine possession and driving under the influence. But it wasn’t until a similar arrest last June by the same police agency that a judge ordered the child be removed from his mother’s custody. He had been found in a car with his unconscious mother, surrounded by powdered cocaine and crack cocaine.

That’s when a child in the midst of losing his innocence — and ultimately his life — is captured on paper.

“My mom taught me how to lie. She always lied to the police, to everybody,” he told a therapist after throwing scissors in school. “I lied when I was 1 year old, I lied when I was 2 years old. I was born a liar and I will always be lying,” he said in another therapy session.

“[The] devil makes me lie and do all those bad things. He is bad and he makes you do bad things,” the boy told the therapist.

In the documents, the child recalls being molested by another 12-year-old boy and being told to “pee in [the 12-year-old's] mouth.” The records also show the child had been molesting girls and boys at school, touching them inappropriately, and threatening to kill others and himself. He repeatedly said he had no friends.

“I used to have some imaginary friends. I still have one but I haven’t been talking to him a long time,” Myers reportedly said.

Psychiatrists and therapists wrote that the young boy wasn’t suicidal or psychotic, but from time to time, had dramatic tantrums. It was during one of those tantrums that he lost his life and, according to a DCF spokesperson reached Saturday, the circumstances surrounding that tantrum could have been a violation from the start.

According to the DCF documents, when Gabriel Myers was found dead April 16th, he was left at the Margate home with 19-year-old Miguel Gould. Gould is the son of Michael and Daver Gould, Myers’ foster care parents. He was visiting from Canada, according to the DCF spokesperson.

Miguel told Margate police that he was “caring for Gabriel for the day because the boy was home sick from [school].”

The child reportedly threw his bowl of soup into the trash, “so Miguel sent the child to his room,” Margate police documented. While in his room, the boy began throwing toys then told Miguel Gould that “he was going to [go] into the bathroom and kill himself.” Miguel Gould told police that he later called his stepmother to tell her what happened and couldn’t get into the bathroom for another five to ten minutes. That’s when the child was reportedly found hanged.

The problem is Miguel Gould wasn’t even supposed to be left alone with the 7-year-old, according to the DCF spokesperson. He had not been officially screened by the agency.

“Kids in Distress [one of the organizations charged with overseeing Gabriel Myers] was aware that Miguel was coming to visit. They had begun background studies on him, but he was not a part of the recently signed safety contract so he should not have been left alone with Gabriel, if that’s what happened,” said DCF Regional Spokesperson Leslie Mann.

A REPETITIVE CYCLE

The Gould foster home was Gabriel Myers’ third in less than a year. The DCF documents obtained by the I-Team show he first entered the foster care system on June 29, 2008.

He was placed in a licensed home through Kids in Distress.

Some days later, he was moved to the home of his aunt and uncle. He lived there for some three months until Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) investigators received a report alleging sexual and physical abuse.

While investigators found no signs of sexual abuse, the uncle revealed he “did try corporal punishment” and hit the child with a belt. A Broward County judge issued an emergency order and moved Gabriel Myers back to the licensed home.

However, that wasn’t the last move for Gabriel. In March, the foster parent thought Gabriel might be a threat to his baby and requested “expedited service” in removing the child from his home. Officials with Kids in Distress, ChildNet, and DCF moved Gabriel to the Gould home.

MEDICATION COCKTAIL

According to the documents, when Gabriel first entered the system, he had with him a prescription bottle of Adderall XR, a drug typically taken for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The medication appeared melted. A new prescription was filled, but ultimately stopped. The DCF documents show Gabriel began seeing a psychiatrist soon after entering the system.

The psychiatrist later prescribed Lexapro, a drug for depression and anxiety, and Vyvanse for the child’s ADHD. In March, doctors took Gabriel off Lexapro, and put him on Symbyax, also for depression and possible schizophrenia.

All three of the drugs have an FDA-mandated “black box” warning — a statement on the prescription’s box which describes its possible adverse reactions, including suicidal thoughts.

DCF INVESTIGATION STALLED

Meanwhile, DCF intends to continue its investigation and Mann says an important piece of the puzzle is whether he was left alone with the 19-year-old, the DCF spokesperson said. But law enforcement won’t allow DCF to interview the Gould family to see if Miguel had any prior training to take care of Gabriel, until after Margate police finish their investigation

“Urgency is our mission and transparency is our mission.

It’s difficult to answer because we don’t have all the answers. We’re thinking Gabriel was home alone with the 19-year-old but we don’t have 100 percent confirmation of that. If he was, that would have been a violation,” said Mann.

The documents show a child shuffled around, seemingly not wanted by anyone, and in the end, alone in a Margate bathroom.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

How in the hell do you expect a child to feel loved and wanted when you are playing foster parent roulette with them.  Children need stability, they need to bond with people and know that they are loved…not this constant upheveal provided by DSS….This poor baby, did he ever know one drop of happiness…did anyone even try…or did DSS do what they always do and just coldly pass him from one place to the next without any concern for his actual well-being and best interest.