family_rights_wv

2006-04-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

WV DHHR CPS BRUSHING COFFMAN CASE AND CHILD MOLESTATION CASE UNDER THE RUG?

Due to the Jonathan Coffman case (5 day-old infant froze due to CPS failing to have heat turned on for the mentally challenged mother who was under CPS supervision) and the other child sexual molestation case (child reported to CPS he was being molested, CPS failed to take action to protect the child in a timely manner) and the fact that WV DHHR CPS had to pay out about $1.5 Million dollars (of OUR taxdollars) to settle those two cases out-of-court, legislators formed a CPS panel to check into CPS matters.

WV Legislation has passed legislation to take advantage of grants being made available to look for drugs in mothers and newborns. They also passed legislation to form a Special Victims Unit (to track down abusive parents, according to the register-herald and for "heinous" allegations, not "PETTY" allegations according to Sen. Mahan).

The CPS panel only heard from fathers righters, grandparents and a foster/adoptive Mother who claimed she was falsely accused by CPS.

The CPS panel did NOT hear from ANY falsely accused biological mothers, even though statements were sent to members of the cps panel indicating that at least ONE biological mother had proof of wrongdoings done by CPS workers in a CPS case.

In the media, WV CPS is focusing on 3 cases where allegedly, children were killed by their natural families.

WV legislators claimed they could not access the Jonathan Coffman case records, even though under WV Code the records CAN be released to a large number of persons and ARE to be released to child fatality review teams.

WV DHHR CPS refuses to release information to the public regarding what, if any, disicplinary action was taken against the CPS workers involved in the Jonathan Coffman case and the child sexual molestation case.

We don't know whether or not these workers are still employed with WV DHHR CPS and still leaving children in harm's way.

It appears that our WV elected officials are brushing the Coffman case and the child sexual molestation case under the rug and continuing to ignore falsely accused parents (particularly mothers) who were railroaded.

I would suggest that members post to public forums to bring the plight of the falsely accused to light, and to point out that the public is not being informed about IF any corrective actions were taken within WV DHHR CPS to correct the problems of CPS which resulted in the death of Jonathan Coffman and allowed that child to be sexually molested.

Contact for more information.

Christi

Please add family_rights_wv @ yahoo.com to your address books, otherwise my private emails to you may not reach your inbox (check your bulk mail folders if using yahoo).

Have you read posts in family_rights_wv lately?

Family Settles Lawsuit Against Fayette Board $450K
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2662

Compare CPS tactics to these tactics described. Sound familiar?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2658

2,919 SIGNATURES - TO REQUEST INVESTIGATION NATIONWIDE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2655

DHHR cabinet secretary Martha Walker earns $90K and is to get $20K p
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2640

CPS WHISTLE BLOWER IS AWARDED ALMOST $500,000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2635

Reporting wrongdoing by CPS workers to WV OIG
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2622

WV gearing up to take advantage of the grants to look for drugs in mothers and babies
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2579

WV ranks #1 in child fatalities, #14 in murder-suicide DV homicides,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2575

HR 1790: House Passes Bill Protecting Children From Forced Psychiatr
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2576

WV LEGISLATURE PASSES STATE POLICE SVU HB4011 AND CHILD ABUSE REGIST
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/family_rights_wv/message/2547

REMINDER: Due to reports that CPS workers and/or cohorts have jointed the group against group policies, Keep group email settings to "special notices" at this time, or you may be removed from the group without further notice.

2006-04-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

ABUSE IS NO.1 REASON TEACHERS LOSE LICENSES IN WV

BishopAccountability.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abuse Is No. 1 Reason Teachers Lose Licenses in W.Va.

The Associated Press, carried in The Herald-Mail [West Virginia]
October 17, 2005

Sexual abuse of students is the No. 1 reason public school teachers have lost their licenses in West Virginia during the past five years. About 35 percent of those revocations were because of sexual assault or abuse of a student.

The percentage could be even higher, but state Department of Education records obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request do not specify if a sexual offense was the reason why another 19 percent lost their teaching privileges, according to a review by The Associated Press. Those offenses were listed as misconduct with students.

Also, since July 1, 2000, the state Board of Risk and Insurance Management has paid $6.9 million to settle 17 claims involving teacher misconduct with students, according to agency records.

Sexual misdeeds by teachers remains a dirty little secret in schools across the nation even though nearly one in 10 students will be abused by a teacher before they graduate, according to studies conducted by Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, a professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

"There are about 4.5 million kids who right now would say they have been the target of physical sexual misconduct. And only about 10 percent of the sexual exploitation going on ever gets reported," Shakeshaft said.

While most parents regard schools as sanctuaries, roughly 290,000 students nationwide experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee from 1991 to 2000. Most offenders are male, often coaches, music instructors and popular teachers who have access and opportunity.

"The problem in education dwarfs the Catholic Church problem," said John Seryak, an Ohio teacher and author of, "Dear Teacher, If You Only Knew!"

"What makes it so traumatic is the violation of the sacred trust. The sacred trust placed in teachers is no different from that placed in parents, priests or minister."

Since 2000, 118 of West Virginia's 24,000 teachers permanently or temporarily lost their licenses for reasons ranging from sexual misconduct and harassment to insubordination and drunkenness. About 75 percent were permanent revocations, the rest were temporary suspensions for offenses such as cheating on standardized tests.

Among the 118 were 41 teachers who lost their licenses for sexual assault or abuse of a student, which varied from inappropriate touching to sodomy, according to the AP's review.

"That parallels West Virginia's low crime rate," said Karen Huffman, director of professional preparation for the state Department of Education. "Nevertheless each one has to be investigated and taken seriously."

Another 22 teachers lost their licenses for inappropriate conduct with a student, which could include a sex-related offense. One case of statutory rape resulting in pregnancy was listed in this category.

Department of Education lawyer Heather Deskins said teachers try to hide the reason for their revocations by voluntarily surrendering their licenses to avoid a hearing.

Of those who lost their licenses for a sex-related offense, only four are on the State Police's sex offender Web site.

Only offenders who are required to register for life are on the Web site, said State Police Major Dave Williams.

To be placed on the list, offenders must be ruled a violent sexual predator or a repeat offender or their victim must have been a minor. Although students are minors, their abusers often plead to lesser offenses that do not require registration, Williams said.

In her draft report to the U.S. Department of Education, Shakeshaft concluded that not enough was known about the prevalence of sexual misconduct by teachers or other school employees.

"Kids tell each other but they don't tell adults," Shakeshaft said.

State educators acknowledge they don't really know how prevalent the problem is in the 55 counties. Counties sometimes report misbehavior, but often state officials learn of a teachers' actions only when they are arrested and their names appear in the media, which prompts calls from the public, Huffman said.

"More typically it is the public," she said.

Although West Virginia is among 17 states that require school districts to report sexual misconduct, schools and counties often do not report rumors or teacher resignations under suspicious circumstances, said Terri Miller, president of Stop Educator Sexual Abuse, Misconduct and Exploitation, a New York-based nonprofit advocacy group.

No single national agency tracks sex-related cases against teachers. And research is limited because schools are reluctant to participate in surveys on the sexual misconduct of their teachers.

The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education maintains a database of teacher license revocations to ensure teachers with records can't easily transfer to another state, but those records are confidential, said Roy Einreinhofer, executive director.

Since 2002, new teachers applying for a West Virginia certification must undergo criminal screenings that include fingerprint checks through the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Police. The state's teachers' union successfully lobbied to have existing teachers exempted unless a teacher transfers to another county.

Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, said the union is "not interested in protecting teachers in the classroom who molest or abuse children but you have to look at each incident on a case-by-case basis."

"I've spent thousands of dollars defending someone who had a DUI in college 13 years ago, but has had an exemplary record since then," Hale said.

State school board president Lowell Johnson said the board has developed "all the policies it can to protect children."

Yet one parent charges that those policies didn't prevent former Sissonville High band teacher Rodney Newhouse from transferring from Roane County to Kanawha County.

Loretta Baldwin has filed an $18 million lawsuit against Newhouse and the Roane and Kanawha county school boards over the alleged sexual harassment of her daughter. The Baldwins accuse school officials in Roane County of failing to fire Newhouse after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced there in 1993, and of failing to disclose the allegations to the Kanawha County Board of Education.

Newhouse was charged with four counts of third-degree sexual abuse in Roane County, but three were dismissed and he was acquitted of the fourth.

He is currently facing trial in Kanawha County on first-degree sexual abuse, sexual abuse by a guardian and attempted second-degree sexual assault charges. He allowed his teaching license to expire in 2003.

"It's mandatory that we send our children to school so it ought to be mandatory that the board of education keep them safe while they're there," Baldwin said.

Inadequate tracking of teachers, incomplete criminal background checks and poor communication allow teachers like Newhouse to move from school to school, Miller said.

"We call that passing the trash," she said. "One bad teacher can molest many, many children."

She points to Edgar W. Friedrichs Jr., who received a life sentence this August in Fayette County for the 1997 death of 12-year-old Jeremy Bell. The 62-year-old former principal had already been convicted of sexually assaulting several other boys on a camping trip and was in prison, but he had kept his teaching license until 2002.

"Where's the outrage?" Miller asked.

Last July, West Virginia joined a growing number of states that now have sexual-assault laws covering educators.

House Bill 3098 expanded West Virginia's existing felony offense of sexual exploitation or sexual abuse of a child to include teachers and others who are in a position of trust or authority. The law previously specified only parents, guardians and custodians.

And non-guardian offenders who once faced only misdemeanor charges can now get up to 20 years in prison for certain sexual abuse offenses.

Still, Baldwin cautions that the responsibility ultimately falls to parents.

"Listen to your children," she said. "Most children are not going to lie about something like that."

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Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2005_07_12/2005_10_17_AP_AbuseIs.htm

2006-04-01T12:09:00.000-08:00

FAMILY SETTLES LAWSUIT FOR $450k

March 29, 2006
Family settles lawsuit against Fayette board

By Susan Williams
Staff writer

A young man whose best friend died in a cabin that belonged to his former school principal settled a lawsuit this week against the Fayette County Board of Education.

In 1997, former Beckwith Elementary School Principal Edgar W. Friedrichs Jr. invited two of his former students on a fishing trip along the New River. They stayed in Friedrichs’ cabin near Thurmond.

Jeremy Bell, who was 12 at the time, died. Eight years later, Friedrichs was convicted of killing Bell and sentenced to life in prison.

- advertisement -
Michael Pascocciello was also in the cabin. In 2004, Pascocciello and his mother, Carolyn, sued the Fayette County Board of Education and the Interboro School District in Pennsylvania, where Friedrichs taught before he moved to West Virginia. The suit also named a Pennsylvania principal who recommended Friedrichs for a teaching job in West Virginia.

In their suit, the Pascocciellos said the two school systems failed to protect young boys from Friedrichs, a known threat.

At his trial in Jeremy Bell’s death, Friedrichs testified he found Bell in the middle of the night, covered in vomit. He said he woke Pascocciello and told him to run for help. The boy waited along the road for an ambulance driver, who later said that Pascocciello seemed dazed.

Police and investigators later discovered chloroform in Bell’s body and receipts that showed Friedrichs had bought chloroform.

Several of Friedrichs’ former students testified in various hearings that Friedrichs encouraged them to see who could drink juice he poured for them the fastest. Several of the students testified the juice tasted bitter, and they awakened feeling like they had been drugged.

In 2002, Friedrichs was convicted of sexually abusing some of his former students at Beckwith Elementary School. During that trial, a man testified that when he was a student in Pennsylvania, Friedrichs molested him. Friedrichs was never charged with abusing any students in Pennsylvania.

According to a handwritten note that was scanned into the U.S. District Court Web page Monday, an insurance claims administrator and the Fayette County Board of Education agreed to pay $450,000 to Michael and Carolyn Pascocciello and their lawyers, Frank Armada and William DePaulo.

(Page 2 of 2)

The Pennsylvania portion of the suit was transferred to another jurisdiction. Friedrichs’ guardian, Fayetteville lawyer Jim Keenan, said Friedrichs has been declared a pauper. Claims against Friedrichs were also released in exchange for the settlement.

Fayette County Superintendent of Schools Helen Whitehair said the board had little involvement in the settlement, which an insurance company handled.

“But this is an end to a bad past history,” she said Tuesday.

- advertisement -
Earlier, Jeremy Bell’s family settled a lawsuit against Friedrichs in Fayette Circuit Court. They also brought a federal civil rights suit against the Fayette County Board of Education, but grand jurors decided it was filed too late to satisfy the statute of limitations.

To contact staff writer Susan Williams, use e-mail or call 348-5112.

Previous 1 | 2
http://wvgazette.com/section/News/Other%20News/2006032826

2006-03-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

Ricky Holland's parents got paid to the tune of $26K per year to adopt Ricky, and they murdered him and left his poor broken little body in a ditch beside the road...Ricky kept running away from his home and the abuse he was suffering, went to neighbors etc. for help, no one was there for Ricky...

RICKY HOLLAND'S PARENTS GOT PAID TO ADOPT

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Parents get paid to adopt

State gives subsidies; Ricky's family collected $26,000 a year

Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News

After Ricky went missing, the family adopted a sibling. See full image

Adoption incentives

For children under 13: $14.83 per day per child; $15 per day extra if the child needs higher-than-average level of care.

For children 13 and older: $18.26 per day; $16 more for special-needs teens.

Reimbursement for therapy, tutoring, summer camps and other needs for kids with mental, emotional or physical needs.

$2,000 to help cover adoption fees.
Source: Michigan Department of Human Services

Is offering financial incentives as a way to push through adoptions of foster kids the wrong approach?
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The state paid the couple accused of murdering 7-year-old Ricky Holland about $26,000 a year for adopting the boy and two of his siblings, state officials confirmed Monday.

And although financial support for Ricky ended when he went missing last July, the Hollands adopted another of his siblings the same month and began drawing nearly $8,000 per year for him.

Financial incentives, commonly offered to parents to improve the odds of adoption of foster children, are facing criticism nationwide as a result of cases like Ricky's.

Child welfare advocates say those incentives, as well as federal bonuses paid to states to promote adoption of children in foster care, can put children in harm's way rather than with loving families. In addition to rewards, the federal government can penalize states that fail to adopt out kids by withholding child welfare funds.

Subsidies went to 90 percent of the 2,844 Michigan children placed in adoptive homes from state foster care in 2005. The payments range from about $5,400 to nearly $11,000 per year for a child younger than 13, depending on whether the child has special needs. For a child 13 or older, the range is $6,665 to about $12,500 per year.

"In the Ricky Holland case, the problem is there are all these incentives to look the other way" despite reports of abuse, said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. "It wasn't the lack of warnings in the Holland case; it was the unwillingness to heed the warnings."

Tim and Lisa Holland, who reported Ricky missing July 2, were arrested in late January, after Tim Holland led authorities to the child's body in rural Ingham County.

In another extreme case, a Grand Rapids couple accused of abusing some of their 13 adopted children received about $100,000 per year in subsidies, according to Kent County officials. The couple, who denied hurting the children, agreed last week to give up the 12 youngsters who are still minors.

Subsidies for adoptive parents continue until a child turns 18, or 19 if the child is still in high school. Families also get help with adoption costs, medical bills and other expenses, regardless of the adoptive parents' income.

To qualify, the parental rights must have been terminated and the child must be under court jurisdiction. There also must be at least one additional factor from a list that includes conditions such as having come from an impoverished background, having special medical or mental health needs, or being part of a sibling group.

Subsidies are critical to keep moving foster children into families, state and federal officials say.

"Adoption subsidy really is an important tool for helping our children become adopted, especially children who have special needs, including handicapped children but also large sibling groups," said Karen Stock, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.

"Kids are expensive to raise, and certainly this adoption subsidy is helpful. But anyone who has had a family knows the costs go well beyond that. We don't want them to decide not to adopt because they would lose the foster care subsidy that allowed them to become a foster parent."

Adoptive parents, such as June Deboni of Shelby Township, say the horror stories set back the hopes of all adoptive parents.

Deboni and her husband, John, became parents to Jake, 4, through a private adoption. They receive no subsidies and covered their own adoption expenses.

"All the friends I know that adopted did it because they wanted to be parents, and they couldn't have children of their own," Deboni said. "There is a minority that seems to want to make an income off of it, and I don't understand why the social worker can't see that. (Those who adopt for the money) know how the system works, and they know how to get around it."

Parents aren't the only ones offered incentives to adopt children from foster care. A 1997 federal statute promises states money if they place a certain number of foster kids in permanent homes. And it fines them if they don't.

Those incentives can encourage adults to adopt children, and social workers to smooth the way, even if the arrangement isn't a good match.

"Some foster children desperately need to be adopted, (but federal policies) encourage quick and dirty slipshod placements, because there's no penalty if the adoption fails," Wexler said. "Child welfare systems almost never ask questions to which they don't want to know the answers."

Adoption subsidies come with no strings attached: Parents who receive the money are no longer watched by caseworkers or tracked any other way.

Testimony in the Holland case has revealed that state child protection workers had received complaints that Ricky was being abused, but did not remove him from the home. Child protection workers saw signs of abuse on Ricky's siblings on several occasions in the months after Ricky disappeared July 2. But they did not remove the other children.

The Hollands' attorneys say they weren't adopting for the cash.

"I don't believe money was the issue," said Tim Holland's attorney, Frank Reynolds. "Tim was and has been gainfully employed for a long, long time."

Lisa Holland's attorney, Mike Nichols, said the couple adopted because they believed they could not have children of their own. They took in Ricky and his three siblings before their biological child, Allison, 2, was born.

Failed adoptions not tracked

Since neither the states nor the federal government track the number of failed adoptions, no one knows how many adoptions out of foster care go sour.

Beryl and Jerome Richards of Grand Rapids were accused of abusing some of their 13 adopted children, who range in age from 7 to 17. The Richardses were not criminally charged, but nonetheless agreed last week to relinquish their parental rights.

At a court hearing last year to determine if the Richardses should lose their parental rights, the children testified that they were beaten with leather belts and an electrical extension cord, and not properly fed.

Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Vicki Seidl questions why the state Department of Human Services failed to recognize the potential for disaster after placing so many children, including several with special needs, with one adoptive family -- and paying them about $100,000 a year.

"When I raised that issue with the head of the regional (Department of Human Services), they (said) … it was an ideal situation," Seidl said. "Their rationale was (consistent with) policies. Policies always have good intentions, and the results sometimes aren't always what they want."

States earn bonuses

State Department of Human Services officials say Michigan's child welfare policies are structured to meet federal demands. States that exceed a federally established goal number of adoptions can earn payments of $4,000-$8,000 for each child adopted beyond that goal.

Michigan was among the country's biggest beneficiaries of that provision, receiving $6 million in payments for adoptions between 1998 and 2002. That year, the rule was changed so that states could get the bounty only if they exceeded the number of adoptions they had in 2002 -- 2,923 in Michigan's case.

Michigan's number of adoption has dipped just slightly since 2002 and has narrowly failed to qualify for the payments since then. Michigan placed 2,844 children in adoptive homes in 2005, missing the benchmark by just 79 adoptions.

"Michigan won't collect any federal bounties for adoption unless it exceeds the baseline," Wexler said, "so every additional adoption brings them closer to the goal of getting those incentive payments."

You can reach Karen Bouffard at (734) 462-2206 or kbouffard@detnews.com.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/METRO/603210394

2006-03-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

Missing Social Worker Found Dead in Texas

The Associated Press
Thursday, March 16, 2006; 7:22 AM

VICTORIA, Texas -- A Child Protective Services program director whose body was found along a country road had received threats related to her work, authorities and relatives said.

The case was being investigated as a homicide, police Lt. Mike Hernandez said.

Family members reported Sally Blackwell missing after she didn't show up for work Tuesday morning. County employees found her body Wednesday.

Tina Taulbee said her stepmother had spoken of threats she had received.

"In the 15 or 16 years she has been there, this is the first time she was actually scared," Taulbee said.

There were no apparent signs of how Blackwell died, Hernandez said. An autopsy was scheduled for Thursday.

CPS investigates reports of abuse and neglect of children, and, if necessary, places them in foster care.

Blackwell, 53, oversaw 46 caseworkers, their supervisors and support staff in nine counties.

Agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in a statement that CPS employees are trained how to deal with hostile clients and manage their personal security when visiting homes.

Blackwell's family is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the killer's conviction, said her niece, Holly Tachovsky.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted ( © ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

2006-03-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

Jury awards whistleblower almost $500,000

JUNEAU (AP, 2/15/05) - A Juneau jury awarded a former state employee and whistleblower almost a half million dollars.

Robert Bacolas used to work at the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services agency. He now lives in Medford, Oregon.

Bacolas claimed the state breached his contract, violated the Alaska Whistle-Blower Act and violated his right to free speech by removing him from his job.

The removal occurred after Bacolas called for an investigation into alleged physical and emotional abuse at Johnson Youth Center in 1997.

The Juneau center is a juvenile detention facility run by the state.

http://www.webcenter11.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=44CE708E-F08E-4967-B286-8ABA1C278467

2006-03-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Warning about Sending parent educators into homes

Health, early education, prevention of child abuse. Parents should know that these people who are entering homes for these reasons are mandated reporters of abuse. If parents agree to these "home visits" they are waiving their rights. If, for example, the parents' "housekeeping standards" are not up to the subjective opinions of those home visitors, parents could find their children being snatched by CPS.

March 01, 2006
First teachers

Wise investment

SEVERAL organizations that send parent educators into people’s homes have joined forces for an important cause: They want West Virginia to invest in its children while they are babies.

Specifically, they want the Legislature to set aside $5.2 million for “in-home family education” in 2007. The push has nothing to do with home-schooling. Instead, it involves training parents to give their tots advantages in the earliest and most crucial learning place: the home where budding personalities first take shape.

Three groups have risen to the top of this field in West Virginia — Parents as Teachers, Maternal and Infant Health Outreach Workers and Healthy Families America. They approach families from different directions — either health, early education or child abuse prevention. But their goals overlap, and their results are about the same.

Families receiving regular visits from parent educators have healthier children, are less likely to become neglectful, require fewer visits from Child Protective Services and send to school children who are ready to learn.

These programs were started piecemeal in the Mountain State, with a grant here or a pilot project there. As thinly funded projects of various organizations, they suffer a lot of start-and-stop inefficiencies. But now that they have shown their effectiveness, it makes sense for the Legislature to make this investment in future generations of students, workers and taxpayers.

During the first three years, children absorb knowledge like sponges. The quality of their play and the tone of their surroundings is very important. Investments in early child development programs yield greater results than investments at any other stage of a person’s life, Marshall University researchers found. Various studies and projects have corroborated these values of early childhood and parent education:

Among West Virginia families who participated in a prenatal in-home education program, only 7.4 percent had underweight babies. The statewide rate is 9 percent.
In Arizona, families with parent educators were much more likely to get timely vaccinations for children.
West Virginia has the fifth-highest child abuse rate in the nation. In-home visiting programs might prevent as much as 40 percent of child maltreatment. Statewide, that could mean annual savings of $225 million in health, social services and adult corrections.
Parent educator programs rely on families to volunteer to participate. Based on experience, they predict one in five families will choose to invite parent educators into their homes. What an opportunity to head off problems before they are established, and to influence the well-being of the next generation.

The more opportunities parents have to receive non-threatening, respectful consultations in their own homes, the better off they and their children are. The Legislature should find money for this important investment in the state’s future.
http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/2006022811

2006-03-09T19:32:00.000-08:00

Samuel Lee Snead Sentenced

Published: February 24, 2006 09:51 pm

Snead likely to spend rest of life in prison on sex conviction

By Audrey Stanton
REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

A former massage therapist convicted in December on 167 charges relating to child pornography and the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl won’t be out of prison any time soon, if ever.

Samuel Lee Snead, 43, was sentenced to 64 to 80 years in the penitentiary Friday by Raleigh County Circuit Judge John Hutchison.

“He’ll die,” the victim’s mother said. “He’ll die there.”

A Raleigh County jury convicted Snead of 74 counts of using a minor in filming or photographing sexually explicit conduct, 74 counts of being a custodian in possession of material depicting a child in sexually explicit conduct, six counts of third-degree sexual assault, 10 counts of sexual abuse by a custodian and three counts of sexual abuse by a custodian by procuring another to commit the act.

“Mr. Snead’s conduct is the conduct that, while there may have been a path opened by somebody else’s not knowing what was going on with the kids, but Mr. Snead is the one who walked down it and took advantage of it,” Hutchison said.

- - -

Before Hutchison ordered the sentence, defense attorney Greg Hurley asked him to not consider it to be anything like another sex offender with whom the judge had dealt earlier in the day — Warren Hester, who used a knife to kidnap and rape an 11-year-old girl.

“This case doesn’t have that nature to it,” Hurley said. “ ... The young ladies in the pictures do not appear to be being tortured. ... Consider a sentence that would allow Mr. Snead some life on the outside at some point.”

But the victim’s mother tearfully pleaded for just the opposite.

She told Hutchison she had recently visited Snead in jail, looking for answers and hoping to forgive him. But when Snead refused to take responsibility for his actions, she decided she wasn’t ready to forgive the man she says took away her daughter’s innocence, time away from all of her children and the twin babies she was carrying when the stress of her daughter’s situation overwhelmed her.

“I have a lifetime of hurt to mend,” she said, sobbing. “ ... I am sorry for Sam’s family, but our hurt runs just as deep if not more.”

And chief deputy prosecutor Kristen Keller recounted unrefuted evidence from the four-day trial that indicated Snead — with a camera he told his son to steal — directed young girls, including his own niece, to fulfill his pedophiliac desires.

— E-mail: bnaudrey@register-herald.com

http://www.register-herald.com/siteSearch/apstorysection/local_story_055215142.html

2006-03-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

LOST IN THE SHUFFLE- THE JONATHAN COFFMAN CASE

Lost in the Shuffle
Posted 2/16/2005 11:10 PM

Jonathan Coffman didn't have to die at five days old. But the support system that was supposed to help him and his mother failed, and he froze to death in an unheated home.
Story by Chris Stirewalt Email | Bio

Jonathan Coffman ought to be alive.

Instead, he froze to death when he was five days old, his support system lost in a bureaucratic shuffle.

The West Virginia Media I Team has looked into the circumstances behind Jonathan's short, sad life. Among its findings:

The agency charged with helping those who can't help themselves didn't do its job.
Nobody else stepped in to bridge the gap.
This tragedy could happen again, in your town.
Jonathan's life ended Dec. 15, 2004, in a little yellow house in a middle-class neighborhood. His mother, 26-year-old Sherry Coffman, and his 4-year-old sister both lived there.

Sherry Coffman is severely mentally handicapped. "She has a working IQ of about 55 and she really doesn't comprehend very well," said her sister-in-law, Debra Coffman.

Sherry's condition was well known to her neighbors and the state Department of Health and Human Resources, which was responsible for the well-being of the family.

But the people looking after Sherry didn't know about her pregnancy until a few weeks before Jonathan was born on Dec. 10. Police believe the baby's father is a man now in prison for an unrelated crime. "Sherry's really not able to consent to anything, and yet she has two kids," said Debra Coffman. "I'm sure she's been hurt a lot and she's scared of people."

Sherry's mother handled her daughter's disability payments. But when her mother remarried and moved across town, conditions inside the house got dangerous. The problems included:

Almost no furniture in the home.
A foot of standing water in the basement.
Broken pipes.
No insulation.
Grocery bags and towels stuffed in missing windows and leaky ceilings.
But it was the lack of heat that proved fatal for young Jonathan. Allegheny Energy cut off natural gas to the house in July. The bill was more than $1,000 and payments hadn't been made in a year, according to family members.

Even with winter fast approaching, Sherry apparently didn't understand the urgency of the situation.

"She told me the house was extremely hot because the neighbors told her that the house was hot," said Raleigh County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Tanner. "But the neighbors had told her that in the summertime."

Temperatures that might be uncomfortable for an adult can be fatal to a child. Wet diapers and an infant's limited ability to regulate his or her body temperature can quickly create a potentially deadly situation.

Workers with the DHHR's Child Protective Services division had been visiting the house for months. And family members said one CPS worker told Sherry the heat would be on by the time she came home with her baby.

When police arrived at the house after Jonathan died, officers said it was cold enough inside to see their breath. A few days later, Sherry received a letter telling her the heat would be restored.

That letter prompted sheriff's deputies to launch their investigation of the state's role in Jonathan's death.

Our I Team will have more on the investigation in our next report.

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Links:
Mountain State Parents
http://www.mspcan.org/index.htm

Help in Paying Your Heating Bills
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/family_assistance/utility.asp

West Virginia Advocates
http://www.wvadvocates.org/default.htm

ADAPT of West Virginia
http://www.labs.net/adapt
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=885
'We Cannot Adequately Protect Children'
Posted 2/17/2005 05:30 PM

In the wake of the death of 5-day-old Jonathan Coffman, officials concede the state's child protective services system is in a crisis.
Story by Beth Gorczyca Email | Bio

Jonathan Coffman was only five days old when he froze to death in his mother's Raleigh County home 10 days before Christmas.

Now, more than two months later, his death is shining a spotlight on serious problems within the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, particularly the Child and Adult Protective Services, that have been going on for years, if not decades.

In 1994, 2-year-old Derek Browning was beaten to death in his Raleigh County home. His father and his father's girlfriend were charged in his death. Child protective services had been called about neglect several times. The boy and his brother had been in foster care but were eventually returned to their natural father. The case resulted in the state Supreme Court of Appeals creating a fatality review process.
In the late 1990s, the state's Office of Legislative Auditor conducted several studies reviewing Child and Adult Protective Services, and found caseworkers did not respond to many reports of abuse or neglect within the required time limit.
"I am afraid we cannot adequately protect children," said Margaret Waybright, commissioner for the Bureau of Children and Families, which includes Child and Adult Protective Services.

Waybright said she believes the child protective services system is in a crisis -- crippled by huge employee turnover and limited on-the-job experience. She said the statewide turnover rate is 25 percent. An average of 37 percent of the caseworkers that do stay on the job have less than one year of experience. And the problem isn't limited to caseworkers. About 35 percent of the supervisors have less than one year on the job.

But it's Jonathan Coffman's case that may illustrate the problems within CPS better than any statistic.

He was born Dec. 10 at Raleigh General Hospital to Sherry Coffman, a 26-year-old Stanaford woman who had a cognitive impairment that left her with an IQ of about 55.

Last summer, the gas company, Allegheny Energy, cut off gas to the home where Sherry Coffman lived with her now 4-year-old daughter because the bill hadn't been paid. The gas remained off even as the weather turned colder. So Sherry Coffman heated her home with portable, electric ceramic heaters, stuffed the home's broken windows with plastic bags and towels. She warmed water for cooking and bathing in a microwave.

Lt. Steve Tanner with the Raleigh County Sheriff's Department said Child and Adult Protective Services was familiar with Sherry Coffman and her family. Neighbors said they called the state after seeing Sherry's daughter toddling down the street and behind a garbage truck. Tanner said some called because they were concerned about the home's condition. Doctors at the hospital called DHHR before releasing Sherry Coffman and her new baby because they were worried whether the mother could properly care for her son.

But Sherry Coffman was often uncooperative with DHHR and did not want their help, Tanner said.

The night before Jonathan Coffman died, Sherry Coffman put her baby to sleep like she always did, careful to not cover his face and keeping the blanket at chest level. When Sherry Coffman tried to feed her baby the next day, she couldn't wake him up. Jonathan Coffman was taken to a hospital but died several hours later from hypothermia.

Waybright and DHHR declined to comment on specifics about Jonathan Coffman's case, but it launched an internal investigation into what happened shortly after the boy died the department. That report should be released soon.

Clarice Hausch, executive director of West Virginia Advocates, said she is horrified by the situation. West Virginia Advocates is a non-profit group that works on behalf of people with disabilities. Hausch, who has spent more than 20 years working for people with disabilities in both West Virginia and New Jersey, said the story of Jonathan Coffman shows there is a serious problem somewhere in the system.

"After Sept. 11, all we talked about was emergency planning. New state and federal departments were created to deal with emergencies, but we can't even get the heat on in a house so a newborn baby doesn't die? I think we've left an important piece out of the planning," she said.

Waybright said Child and Adult Protective Services has good employees, but burnout is high. Waybright said her office has included pay raises, hiring bonuses and retention bonuses for caseworkers in Gov. Joe Manchin's budget for next year, but she isn't sure whether the Legislature will approve it. Currently starting caseworkers make about $21,000 a year.

Waybright said the large turnover has resulted in the state's 351 child protective services employees struggling to handle a huge caseload. In an average month, CPS receives 2,000 new cases that meet the definition of neglect or abuse. In addition, CPS has about 3,600 active cases that caseworkers work on each month.

But when those averages are broken down, it indicates that on average a single caseworker only has about six referrals a month and 10 open cases. That's short of the state standard of 15 investigations per month per worker, or 10 ongoing cases per month per worker.

Waybright said determining average caseload isn't that easy.

"Some smaller counties with low turnover may be right at their caseload, but it's the big counties with high turnover who could be at 30 or 40 cases," she said. "In Kanawha County, 60 percent of the staff has either less than a year of service or the position is vacant."

Problems within Child and Adult Protective Services are not new to the state. Back in 1998 and 1999, the state's Office of the Legislative Auditor issued two reports criticizing Child and Adult Protective Services of failing to respond quickly to reports of abuse or neglect with both children and adults.

One study looked at 385 child protection cases in 12 counties, including Raleigh County. It determined in 31.4 percent of the cases, face-to-face interviews didn't happen with the victim or those involved in the complaint until well after the required 14-day period.

Another study looked at adult protection services, which are responsible for helping adults who may be abused, neglected or unable to care for themselves. In that study, the legislative auditor's office determined in 1997 that caseworkers only had face-to-face interviews with victims and others involved in the complaint within the required three-day timeframe in only 52 percent of the cases.

A few weeks after the report came out, DHHR lengthened the required timeframe for adult cases to 14 days. The Office of Legislative Auditor revisited the issue the following year and determined while response time improved, some counties still were not meeting the timeframe.

CPS offices blamed staffing problems then, as well.

But the legislative auditor's reports said while staffing "may impact the agency's ability to be effective, it does not appear that it is a primary factor."

A few years ago, the state added several more caseworker positions, plus it started hiring paraprofessional human service aids to help caseworkers handle some of their day-to-day responsibilities. Waybright said that has helped, but turnover still is a big problem.

"We have more staffing positions, better training and a nationally recognized computer system," she said. "We have all of the tools in place; we just don't have the (people)."

Tanner said his investigation could not pinpoint blame for Jonathan Coffman's death on any one individual or one bad decision. He said the system just didn't work, and Sherry Coffman and her family got lost in the shuffle.

Hausch said that's a frightening thought.

"Maybe everything did go right," she said. "Isn't that frightening? Because if that is the case, it is truly a crisis that needs looked at. What is wrong with how this system is structured that everyone did their job and still a baby died? I don't have the answers. I just have a lot of concerns."

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Links:
Help in Paying Your Heating Bills
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/family_assistance/utility.asp

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http://www.wvadvocates.org/default.htm

West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
http://www.wvdhhr.org
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=922

An Agency in Crisis
Posted 2/17/2005 11:10 PM

Our investigation into a newborn's death found a government agency that knew of the risks to the baby and didn't stop this tragedy from happening.
Story by Chris Stirewalt Email | Bio

When a newborn freezes to death in an unheated home, people want to know why.

The answer, our investigation discovered, involves an agency in crisis and a baby who got lost in the shuffle.

Jonathan Coffman died Dec. 15, 2004, in his mother's unheated home in Beckley. He lived only five days. He died because the heat had been turned off for months because nobody paid the gas bill.

His mother, 26-year-old Sherry Coffman, is severely mentally handicapped. That may have stopped her from understanding how to prevent her son from freezing to death. But it didn't stop her from feeling the loss deeply.

A day later, when people showed up to help, she couldn't be consoled, said Angel DeLung, who started a fund for the Coffmans after Jonathan died. "She was just sitting there rocking the baby doll and just screaming."

After Jonathan was found dead, Allegheny Energy officials said they checked their records to see if the gas company had failed the Coffmans.

Allegheny spokesman Allen Staggers said the safeguards that are supposed to protect people like Sherry Coffman failed. Allegheny relies on social service agencies to administer heating assistance programs.

"We don't necessarily know which houses people ought to be living in, knock on that door and say, 'Do you want your gas service turned back on?' " Staggers said.

In Sherry's case, family members said, state Child Protective Services workers knew about the lack of heat in the home and promised to get it back on.

But by the time Sherry got a letter from Child Protective Services saying her heat would be restored, her newborn was already dead.

That letter, in part, prompted Raleigh County Sheriff Danny Moore to look deeper into the case. "Because somebody is going to fall through the cracks," Moore said, "and in this case, it happened."

The sheriff's department investigation found a doctor at Raleigh General Hospital who said he told CPS that he didn't think Sherry could handle a newborn.

A case worker did receive the complaint, deputies said, but still allowed her to take the baby home the next day. The case worker promised a follow-up visit. Before that visit could happen, Jonathan was already dead.

Moore calls Raleigh County CPS an agency in disarray: "No control over your employees - no follow up by a senior supervisor."

State officials say it's tough to work for CPS.

Most of its workers are fresh out of college.
The turnover rate is high.
About a third of its workers leave every year.
Many positions remain unfilled.
The Department of Health and Human Resources, which runs CPS, is conducting its own investigation into the baby's death. But spokesman John Law won't reveal its findings or say who's to blame.

"You have to look at the problem and try to solve the problem and not spend all of your time asserting who did what wrong," Law said.

That means the public may never know who Sherry Coffman's case worker was or how much more the agency knew about the events that led to Jonathan's death.

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Links:
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http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/family_assistance/utility.asp

Child Protective Services
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/children_adult/cps/default.asp

Allegheny Energy
http://www.alleghenyenergy.com/
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=936

Could It Happen Again?
Posted 2/18/2005 11:10 PM

The case of Jonathan Coffman, who froze to death in his mother's unheated home, is a tragedy. Now state officials admit that the social safety net is frayed to the point where it "cannot adequately protect children."
Story by Chris Stirewalt Email | Bio

The death of a five-day-old baby in an unheated home could certainly be considered tragic.

But would it be a greater tragedy if it happened again?

The West Virginia Media I-Team launched its investigation shortly after the Dec. 15 death of Jonathan Coffman of Beckley.

The investigation showed that the Department of Health and Human Resources' Child Protective Services division has been broken for years, and nobody's been able to fix it.

Beth Gorczyca of The State Journal pored over reports going back decades, looking for examples of how West Virginia CPS has failed. She talked to agency officials and veterans of the system. Her report presents a disturbing picture of an agency that concedes it "cannot adequately protect children."

CPS officials are preparing a report on what happened to Jonathan and plan to release it soon. And DHHR officials agree that changes must be made in the way the state deals with at-risk families.

But DHHR spokesman John Law said no agency can do everything.

"We give them choices, but there's some personal responsibility involved," Law said. "Maybe the person doesn't have the full capacity to exercise that personal responsibility, but family, friends, neighbors do."

Darla Ervin thinks that's a copout.

"Anything that has to do with DHHR is always an uphill battle," said the Monongalia County mother, who has cerebral palsy. "They don't want to help you."

Ervin said her experiences with the state led her to get involved with groups that help parents with special needs raise their children.

One such group is Mountain State Parents CAN in Wheeling, which helps parents across the state get plugged in to the right services.

Executive Director Teri Toothman said that whatever problems state agencies have, there's no excuse for what happened to Jonathan Coffman.

"There are so many non-traditional supports," Toothman said. "This should have never happened. That baby should have never froze to death."

Toothman said the state could have connected Jonathan's mother, Sherry Coffman, to a network of support groups long ago. Those groups that could have protected the mentally handicapped mother and her children.

After Jonathan died, officials moved Sherry Coffman into a group home, where they say she is learning to care for herself. Her 4-year-old daughter is in foster care.

Raleigh County Sheriff Danny Moore, who investigated Jonathan's death, criticized the county CPS office for a lack of control and insufficient resources to protect at-risk kids.

But Moore said the ultimate solution isn't a government program, but family and neighbors reaching out and helping those in need.

"I think all of us, and it's getting more and more, maybe depend on the government maybe a little too much," Moore said. "And I think we need to take responsibility as citizens to love thy neighbor as thyself."

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Links:
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
http://www.wvdhhr.org/

Mountain State Parents CAN
http://www.mspcan.org/index.htm

Help in Paying Your Heating Bills
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/family_assistance/utility.asp

ADAPT of West Virginia
http://www.labs.net/adapt
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=969

Agency Disciplines Workers in Baby's Death
Posted 4/20/2005 05:35 PM

But the Department of Health and Human Resources still refuses to release its report into the death of Jonathan Coffman.
There's been a new development in the West Virginia Media I Team's investigation into the tragic death of a Raleigh County infant.

But state officials still aren't telling the whole story.

Jonathan Coffman died Dec. 15, 2004, in his mother's unheated home in Beckley. He lived only five days. He died because the heat had been turned off for months because nobody paid the gas bill for his severely handicapped mother.

Our investigation into Jonathan's death revealed a string of bureaucratic blunders. But while state officials have completed an internal report, they have not made it public.

House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, said Wednesday that the head of the Department of Health and Human Resources told his staff that the report identified major problems and that some employees have been disciplined.

But agency officials still say the public can't know what happened yet.

The I Team has filed a freedom of information request with the agency to see the report. Kiss said he wants to make sure he and other legislators get to see the report for themselves.

The speaker said he hopes the report will help lawmakers develop solutions for at-risk children and families across the state.

Previous I Team Stories:
'We Cannot Adequately Protect Children'
Lost in the Shuffle
An Agency in Crisis
Could It Happen Again?
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=2320

Hearing Expected in Baby's Death
Posted 10/19/2005 12:08 AM

A hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in the case of a baby found frozen to death in a Beckley area home.
Story by Steve Ring Email | Bio

Jonathan Coffman was just five days old, when he died of hypothermia in an unheated home in the Stanaford area of Raleigh County.

The baby's uncle, Timothy Coffman, tells 59 News there's a hearing Wednesday.

Coffman sued, claiming a state caseworker should not have let the baby and his mother leave the hospital for their unheated home.

The mother is mentally-disabled, and she was under the state's care.

In August, we reported a settlement between the family and the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

There's no word yet on the terms of the settlement.
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=5968

Hearing Today Related To Death Of Raleigh County Infant
Posted 10/19/2005 04:24 PM

A major settlement in the case of a Beckley newborn who froze to death.
The West Virginia Media I-Team first told us about it back in Februrary.

Today, a Kanawha County judge approved an 850-thousand-dollar court settlement.

The payment will go to Jonathan Coffman's family.

Coffman died from complications of hypothermia in January.

The baby's family filed suit, claiming the Department of Health and Human Resources failed to ensure that the boy's mother's home had heat.

The settlement money will go to the baby's mother Sherry Coffman and her daughter.
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=6017

http://www.wvnstv.com/search.cfm?func=processsearch&keywords=jonathan%20coffman

DHHR Sued Over Infant's Death
Posted 6/9/2005 10:10 AM

The lawsuit alleges that Jonathan Coffman should not have been allowed to live in an unheated home with his mentally disabled mother.
Story by The Associated Press

A Beckley man whose five-day-old nephew died of complications from hypothermia is suing the state Department of Health and Human Resources.

Timothy Coffman's lawsuit alleges a caseworker should have not let the child and his mentally disabled mother who was under the state's care leave a hospital for an unheated home.

Coffman's lawyers filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court on behalf of Jonathan Coffman's estate. It seeks unspecified damages.

Raleigh County sheriff's officials have said the boy's mother, Sherry Coffman, had no heat in her Stanaford home for about a year.

DHHR spokesman John Law declined to comment on the lawsuit.

State lawmakers have formed a committee to examine Child Protective Services, which became the focus of attention after the infant's death in December. DHHR workers were disciplined following an internal review.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Read Our I Team Investigation
http://www.wvnstv.com/search.cfm?func=processsearch&keywords=jonathan%20coffman
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=3295

2006-03-05T02:00:00.000-08:00

GOLFING WITH TOM DELAY

Go to Original
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/02/delay
Golfing with Tom DeLay
By Mark Benjamin
Salon.com

Monday 02 May 2005
Playing through campaign finance laws, corporations are buying time with the House leader by donating to his foundations for abused kids. Meanwhile, the charities are spending more on the golf fundraisers than on the children.

In the fundraising empire that has come to be known as "DeLay Inc.," few figures have been more central to filling the coffers than Warren RoBold. Last September, a Texas grand jury indicted RoBold and two other DeLay aides on charges of illegally raising political funds from corporations and funneling them through one of DeLay's political action committees.

At the same time that RoBold was suspected of laundering corporate money, prior to the 2002 elections, he also raised money for another DeLay PAC to help get the House GOP leader and other Republicans elected to Congress. But RoBold's fundraising duties for DeLay extended beyond the purely political. Tax records also show that back in early 2001, RoBold earned $50,000 to raise corporate donations for DeLay's nonprofit foundation for abused and neglected foster children.

RoBold's multiple fundraising roles for DeLay's various enterprises exemplify the close relationship between DeLay's charity work and his political machinery. Indeed, a review of tax records, financial-disclosure forms and campaign-finance records by Salon from the past five years shows that DeLay's political operatives have routinely worked both for his PACs and his charity organizations. And doing double time, the fundraisers sometimes simultaneously hit up corporations with big stakes in bills before Congress.

Legal experts say such a round robin of political operatives and charity employees does not break the law. But nonprofit watchdogs point out that charity work allows lawmakers and corporations to avoid a raft of rules and disclosure requirements -- thus sidestepping campaign-finance law and congressional ethics guidelines. Rick Cohen, president of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, has called DeLay a master of combining politics and charity work.

News reports have focused on how effective DeLay's nonprofit work is and whether his charities are being funded by corporations who may be looking for legislative payback on Capitol Hill. The connection between DeLay's political machinery and his charity work, however, is a significant new concern to those who have already suspected that DeLay's nonprofit work is not much more than a cover for corporations to cozy up to DeLay and his congressional allies. Experts agree that the close involvement of DeLay's political operatives and charity fundraisers at the very least creates the appearance that his philanthropic endeavors are but a sideshow to the main event: selling access to politicians.

"Clearly, Delay's charitable activities provide a conduit for him to further his political intentions," Cohen said. Cohen thinks DeLay has run his charity organizations so that "the highest bidders gain crucial face time with and political access to DeLay and his associates -- and to other members of Congress."

"Also questionable is DeLay's use of his political campaign staff to run his charities," Cohen said, "most of whom do not have much specific expertise in the charitable realm but lots of expertise in campaign and PAC fundraising, signaling to potential donors a message that reads as much politics as charity behind the operations of Congressman DeLay's nonprofit endeavors."

The connections between DeLay's political machinery and charity organizations run deep.

Ed Bethune, a lawyer who has been representing DeLay in the ethics investigations in Congress, has also been listed as a board member of the DeLay Foundation for Kids.

Freddie Mac lobbyist Mitch Delk, who has reportedly held more than 50 fundraisers for GOP candidates, was also a board member of the foundation in 2003 while Freddie Mac was in the midst of an accounting scandal. Fannie Mae top lobbyist Duane Duncan is listed as a board member then, too.

Tax documents don't always show board members, but the board then also included lobbyist Marcel Dubois, who helped torpedo Clinton-era labor regulations soon after Bush took office, as well as former Republican Texas congressman turned lobbyist Bill Sarpalius.

Tax records for the DeLay foundation also list Carolyn Teltschik as president and treasurer; her husband Corwin Teltschik is the treasurer of DeLay's political action committee Americans for a Republican Majority, which has separately paid a slate of DeLay foundation officials to raise money.

The DeLay foundation has also paid Washington Strategies LLC for fundraising, another lobby shop reportedly run by a former DeLay staffer.

Even DeLay's wife Christine has had a dual role: She sits on the board of a DeLay charity for abused and neglected foster children and at the same time has drawn salaries from a lobbying shop called the Alexander Strategy Group, run by a former DeLay top aide, as well as the Americans for a Republican Majority PAC, according to DeLay's personal financial-disclosure reports.

Campaign-finance law and congressional ethics rules have contribution limits and disclosure requirements that regulate financial discourse between corporations and lawmakers. Most of these, however, do not apply if that discourse takes place for the stated benefit of a charity. A corporation can't give a lawmaker a $250,000 check over dinner, but it can cut the check to his charity during a lavish weekend charity golf getaway funded by corporations. And the charitable transaction remains anonymous.

"When people blur the lines between campaign-finance law and charitable tax law ... it mixes the intent and it makes it unclear what the real purpose of the organization is, whether it is charitable or political," said Betsy Reid, a research associate at the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. "It's not that there is a legal problem, or that the groups are not doing good works in the end," Reid said. "It is almost a value-added thing. The charitable sector becomes a value added for the political sector."

In DeLay's case, as he and various political operatives have become the focus of ethics questions, so have the operatives of his charitable organizations -- because they are often the same individuals. For example, the Washington Post reported last Sunday that DeLay's food, telephone and other expenses during a 2000 golf trip to Scotland were billed to the credit card of his former chief of staff Edwin A. Buckham, then a Washington lobbyist.

But Buckham is also connected to DeLay's charities -- he appears as a board member of DeLay's nonprofit for abused and neglected foster children between the summers of 2002 and 2003, tax records show. At that time, Americans for a Republican Majority had just finished sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group for political fundraising, according to campaign finance documents.

The details of that Scotland trip remain murky and may be one focus of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. In general, golf trips paid for by lobbyists are a violation of House ethics rules, but charities can wine and dine lawmakers pretty freely -- thanks to DeLay. As the first order of business in the 108th Congress, DeLay pushed through in January 2003 a reversal of rules that had barred lawmakers from accepting free trips to charity events. At the time, the DeLay Foundation for Kids was planning its spring golf fundraiser.

It should be said that DeLay and his wife Christine appear to be genuinely committed to helping abused and neglected children. The couple have helped raise three foster kids themselves. DeLay spokesman Dan Allen has always characterized DeLay's charity work as altruistic. "We understand the problems that plague the system and the needs of children that go unmet each day," DeLay and his wife wrote in a letter appearing on their Web site. "It is the mission of the DeLay Foundation for Kids to address the significant needs of abused and neglected children."

But so far, tax records show that DeLay's foundations have spent far more on golf fundraisers than on programs for children. (There are two foundations: The DeLay Foundation for Kids is one; it raises money for a second foundation, Rio Bend, a housing development under construction for foster children.) Over the past four fiscal years, DeLay's foundations have spent almost $600,000 on golf fundraisers at exotic retreats. That is more than seven times what DeLay has so far handed out to unrelated organizations that are actively helping kids, according to tax returns through the most recent filings of June 2004. Golf retreats are the only fundraising activity apparent on the foundations' tax returns.

DeLay's own personal financial-disclosure reports show him traveling to golf in Virginia Beach, West Palm Beach, Miami, and West Hampton, N.Y., at his charities' expense. (An anonymous DeLay foundation official told a reporter from Broward Daily Business Review in 2003 that DeLay would pay his own way to the functions.) The golf trips paid for by the DeLay Foundation for Kids appear in his personal financial-disclosure forms covering 2003, while nothing appears for previous years' golf fundraisers. It is unclear who paid for those trips. His office did not return repeated calls seeking an answer to that question.

At the lavish golf outings, DeLay's foundation has pulled in nearly $7 million from corporate bigwigs. DeLay is not required to reveal the names of contributors to his charity golf outings. That anonymity has fueled speculation from charity watchdogs that the fundraisers are simply an opportunity for lawmakers, corporations and lobbyists to skirt campaign finance and ethics rules as they get together in swank private retreats.

The New York Times reported this month that contributors to the DeLay Foundation for Kids have included AT&T, the Corrections Corporation of America, Exxon Mobil, Limited Brands, and the Southern Company, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Microsoft founder and his wife, and Michael Dell of Dell computers. Tax records show some individual contributions have run up to $250,000. Individual golf outings have raised well over $1 million, according to the IRS documents.

At the charity fundraisers, contributors get to golf with DeLay at places like Key Largo's Ocean Reef Club, described on its Web site as "a very exclusive" 2,000-acre destination country club "known for its Caribbean flair, unparalleled yachting and diving waters, exceptional club service, meetings expertise and wide array of activities." It reportedly has a 4,000-foot lighted private airstrip.

Of the $7 million collected at these events since 2000, tax records for DeLay's two charities show that only about $80,000 has been distributed to various groups doing work to help children. Officials with DeLay's foundation said tax records so far have shown little money being spent on kids because they have been saving it for a major project that is now in progress.

Last December, construction began at DeLay's "Rio Bend," a 50-acre plot of donated cow pasture on the banks of the Brazos River in Richmond, Texas. Construction is well under way on nine homes and a chapel in what the DeLays envision will provide permanent homes and a sense of community for 48 foster children and their families from Fort Bend County. Rio Bend might eventually hold 192 kids. "Right now the foster children move from home to home to home. Our goal is to have a child never be asked to leave Rio Bend," said Jim Jenkins, president of the DeLay Foundation for Kids.

Jenkins said DeLay needed $4 million to break ground at Rio Bend. While tax returns show the DeLay Foundation for Kids had that much cash on hand by the end of the summer of 2003, Jenkins said drainage problems at the site delayed construction for over a year. Future returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service will show the new construction and how much the foundation has started to spend on foster kids. "We had to get to a certain level of funding in order to get under way with the first project. We needed around $4 million to break ground," Jenkins said. "The purpose has always been to support abused and neglected children."

Social service officials in the area said Rio Bend holds promise for helping some foster kids. "This is really unique," said Sam Sipes, president of Lutheran Social Services, the largest provider in Texas of residential services for foster children. His group will screen and place kids at Rio Bend. "The idea behind Rio Bend is it would be a permanent placement for a child," Sipes said. The lack of a consistent home and a supportive community is a serious drawback for the current foster care system in Fort Bend County, which Rio Bend would work to correct. "Those kids typically get bounced from foster family to foster family," and often show up at a new foster home with all their belongings in a trash bag, Sipes said. He said the families will be required to pay rent to live in the 4,000-square-foot homes with seven bedrooms, but it will be far below the market rate.

Typical of DeLay's ethical controversies, even the long-awaited construction at Rio Bend comes with a subplot. The construction company at Rio Bend is Perry Homes. Perry Homes is run by Bob Perry, a major financier of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Jenkins said Perry will be paid $26 million if all the construction at Rio Bend goes forward. A Perry spokesman told the Times that he was building the homes at cost. Perry has also donated $44,000 to DeLay and one of his political action committees over the last three election cycles, according an analysis of campaign-finance data for Salon by the Center for Responsive Politics. Perry also donated another $10,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund, DeLay's personal financial-disclosure reports show.

The DeLay Foundation's fundraising is not the first time the congressman's charitable work has come under scrutiny. After some unflattering press, DeLay scuttled a charity event dubbed "Celebrations for Children" that had been set for the Republican National Convention last summer. Bad publicity for the event focused on late parties, yacht cruises and gatherings with lawmakers in luxury suites for donors willing to fork over a half million dollars. The money was supposed to go to the DeLay Foundation for Kids. DeLay's spokesman, Dan Allen, told me that the Celebrations for Children charity is dormant.

Charity fundraising among politicians is bipartisan, of course. Arkansas Democrat Sen. Blanche Lincoln was set to host "Rockin' on the Dock of the Bay" at the Democratic Convention in Boston last summer. Donors were asked to pony up as much as $100,000 to hang out with Democrats at the event, meant to benefit the National Childhood Cancer Foundation. It too was called off after bad publicity. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also raised a few eyebrows in the nonprofit world by raising money for his AIDS-related World of Hope charity from donors at a gala during the Republican National Convention.

Some political observers worry that the end of such events -- helping kids -- is not necessarily justified by the means -- politicians hobnobbing with corporate donors -- which can look like a degradation of the political process, typical as such networking is in Washington. While charity fundraising can certainly accomplish good things for good causes, critics say the blending of politics, money and charity is a bad mix. "I think charitable activity is great," said Fred Lewis, president of Campaigns for People, a nonpartisan nonprofit group seeking to ease what he says is the sway of special interests in Texas politics. "But it appears to me that political leaders are getting involved so they can get the good glow from being part of charitable giving, and the corporations are giving for access and influence. I think it is bad for charities and bad for the political process."

--------

Mark Benjamin is a national correspondent for Salon based in Washington, DC.

http://www.theocracywatch.org/delay_golfing_salon_may2_05.htm

(Archived for research)

2006-03-04T11:46:00.000-08:00

WV DHHR CPS gives kids to ex-boyfriend sex offender

This goes for Batterers too. One mother in Mineral County, Wv never dreamed that her ex-husband, who had treated their child abusively and who had committed acts of domestic violence against her, as well as the child's criminally violent stepmother could ever possibly gain custody of the child. The child's stepmother had stabbed one of her former husbands in the chest with a knife. The man survived and pressed charges against her. But, in spite of all the evidence, that is exactly what happened.

The mother, who had never been abusive or neglectful toward the child, was wrongfully denied all contact with the child since January 2002.

The gender-bias against women in certain areas of WV is so rabid and so pervasive, it simply defies all logic how CPS and the courts can ignore the evidence and deliberately place children in harm's way.

http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=4063
Custody Battle Shows Holes in Safety Net
Posted 7/20/2005 11:00 PM

A judge and Child Protective Services let children stay with their dad -- a convicted sex offender -- despite allegations that members of his family were abusing the kids. Includes video
Story by Jason Tyler Email | Bio

We've all heard horror stories about what can happen to children abducted by convicted sex offenders.

But the West Virginia Media I Team has learned that across the state, courts are actually placing children in the custody of sex offenders.

You might think the state agency charged with making sure kids are safe would be on high alert for these cases.

It isn't.

Child Protective Services, a division of the state Department of Health and Human Resources, is under fire from the federal government for not doing enough to protect children in this state.

But one woman believes the neglect and failure on the part of the agency has put her three little children at risk. She didn’t think her sex offender ex-boyfriend could even get custody.

But when her children complained of abuse, she was even more shocked at who her children were accusing.

"I got the same answer from everybody," said the mother, whom we are not identifying to protect her children's identity. "We can't, there's nothng we can do. We cant help you."

Nobody has been charged with a crime in this dispute.

The woman has been involved in a nasty custody battle with the children's father, an ex-boyfriend who's on West Virginia's child sex offender registry.

She said she didn't know until they broke up that the ex-boyfriend was convicted in 1994 of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl. He was on probation 18 months for that crime. "It was upsetting to know that my kids can go around him and he had impregnated this young girl," the mother said.

Until recently, the father had joint custody of the children. He got them two weeks per month, unsupervised.

Nobody said the father was molesting the children. But the mother said her 4-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son told her that the man's grandparents and adopted brothers were abusing them.

"They are 3 and 4 and they are doing sexual acts that they shouldn't even know about until they are adults," the mother said. "You know, that makes me suspicious. And when my little girl says, 'Help me. I don't want to be touched anymore.' " The mother said she took her children to a Child Protective Services caseworker, who decided the accusations were unfounded. But a second caseworker who reviewed the case at the mother's request saw a red flag.

The West Virginia Media I Team obtained a recording of a teleconference between that worker and Pocahontas County Family Law Judge Roy David Arrington. The worker told the judge:

"I wouldn't be able to make a formal recommendation other than the children's safety which is not having them around the grandparents or the two cousins or the adopted children of the grandparents."

Arrington did not change the custody arrangement. Instead, he ordered the father to keep the children away from the grandparents and his adopted brothers.

Child Protective Services workers claimed there was nothing they could do.

” We are there to protect the safety, but we really don't have anything to say about the custody," said John Law, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Gloria Martin, a child advocate and former outreach worker, said CPS needs to do whatever it takes to get children out of a potentially dangerous situation."

"And if there's any question, then I think you need to turn every stone to make sure that the kids are safe," Martin said.

Other officials said the safety of the children should come first and that CPS is mandated by law to step in and try to protect children when there are allegations of abuse.

Calls to the attorney representing the children's father were not returned.

For now, the custody arrangement has been changed. The children now see their father once a week at a neutral site under the supervision of a social worker. A final hearing is scheduled for next month.

If you can't view the video, download QuickTime.

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Related Links:
Child Protective Services
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bcf/children_adult/cps/

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted ( © ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

2006-03-03T00:28:00.000-08:00

COURT REJECTS MO. CHILD ABUSE REGISTRY

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Child_Abuse_Registry.ht
ml

Thursday, November 3, 2005 · Last updated 6:23 p.m. PT

Court rejects Mo. child abuse registry

By DAVID A. LIEB
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A judge declared Missouri's child abuse
registry unconstitutional Thursday, ruling that suspected offenders
deserved a court-like hearing before being listed.

The registry is kept secret from the general public, but is used by
child care providers and others to screen current and potential
employees.

Circuit Judge Richard Callahan concluded that people's reputations
and professional careers were damaged when their names were placed
in the child abuse registry before a due-process hearing.

The Department of Social Services said it was likely to appeal the
case to the Missouri Supreme Court. Callahan suspended the effect of
his judgment pending an appeal.

Callahan's ruling stemmed from a 2002 instance of alleged sexual
abuse at the Faith House child care facility in St. Louis. Although
they were not accused of abuse themselves, founder Mildred Jamison
and nurse Betty Dotson were listed on the child abuse registry based
on probable cause of neglect.

The decision was upheld by the Department of Social Services' Child
Abuse and Neglect Review Board, which holds only informal hearings,
not ones following judicial procedures. Decisions by the review
panel can be appealed to a judge, but the listing occurred before
that happened.

Callahan said it violated constitutional due-process rights to list
people on the registry prior to holding a hearing before a neutral
decision-maker in which witnesses are under oath, can be cross-
examined and can be compelled to testify.

He also said the hearings must use a tougher-to-prove criterion
of "preponderance of the evidence" instead of "probable cause" - a
change already made by a 2004 law.

Jamison said Callahan's ruling was "wonderful, because many people
don't know what the due process is. Their names go on, and they
don't know about the appeals process or any of that."

Dotson could not be reached for comment.

---------

A social worker acquaintance, who strongly objects to unqualified, poorly trained, non-licenced or improperly licenced caseworkers being in the field of social work, forwarded the above news story to me along with these comments:

Note: forwarded message attached.

Child abuse registry ruled unconstitutional by Circuit
Court Judge. Next thing, exposure of the use of this
by DHS workers to cut off federal tax supported
programs to the poor using workers with an 8 week
training in a capacity that requires 6 years of
college, practicums, licensure, accredited university
programs, not this. Then, use those the same denials
to create a CPS case against the poor so more funds
can be gotten by denying valid services, SSDI/SSI
claims, causing homelessness, inadequte food in a
household, finacial problems and bill for CPS
investigations and problems caused by denial of
services that the poor were eligible for. The
unlicensed people who are practicing without a license
teaching the new unlicensed to also practice without a
license and bill federal programs that require proper
accreditation ---you got it MSW, LLP, PhD and a
license as it endangers public health. Due process?
They didn't cover that in 8 weeks or healthcare fraud,
felony public health law violations--practicing
without a license, purgery, falsifying documents,
RICO/Stark law violations, case steering, HIPPA
violations, hiding exculpatory evidence, tampering
with the evidence, slander, malicious prosecution,
whistleblower protections, or tampering with
witnesses. They did cover how to fill out the forms to
get money from the CAPTA funds. Sure it's all
felonies, kids get hurt or die in protective custody,
they crossed into the judiciary, but if you hire the
unqualified and unlicensed and teach them to do these
things, what did you expect them to learn in 8 weeks?
Following the laws and the penalties for breaking
children, laws, and families wasn't covered. The
reward has been the more petitions and false paperwork
charts you create, the more money that you can make.

2006-03-01T21:35:00.000-08:00

(NATIONWIDE) FEDS ABANDON FOSTER-CARE PLAN

EDITORIAL
Feds abandon foster-care plan

Monday, February 27, 2006

SF Chronicle

AS BAD AS federal financing for foster care is, it's about to get even worse.

For 10 years, the federal government has had the ability to grant states flexibility in the use of federal child-welfare funds, thanks to a rare move by Congress in 1994 to improve the foster-care system.

The Title IV-E waiver program was intended to promote innovative programs, and has led to practices that support alternatives to foster-care placements.

In San Francisco, for example, the county works with nonprofit agencies on "differential programs," helping at-risk families through domestic-abuse programs, substance-abuse programs and employment services. The goal is to help stabilize the family rather than remove the child from the home. However, because such services are not covered by federal dollars, the county has been using a one-time state grant, along with county funds, meaning the services are in constant danger of being cut. With the waiver, such preventive services could be secured and expanded in San Francisco, as well as other counties.

But on March 31, this waiver authority will expire as a result of the budget reconciliation bill, which Congress passed on Feb. 1.

While the federal government requires that "reasonable efforts" be made by states to avoid removing a child from his or her home, such antiquated federal-financing rules practically promote it.

"The fact that the federal money does not kick in until we remove a child from home is totally perverse," said Trent Rhorer, San Francisco's human services director.

"The whole idea is to help families and make sure they don't go into the system. We have a bunch of strategies that have proven effective that we would love to bring to scale, but we simply lack the federal dollars to do so."

Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is the largest source of federal funding for child-welfare services, accounting for 53 percent -- $4.8 billion -- of total federal spending on child welfare in the nation in 2004. This funding is an unlimited entitlement, meaning the more foster children a state has, the more money it gets. But the funds only cover board, care and administrative costs once a child is in the system.

States can turn to another federal-funding source, Title IV-B, for child-abuse investigations, substance-abuse programs, counseling and preventive programs, but this funding makes up merely 5 percent of the total federal funding for child welfare. Unlike Title IV-E, it is not unlimited.

California submitted a request for a Title IV-E waiver to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in May 2004, which would cover 20 counties including Alameda, San Francisco and Santa Clara.

This request has yet to be approved, and unless the Department of Health and Human Services does so before March 31, California will lose this rare chance to use federal funds for programs that can improve the system and the lives of thousands of children.

"This application has been waiting for two years. The hope is that the government will act promptly," said Miriam Krinsky, executive director of the Children's Law Center in Los Angeles.

But even with the state waiver, this looming expiration date sheds light on a much bigger issue.

Federal financing for foster care demands a major overhaul. States should not have to apply for and await approval of waivers that only serve as temporary Band-Aids to a systemwide crisis.

Programs that prevent children from going into the system should be a mandate, fully funded by the federal government, not something that has to be requested by a state in order to implement.

If the government truly wants fewer children in the system, it must back its stated intentions with real dollars.

Links to past editorials on foster care can be found under "Chronicle campaigns" at sfgate.com/opinion.

Page B - 6

2006-03-01T15:50:00.000-08:00

FOSTER KIDS VICTIMS OF GUNFIRE

Foster kids victims of gunfire
Nearly three dozen in system killed in two years
By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer

Nearly three dozen children who were in foster care or had contact with the child protective system in Los Angeles County over the past two years were killed in drive-by or random shootings, according to new county data.

Twenty-three children were killed last year alone, up from 10 in 2004, according to the county's first detailed examination of gang-shooting deaths among children in foster care or the child protective system.

"I was absolutely astounded," Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said Tuesday. "Every time I would read a report, I'd say, 'Gosh. Another one,' and then I'd see another one. So I started making notes on all of it."

Then she called Department of Children and Family Services Director David Sanders and said, "Do you realize how many children in our system are being shot either as part of gangs or as victims?"

The increase has prompted the county's Interagency Gang Task Force to look into the situation, and the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed Sanders to develop a plan to strengthen the agency's gang awareness and prevention program and provide more training for foster parents.

The number of children involved in the system who were killed is disproportionate with the number killed in shootings in the general population countywide, which totals about 120 a year, officials said.

"It's out of whack," Burke said.

The number of children involved in the child protective system who were killed totaled nearly 23 per 100,000 in 2004, compared with about four per 100,000 in the general population.

"It seems to me this is another indication of the urgent need to keep young people out of the system," said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va. "What you have with foster children is children who never had a real family. Their families were taken from them.

"So it is tragic, but unsurprising that the lure of gangs would be even stronger for foster children - that they would see a gang as their only chance for a
family."

Of the 33 children, 10 had open DCFS cases at the time of their death. Of those 10, seven were in foster homes and two were under county supervision in the home of their parents.

In one case in El Monte in 2004, parents got into an argument with gang members who "took it out on" on their 7-year-old daughter by shooting and killing her, said Deanne Tilton Durfee, executive director of the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Three years before, social workers had investigated a complaint that the girl's parents were neglecting the girl, but had determined that she and her five siblings were being looked after properly.

"In scrolling through these cases, most children involved in gang-related violence were victims of a lack of supervision or neglect," Tilton said. "For the older children, the gangs seem to become their family. The smaller ones are left without protection, or they get caught in the crossfire, such as this 7-year-old."

Sanders said the reason why a disproportionate number of children involved in the child protective system are shot is because the department responds to a disproportionate amount of reports of mistreatment among families involved in gangs.

"At this point I'm not prepared to say it's about a lack of supervision by foster parents and relative caregivers, but I think that's a piece we'll have to better understand," Sanders said. "If that is contributing, then we'll want to look at other interventions as part of the solution."

Troy Anderson, (213) 974-8985

troy.anderson@dailynews.com

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted ( © ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

2006-02-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

CHIP looks to boost benefits - WARNING

Single mothers in particular really could use assistance to make certain their children's healthcare needs are met and quality, preventative care is best for the children and does save costs in the long-run.

However, single mothers should be aware that requesting public assistance may be a red flag to get the unwarranted and unnecessary attention of CPS. Unfortunately, there is a prevailing (wrongful) mindset in West Virginia that "if a parent is poor, they must be a bad parent" and CPS often has the "take the child and run" mentality in these cases.

In Mineral County, WV a middle-class, financially comfortable couple with one child separated and were in the process of getting divorced. The child had asthma, allergies as well as other medical conditions requiring treatment. The father, who was abusive, was in contempt of court orders and refused to pay his court-ordered 1/2 share of the child's medical expenses after insurance coverage to create financial hardships for the mother. The father comitted additional financial abuses by refusing to cooperate to allow the mother to get insurance reimbursement for all the medicines she was purchasing for the child and for herself.

The mother, who had never received public assistance previously, applied for a medical card for the child and was approved. The mother reconsidered, however, and decided not to use the medical card. After all, she thought, her husband had a good job and was court-ordered to pay his 1/2 share of the child's medical expenses and why should the state have to pay the father's share of the expsenses just because he refused to follow court orders? It would probably mean another trip back to court just to get her husband to comply with the court orders, but the mother felt the situation would be resolved eventually. In spite of the financial hardships, the mother continued to make certain the child's medical, dental, orthodontic and vision care needs were met.

After a small fender bender (the fault of the other driver) and the child complained of aches and pains, the mother had the child checked at an ER and supplied the hospital with her health insurance card from her husband's workplace which covered the child and herself. The father was receiving the health insurance benefits statements and was refusing to supply copies to the mother.

After collecting the private insurance payment for the child's ER visit, the billing department at the hospital billed the state medical card for the balance due without the mother's knowledge or consent. The mother still has not determined how the hospital billing department even became aware that the child had a state medical card in the first place.

Later, after the divorce was finalized, the father had quickly remarried. He then lodged false allegations of neglect against the mother to CPS in order to use CPS as a weapon to gain custody of the child.

The mother firmly believes that CPS took her child and worked to have custody of the child awarded to the father, in spite of evidences that this was NOT in the child's best interests, due in part because the mother and child qualified for public assistance and due in part because the Mineral County CPS department has a blatant favoritism toward fathers and a blatant bias against mothers.

Across this nation, the push has been to get people (mainly women and children) off public assistance. The most efficient way to do this has been to take the children of the poor and the working poor. Often children are placed with the biological fathers (who typically earn much more than mothers) or CPS places children in foster care where CPS can collect federal and state funds for the children's "care".

The thing of it is, although there are many complaints about the poor and working poor receiving assistance, according to Dr. Susan Orr, Associate Commissioner children's bureau, it costs taxpayers at least 10 times more to care for children in foster care than if the children were to be left safely with their natural families and those families received a "welfare check".
Policy Study No. 262, October 1999, Child Protection at the Crossroads:
Child Abuse, Child Protection, and Recommendations for Reform By Susan Orr, Ph.D.
http://www.reason.org/ps262.html

Published: February 24, 2006 09:54 am

CHIP looks to boost benefits

Tammie Toler
Princeton Times

PRINCETON - An ear infection or a bout of strep throat are not life-threatening for most children. Parents take them to the doctor, turn the visit in to an insurance company and pay the co-pay on a prescription to clear up the infection.

But, for parents of 26,000 to 30,000 West Virginia children, health insurance is a luxury they simply cannot afford.

“They can't take their children to the doctor when they first get sick, so they wait, hoping the sickness will get better,” Community Connections Outreach Director Beth Sizemore said Wednesday. “What often happens is that the children get sicker, and they have to be taken to the emergency room. We all know how expensive that can be, and in many situations, parents simply cannot pay the bills.”

A proposed bill currently under consideration in the West Virginia Legislature would extend health insurance eligibility to an estimated 3,000 kids through the Children's Health Insurance Program. In order to do that, the plan would increase the current eligibility standard to make coverage available for families earning up to 300 percent of the poverty income.

Currently, families making 200 percent of the federal designation are eligible for CHIP benefits, but those above 150 percent pay for premiums on a sliding scale.

The new proposal, as presented to the state Senate's Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday, would require premium payments from enrolled families earning more than 200 percent of the poverty-level income. Those payments were estimated to be about 20 to 25 percent of the monthly $42 to $52 per month.

CHIP director Sharon Carte told lawmakers Senate Bill 70 would likely cost an initial $1.075 million, but Sizemore, who promotes CHIP through Community Connections, said the benefits likely would warrant the investment.

“It's a great program, because it's for people who are working, but, A, they're working for a business that doesn't provide insurance; or, B, it's too expensive for them to take advantage of,” she said, “Fiscally, providing insurance to people in those situations is cost-effective.”

By allowing families the financial freedom to seek preventive care and immediate assistance in the event of an illness, families are healthier in general and less likely to incur large-scale medical bills treating sicknesses that get out of hand or disorders that go too long without diagnosis, she said.

CHIP became a reality in West Virginia in 1998, providing free or low cost health-care plans for children up to the age of 19. Covered services include well-child visits, immunizations, prescriptions, hospital visits, dental vision and mental health care.

“It's probably better than the health insurance a lot of people have,” Sizemore said.

Currently, there are 24, 515 West Virginia children enrolled in CHIP. Of those, 1,054 are from Mercer County, Sizemore said.

Even though CHIP has been available in West Virginia since 1998, Sizemore said some families in Mercer County remained eligible for the coverage and have not applied for the insurance.

For more information on CHIP or the application process, contact Community Connections at 324-0456 or 325-3515, or call the Mercer office of the Department of Health and Human Resources at 425-8738.

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.
http://www.bdtonline.com/cnhi/bdtonline/princetonnews/local_story_055095430.html

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted (ÃÂ© ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

2006-02-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

THE PEDIATRICIAN IS IN - YOU ONLY THINK HE'S TRIPPING!

You Only Think He's Tripping!
Posted by Robert Needlman, M.D.
on Fri, Feb 24, 2006, 10:38 am PST Post a Comment

Here’s what I saw walking into my favorite do-it-yourself store (where I go at least twice a week – but more about that later): A man was walking quickly across the parking lot, holding his young son’s hand. The boy’s feet were barely touching the ground, and every few steps the boy pitched forward and his dad was forced to haul him up by the arm. Another shopper observed, loud enough to be heard by us all, “he’s tripping.” The father barely looked up as he replied, “You only think he’s tripping!”

I don’t know whether the little guy was tripping or, as his dad thought, faking it in order to get a free swing through the air and a little extra attention. What seemed clear to me, though, was that neither the boy nor his dad was giggling. They both seemed pretty serious about this game, or battle, whichever it was, that they were engaged in. They had different agendas. The dad’s was to get into that store fast, and probably get out again fast, and go home to fix whatever was broken. The boy’s was to get attention from his dad, or perhaps just to keep up with him.

So, here’s my doctorly thought: if the dad had slowed down just a bit, he and his son could have been playing a swinging game (although it works best with two adults). Then, both the dad and the son would have been on the same page, instead of working at cross purposes. And probably the amount of good feeling in their relationship would have been increased, and the frustration and anger decreased.

The swinging game is safe. On the other hand, suddenly yanking a child up by the arm can cause a common medical condition called nursemaid’s elbow (also called subluxation of the radial head, by those who prefer Latin.) It’s what happens when the radius, one of the two bones in the forearm, is pulled out of its socket in the elbow. A child with a nursemaid’s elbow refuses to move the arm. A savvy doctor can pop the bone back in the socket, using a simple procedure, and presto! working arm. But it’s better if the arm stays unyanked in the first place.

Comment 2:
How sad to drag a child along like that to run an errand. I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about the parent slowing down to get on the same page as the child. A good rule of thumb for any parent is that if the parent thinks an errand will take a certain amount of time, always add additional time if taking a small child along. Running errands at a rushed pace can be an stressful, unpleasant event for both the child and the parent. Or the parent can approach the situation knowing the errand will take a little more time with the child along and the parent can make even the most simple errand an enjoyable, positive relationship-building event.

Posted by family_rights_wv on Fri, Feb 24, 2006, 2:16 pm PST
http://blogs.health.yahoo.com/experts/childhealth/198/you-only-think-hes-tripping

Note by Family_rights_wv: THE DOUBLE STANDARD - There is a double standard for fathers and for mothers, in the court system and in matters involving CPS. Mothers are held at a much higher standard.

Whereas bystanders may not have approved of the father's treatment of the child, bystanders (and CPS) are more likely to classify the behavior as "improper parenting or "discipline" techniques" whereas if a mother would do the exact same thing, bystanders and CPS would be more likely to classify it as "abuse" and it would be more likely for a complaint to be lodged against a mother to CPS.

Cold Myths and Misunderstandings
Posted on Wed, Feb 22, 2006, 5:26 pm PST
When your child has a runny nose, and cough, do you reach for the medicine bottle, or heat up a pot of chicken soup? Do you head off to the doctor for antibiotics or to the drug store for megadoses of vitamin C? Read Full Entry

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2006-02-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

2003 CHILD FATALITIES- WV RANKS #1, WYOMING RANKS #2
Start: Feb 22, 2006

FOSTER CARE VS. FAMILY PRESERVATION: THE TRACK RECORD ON SAFETY
"National data on child abuse fatalities show that a child is [b]nearly twice as likely to die of abuse in foster care as in the general population.[/b] [1]
1. About 0.73 percent of American children are in foster care, but 1.22 percent of child abuse fatalities are in foster care. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Child Maltreatment 2002 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001). See chart in Chapter Four, also available online http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm02/table4_3.htm"

Under federal law, states are supposed to make Child Fatality Review Team reports available to the public. Most states put their Child Fatality Review Team annual reports online to make them available to the public. Although diligent searches have been made, I have not been able to locate the WV Child Fatality Review team reports until just very recently, when I located Child Fatality Review Team reports regarding drownings only on www.wvdhhr.org.

In Child Maltreatment 2000, WV admitted to OVER-reporting the number of children who were the subject of child abuse and neglect investigations by several thousand. WV also admitted to UNDER-reporting the number of child fatalities and child maltreatment occurring in foster care by an unknown amount in previous years and claimed WV could not go back and get accurate data.

In Child Maltreatment 2003, WV ranks #1 nationwide in child fatalities.

Out of an estimated 1,500 child deaths nationwide attributed to abuse, neglect and homicide, 570 child deaths (or 38 percent) occurred in foster care.
Using the estimated 1,177 number of child fatalities reported in Table 4-1 Child Fatalities, 2003 Child Maltreatment 2003 http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm03/table4_1.htm and 570 child deaths occurring in foster care according to AFCARS, that brings the number of reported estimated child fatalities occurring in foster care to 48 percent.

In Child Maltreatment 2003, West Virginia ranks #1 nationwide with 7.67 Child Fatalities per 100,000 children.

Of the child fatalities reported for WV, 14 had a history with CPS and five cases were open in the State at the time of death.
West Virginia reported 5 child fatalities in the Child File.
Of the 6 homicides reported, 4 children died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a father. I located a news paper article where a Horton, WV man fatally shot 2 of his own biological children and one foster child in 2003 before committing suicide.

West Virginia Appendix D, State Commentary Child Maltreatment 2003
"In addition to the 5 fatalities reported in the Child File," 25 fatalities were reported by the West Virginia Child Fatality Review Team. Of the 25 fatalities, "6 were by abuse (homicide) ... "Of the 6 homicides, 4 of the children died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a father...""
"... Of the 25 deaths, "14 had a history with CPS," 2 of which were from another state. "Five were open in the State at the time of death.""

WEST VIRGINIA
Child Population....................390,901
Child File and SDC Fatalities.............5
Agency File Fatalities...................25
Fatalities ..............................30
Total Child Fatalities...................30
Fatalities per 100,000 Children........7.67

Out of the estimated 1,500 child fatalities occuring nationwide, this table accounts for an estimated 1,177 child fatalities.

Table 4-1 Child Fatalities, 2003 Child Maltreatment 2003
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm03/table4_1.htm

Table Notes
Additional information regarding methodologies that were used to create the tables are provided below.

Table 4-1
A 2003 national estimate of 1,500 fatalities was derived by multiplying the national weighted rate of 2.00 by the national child population (73,043,506) and dividing by 100,000. The estimate was then rounded to the nearest 100.
Table 4-2
Fatality rates were computed by dividing the number of child fatalities by the population of reporting States and multiplying by 100,000.
Estimated child fatalities were computed by multiplying the fatality rate by the national child population and dividing by 100,000. The estimate was then rounded to the nearest 100.
Table 4-3
These are fatalities reported only in the Child Files and are, therefore, a subset of total fatalities.
If a State did not include the age or sex of a child fatality victim, that fatality was not included in this analysis.
Table 4-4
The category multiple race includes a combination of two or more race categories other than Hispanic
Table 4-5
If a State did not report the perpetrator relationship of a child fatality, that fatality was not included in this analysis.
The categories "mother and other" and "father and other" include victims with one perpetrator identified as a mother or father and a second perpetrator identified as a nonparent.
The category of nonparental perpetrator is defined as a perpetrator who was not identified as a parent and includes other relative, foster parent, residential facility staff, etc.
Table 4-6
The category multiple maltreatment types includes a combination of any two or more types of maltreatment.

---------------
AFCARS

Number of children who died in foster care in 2003 nationwide:

Children exiting foster care by Death of Child 570

NOTE: Deaths are attributable to a variety of causes including medical conditions, accidents and homicide.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report10.htm

------------------
Appendix D
State Commentary
Child Maltreatment 2003

West Virginia
Tom Strawderman
Program Manager II, Resource & Development
Bureau for Children and Families
Department of Health and Human Resources
350 Capitol Street
Room 730
Charleston, WV 25301-3711
Phone: 304-558-7980
Fax: 304-558-8800
tstrawderman@wvdhhr.org

Data File(s) Submitted

Child File, Agency File

Level of Evidence Required

General

The Families and Children Tracking System (FACTS) has been in operation for 6 years. Revisions are continuously being made to improve programming and ease of use by workers.

Reports

The number of staff responsible for CPS functions is based on payroll data. This estimate of FTEs is determined by multiplying the percentage of time workers spend on CPS cases by the total number of CPS workers and social workers in the State.Workers are crosstrained and assist each other in performing the various CPS functions. Therefore, the estimate of screening and intake workers cannot be made.

Fatalities

In addition to the 5 fatalities reported in the Child File, 25 fatalities were reported by the West Virginia Child Fatality Review Team. Of the 25 fatalities, 6 were by abuse (homicide) and 19 related to neglect. Of the 6 homicides, 4 of the children died from gunshot wounds inflicted by a father. One was an abusive closed head injury inflicted by a caregiver and the other was a child shot with a firearm by another juvenile in a setting where there was no adult supervision. This case is ruled homicide and thus categorized as abuse. Of the neglect related deaths, 2 were related to medical neglect on the part of parents. Four deaths were related to deaths in motor vehicles ranging from a parent drunk while driving and young children being unrestrained and dying in motor vehicle crashes. Of the neglect related deaths 8 were related to drug or alcohol use on the part of the parent or a history of parents giving drugs to their children and their death by a subsequent overdose. In those cases, a clearly documented history of parents contributing to the drug use/habit of the child existed. Of the neglect-related deaths four were related to a lack of supervision resulting in drowning. One (1) neglect related death was related to a young child gaining access to a firearm and accidentally shooting himself. Of the 25 deaths, 14 had a history with CPS, 2 of which were from another state. Five were open in the State at the time of death.

Services

State contracts usually span across the State fiscal year, July 0 though June 30. Therefore, the requested data were retrieved from contracts dated from July 2002 through June 2003.

Child Maltreatment 2003 http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm03/appendd.htm
---------------

November 18, 2005

Last modified November 18, 2005 - 12:25 am

Wyoming ranks No. 2 in child abuse fatalities
Associated Press

CHEYENNE - Wyoming children are dying from abuse and neglect at a much greater rate than in surrounding states, according to a new state report.

Asked to summarize the report's findings, Dr. Valerie Bell responded, "Methamphetamine and shaken baby."

Bell, a Cheyenne pediatrician, chairs Wyoming's Child Major Injury/Fatality Review Team. The team's annual report released this month states the team reviewed 12 cases in which Wyoming children were killed or injured in 2004.

Of the cases the team reviewed, three children suffered shaken baby syndrome, two were blunt force trauma cases and two suffered sexual abuse.

Bell and other team members say Wyoming needs to educate young parents and others who come into contact with babies that shaking them when they won't stop crying can kill them or lead to permanent injury. In addition, team members say drug and alcohol abuse play a role in many of Wyoming's child abuse and fatality cases.

Far above U.S. average

The report includes chilling statistical information about child deaths in Wyoming from abuse and neglect.

For calendar year 2003, the latest statistical figures available, the report states that Wyoming saw eight child fatalities from neglect or abuse, equating to a rate of 6.61 deaths per 100,000 children. That far exceeds the national average that year of 2 child deaths per 100,000.

The state report draws child fatality figures from Child Maltreatment 2003, a report prepared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The federal report shows that for 2003, only West Virginia with 7.67 child deaths per 100,000 children had a higher child fatality rate than Wyoming.

Wyoming's reported child death rate from neglect and abuse far exceeds the rate in neighboring states, according to the state report. Of those, Nebraska is the highest at 3.63 deaths per 100,000 and the other five states are all under 2.6 deaths per 100,000. The federal figures draw numbers from state reports and other sources.

The Wyoming report also states that the Wyoming Department of Family Services itself reported four child fatalities from abuse or neglect in 2003. The state figures show an infant fatality rate of just over 4.5 deaths per 100,000 children.

Bell said she believes that all the cases the Wyoming state team reviewed involved methamphetamine use in some way.

Both Bell and the report itself cautioned that Wyoming's population is so small compared to other states that its annual percentage fatality figures can be skewed widely by just a few cases. Nonetheless, the report states that Wyoming's fatality rate began rising sharply in 2002 after remaining steady for the five previous years.

Shaken baby tops list

"I would hope that as far as public officials, that law enforcement, judges, people who are in a position to be investigating deaths, or prosecuting abuse, take it very seriously," Bell said of the report's findings. "Particularly in instances of shaken baby."

"We continue to see shaken babies as a number-one form of abuse leading to death, or severe injury in the state," Bell said. "That's despite continuing educational programs aimed at prevention.

"And I think it's hard because the perpetrator is often someone who is not in a position to be targeted by prevention efforts. It's mom's new boyfriend, so he wasn't there to be targeted by all of the teaching that was taking place when the baby was born."

Bell also said the report shows Wyoming's need to continue efforts at methamphetamine treatment and prevention. She said the state needs to prevent abuse by "really having the support systems in place to allow people to be better parents, and get treatment when necessary for drug problems."

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said this week that he will recommend that the state put up millions in general fund money to offset federal cutbacks in law enforcement programs, including those targeting the state's methamphetamine problem.

Wheatland Police Chief Steve Gilmore, who served on the state review team, suggested that the state develop written materials that new mothers can take with them to inform anyone who's going to be around their baby of the danger of shaking them. He said educational classes through schools, jails and prisons to tell people of the danger of shaking might be helpful.

Mary Fowles, social services consultant for the Wyoming Department of Family Services, said she's preparing the next report looking at cases from 2004 and "we've been seeing considerably more meth and drug use."

Fowles said her department sends the report to health agencies, judges and members of the Legislature.

"Our hope is that those individuals who read it will say, 'What are we doing?' " Fowles said. "We need to do something different in Wyoming."

Details

HIGH FATALITY RATE: Statistics from the 2003 calendar year show neglect or abuse was responsible for eight children's deaths, equating a rate of 6.61 deaths per 100,000 children. The only state with a higher rate of child deaths was West Virginia. The national average for 2003 was 2 deaths per 100,000 children.

NUMBERS INCREASED: A state team reviewed 12 cases in which Wyoming children were killed or injured in 2004. Three of the children suffered from shaken baby syndrome, two suffered blunt force trauma, and two suffered sexual abuse

DRUGS BLAMED: Dr. Valerie Bell, chairwoman of the review team, said she believes all the 2004 cases reviewed by the team involved methamphetamine use in some way. She said the review team's report shows a need to continue efforts at meth treatment and prevention

Copyright © 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/newdex.php?display=rednews/2005/11/18/build/wyoming/30-childabuse-deaths.inc

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted ( © ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

Research notes regarding child fatalities by:
family_rights_wv@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/family_rights_wv

2006-02-21T22:37:00.000-08:00

WV - 3 infants dead, family members charged
--------------------------------
Jenny Miller Photos

[CA] The McGowan Familicide

http://www.flickr.com/photos/police_dv/
--------------------------------

3 Infants Dead, Family Members charged
Posted 2/14/2006 11:00 PM

West Virginia Leads the Country in Child Fatalities from Abuse and Neglect
Story by Kimberly Beary Email | Bio

Three local infant boys, the oldest 2 years old, died at the hands of their parents or guardians, according to the arresting police officers. Child welfare experts say these crimes are not uncommon in the Mountain State.

Saint Albans police arrest and charge Stephanie Raines and Jerry McFarland Junior for child neglect causing the death of their 3 month old son, Jacob McFarland, in November.

West Virginia State Police arrest and charge Tonya Sloan and her boyfriend, Anthony Milam, for the murder of Sloan's nephew, Hevin Jenkins, in December. The two year old was reported missing days earlier. Troopers have not been able to find his body which is believed to be in the Ohio River near Huntington.

Putnam County Sheriff Deputies arrest and charge Pepper Eren and her boyfriend Michael Merrifield with failing to provide medical care causing the death of Eren's 2 year old son, Logan Goodall. Goodall died in September.

"West Virginia is currently the highest state in the country for child fatalities for abuse and neglect," said Laura Sperry with the state's Child Protective Services division. "There's a co-occurance between domestic violence and child fatalities so if people, know there's domestic violence in the home it is very helpful that they give us some type of indication up front."

Key information needed in order for CPS to take action includes, a current address where the family can be found. Such tips can be reported at any Department of Health and Human Resources office or to the state's abuse and neglect hotline at 1-800-352-6513. The reports are confidential and can be based on suspicions as it is CPS' job to find the truth. Sometimes that requires assistance from police.

"Obviously if there's abuse, lot of times there is physical evidence that you can observable and openly see," said Saint Albans Police Sargent Joe Crawford.

The experts say even a child's actions and words can be an indication of trouble at home. While all six adults could end up in prison, none of them have not been found guilty of any crime. But three little boys are dead. Lawmakers are looking at establishing a special unit of the state police to investigate abuse and neglect cases.

Copyright 2006 West Virginia Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Source: http://www.wtrf.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=8735

DAMNED IF YOU DO, DAMNED IF YOU DON'T
WV ranks #1 in the nation in child fatalities. In Child Maltreatment 2003, in WV out of 6 homicides, 4 of the homicides were comitted with firearms by the fathers.

WV ranks #14 in the nation for murder-suicide homicides in domestic violence homicides.

According to R. Lundy Bancroft (http://www.lundybancroft.com) in BREAKING THE SILENCE - CHILDREN STORIES, there IS an overlap between spousal abuse and child abuse.

HOWEVER, in various areas of West Virginia (particularly MINERAL COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA) women are placed in "Damned if you do, Damned if you Don't Catch 22" situations. If the woman attempts to end an abusive relationship with her spouse, it is used against her, her reports of domestic violence are "disbelieved", she is treated with utter contempt and with "distain". And often, she is "punished" for attempting to end the abusive relationship by reporting it to authorities. The Batterers "claim" she is "lying" or "crazy" or has "brainwashed" the children against the father and CPS and the Courts cheer the batterer on, enable and facilitate him and usually award him custody of the children.

But, if the woman decides to "take the beatings" and remains in the home, the cycle of violence only gets more severe with time. Whereas the woman may have "taken the beatings" and protected her children from physical abuse, the woman may find that over time that she is unable to meet the ever-increasing unreasonable demands of the Batterer and where she once was able to place herself between the Batterer and the children, she will most likely find that she is no longer able to protect the children from the Batterer. Then if the situation comes to the attention of authorities (CPS, police, the courts) the mother can be blamed for "failure to protect" and her children are taken from her.

In NY a case forced NY CPS to stop the practice of removing children from the non-violent non-offending parent who was the victim of domestic violence for "allowing" the children to witness the parent being victimized by the Batterer.

In most domestic violence situations, the appropriate action is to REMOVE THE BATTERER from the home instead of just giving "lip service" about protecting children and domestic violence. However, the children are often taken by CPS just for the federal and state funding this brings the CPS department.

IN TRUTH, if a woman is a victim of domestic violence, she should find out the "lay of the land" that is, she should find out if her local judicial system is BIASED AGAINST WOMEN or not and IF the court system handles domestic violence appropriately. Again, I can say without any hesitation whatsoever that the courts in Mineral County WV ARE gender-biased against women and DO NOT handle dv cases appropriately.

Often Batterers, if brought to the attention of authorities, will falsely claim that THEY were victimized by the VICTIMS.

A Victim of Domestic Violence must GATHER EVIDENCE such as getting audio recordings, video recordings, answering machine messages of actual assaults occurring or threats of violence as well as witnesses and witness statements from third-party impartial witnesses.

Third parties: often third parties witnessing DV situations will refuse to come forward, they don't want to "get involved". Victims of DV should obtain their names and contact information and have them SUBPOENAED to testify in court and if necessary, have them declared as "hostile witnesses".

If the victim is assaulted, she should obtain treatment and obtain doctor/hospital reports, her injuries should be phtographed, she should also privately arrange to have her injuries PHOTOGRAPHED again and have her own copies made in case the photos by police (or hospitals) turn up "missing" or are of such bad quality that the injuries cannot be seen or in case this evidence is withheld from her (this has actually happened in Mineral County, WV).

The victim may find that she should go to doctors/hospitals in another jurisdiction (or state), she may find that she may have to get a PROTECTION ORDER from another jurisdiction or state (Under WV law, WV will recognize Protection Orders from other states) and she may have to locate an attorney from another jurisdiction to get proper legal representation. I would suggest these things for victims of domestic violence in Mineral County, WV.

The victim of DV will probably find that she will get no assistance from WV Legal Services.

~ family_rights_wv

*None of my comments are legal advice.

2006-02-21T21:21:00.000-08:00

Domestic violence homicides on the rise

STACEY MULICK; The News Tribune
Published: February 13th, 2005 12:01 AM

Tara Pitts had a temporary restraining order against her husband and was awaiting a hearing for a permanent one.
Antigone Allen was staying with her mother after separating from her on-again, off-again boyfriend and their turbulent relationship.

Pranee Sukto had a chance to move with her son to Florida, urged by her sister to leave a violent marriage in Tillicum.

But despite the efforts, the three women were among the 12 victims of domestic violence homicide last year in Pierce County.

That category again was the most deadly, comprising 33 percent of the 36 slayings investigated by local law enforcement agencies. In 2003, the agencies investigated 35 homicides, of which 10 (28 percent) involved domestic violence.

Ann Eft, the director of the Pierce County Commission Against Domestic Violence, was puzzled by the increase in domestic violence-related deaths, especially in light of the attention the problem received after Tacoma’s police chief, David Brame, killed his wife and himself in April 2003.

“Our awareness is higher than ever,” she said. “Knowledge of resources is higher than ever.”

Reviews of domestic violence homicides have found that the victims often talked to family members, friends or co-workers about what was going on in their relationship. Knowing that, victims advocates are trying to reach out to those groups to help get victims the services they need to leave an abuser and be safe.

“These weren’t closet cases (of domestic violence) like they used to be,” Eft said. “These people knew there were problems but friends and family members didn’t know what to do. We need to help friends, family members and coworkers know what to do.”

Pierce County officials have launched an education campaign targeting the family members, friends or co-workers of abuse victims. Posters are on display inside Pierce Transit buses and soon will be in restrooms throughout the county.

The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence has found the number of domestic violence homicides has remained steady over the years, said Kelly Starr, the coordinator of the coalition’s annual fatality review.

“It’s a really tragic reminder of the lethality of domestic violence,” Starr said.

The coalition also has put together guidelines for working with friends and family members of victims.

“We all need to do more to educate ourselves and others in the community about what’s available in our community and that anyone can call,” Starr said. “You can call to figure out how to support a co-worker.”

In 2004, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department investigated 20 homicides, including one death in University Place and three in Lakewood before the city created its own police department in September. That was up from 16 in 2003. Ten of the 2004 deaths were attributed to domestic and family violence, up from six in 2003.

In Tacoma, detectives investigated 15 homicides in 2004, down from 18 the previous year. One of the deaths stemmed from family violence, compared with three in 2003. The newly formed Lakewood Police Department handled one homicide – a domestic violence slaying – in its first months of operation in 2004.

“Obviously one is too many,” said sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer. “We have done a lot of intervention with a lot of people and we continue to do that. It’s not for a lack of trying.”

Statewide homicide figures for 2004 are not yet available. In 2003, 50 of the 189 homicides were attributed to domestic violence, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs yearly report on crime in the state. That was down from 64 of the 193 killings in 2002 classified as domestic violence homicides.

Through the end of June, the latest period checked, the state coalition had counted 19 domestic violence homicides and eight abuser suicides in the state, including two homicides and one abuser suicide in Pierce County.

In 2003, the coalition, which produces an annual review of all the domestic violence homicides in the state, found 46 domestic violence homicides and 17 abuser suicides.

The coalition’s domestic violence number differs from the state crime report figure because the agencies count domestic violence homicides differently.

The coalition includes cases in which the victim was in a current or a former relationship with the killer, in which an ex-spouse kills a child to get revenge on the other parent and in which a person kills the significant other of a former spouse or lover.

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs counts only killings between siblings, unmarried family members and parent and child. The Pierce County figures include homicides counted by both agencies.

Nancy Oakley still thinks about the conversations with her sister before Pranee Sukto was fatally stabbed Oct. 22 in her Tillicum home. Sukto’s husband has been charged with her murder.

“I told my sister to leave, please leave,” recalled Oakley, who is now raising her sister’s 8-year-old son, Anthony. “For the past four or five years, I try and try and try.”

Sukto’s death is a lesson to others in violent relationships, she said.

“If they are in that situation, they need to get out before it’s too late,” Oakley said. “I don’t want other people’s sisters or mothers to go through what my sister went through.”

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/4556506p-4267794c.html

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted ( © ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

2006-02-21T18:16:00.000-08:00

Child Protector Methods Exposed in Suit

From "The Event Newsweekly" in Salt Lake City, Utah.
http://www.the-event.com/newsweekly/Pages/082699issue/coverstory1.html
8.26.99 "For Love Or Money" by John R. Llewellyn
One year and six months ago, the daughters of Edith (Edie) Fernandez, ages 11 and 8, were removed from their Murray home by the Division of Child and Family Services while Fernandez visited with friends in Wendover, Utah. According to Michael Humiston, Fernandez's attorney, the children had been left in the competent care of their 18-year-old sister. Since then, Edie, a petite, attractive woman, has shed gallons of tears while struggling with the gargantuan bureaucracy of an all-powerful state agency. To this day, she still does not understand why she has been deprived of her children, even though she has tried to do everything humanly possible to satisfy DCFS directives.

What did Edie Fernandez do to cause DCFS to take her children?

When Edie found out that her daughters had been molested by a 15-year-old nephew, she immediately rushed the girls to Primary Children's Hospital where an examination confirmed the molestation. Edie says she was interviewed by a police officer at the hospital who told her he would send another policeman to her house to investigate the attack. Two days later, while Edie was away from home, her children were taken into custody by DCFS officials. Edie says that her 18-year-old daughter protested, but the DCFS officials told her to "shut up" and threatened to arrest her. [Sounds about average. The child protectors love the power. -RT]

How do you measure and describe the helplessness and emotional trauma a mother experiences when her children are suddenly and irrationally taken from her? [Because she found that they had been abused and reported it. -RT] While interviewed, Fernandez sobbed uncontrollably, looking at Michael Humiston through blurry eyes to exclaim, "You are my last chance!" Humiston asserts that he entered the case at the last minute, just as Fernandez's parental rights were about to be permanently terminated.

Humiston claims that "The federal government pays the state of Utah at least $25,000 for each child the state can remove from families and place in foster care." To bolster his claim, Humiston has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Utah parents confronted by zealous DCFS agents, naming Utah Attorney General Jan Graham and others as defendants. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are asking for a judgment of $500 million in damages, an amount Humiston contends is "the estimated amount of federal money Utah's Department of Human Services has been rewarded over the last five years." Humiston also offers lectures and classes, from Ogden to St. George, on how parents can, according to Humiston, "Protect themselves and their families from the legislative abuses of the Division of Child and Family Services."

Simply the accusation of neglect or abuse and the threat of having children forcibly removed by an all-powerful government sends frightening chills through parents. "My first impulse," says the mother of 4-year-old Kevin Hadley (not his real name), "was to pack him up and flee."

Precocious Kevin Hadley rode his tricycle to the 7-Eleven a block from his home to buy bubble gum. He slipped away from his father who was working in the backyard and within minutes had approached a heavily traveled street. A passerby, seeing the danger, called the police. Kevin was delivered home to parents who were sick with worry. The next morning, Kevin and his parents were visited by an official from the Division of Child and Family Services. The DCFS official stood in the doorway and asked what appeared to be a few harmless questions, and after five minutes, she departed. Three days later the Hadleys received a letter from the DCFS stating that an "allegation of child abuse or neglect against you" has been "substantiated." Kevin's parents looked at each other in disbelief. The Hadleys were now caught up in the same bureaucratic juggernaut that destroyed Edie Fernandez's family. [You only get one chance with the child protectors. They'll jump on any excuse to take your children to get that federal subsidy. -RT]

The Hadley family lives in a suburban, middle class neighborhood. Their house is two years old and in good repair. The verdant lawn is mowed each week. Tulips, snapdragons and other colorful flowers grow profusely around the borders. With the exception of a single toy out of place, everything is tidy and trim, and the refrigerator bulges with milk, eggs, vegetables-all the vitamin-filled and body-building foods a young boy would require. Kevin's clothes are clean and he attends a prestigious preschool. But most of all, Kevin, like the Fernandez children, is loved, and his young parents have great collegiate ambitions for Kevin's future. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Kevin's mother stares at her husband and asks, "How could anyone possibly think that Kevin is abused or neglected?"

Many parents have similar stories of emotionally draining encounters with the DCFS. Steven Ash, (not his real name) an indulged 14-year-old, sassed his mother in a moment of disrespect. The boy's comments caused his father to raise his hand and warn: "You better watch your language or I'll cuff you on the side of the head." The boy accepted the challenge, so the father kept his promise and cuffed him, more in fun than anger. He then gave the boy a helping boot in the rear and told him to mow the lawn. In seconds, the incident was over and forgotten. But a neighbor who had spied the raised hand and heard the father's threatening tone dutifully reported the matter to DCFS. The next day, the boy was yanked out of school and interrogated for three hours by DCFS officials who threatened to place the boy in a foster home. Steven's mother, who had to be sent to bed with a sedative that night, said she had never been so distressed in her life. "These people from DCFS have no idea how they disrupt people's lives," she says. [They do. They just don't care. -RT]

In his lectures, Humiston urges parents to keep in mind that DCFS officials are not friends. The disarming, congenial, affable mannerisms adopted by DCFS officials are designed to access information. Humiston asserts that where parental rights are concerned, "Whoever controls the information, controls the case."

DCFS operates under the aegis that their actions are in the "best interest of the child." However, according to Humiston, that catchphrase takes precedence over "all other rules of law, over all constitutional considerations and all constitutional rights." Humiston skillfully reminds parents that it is the United States Constitution and due process of law-trial by jury, the right to confront your accuser-that identifies Americans as a people, and the constitutional rights of many Americans are being abrogated by a "big brother" DCFS system that presumes to know what is best for parents and children. In the juvenile courts, he says, there is no accountability, and he charges that constitutional rights are being systematically eliminated by legislation. And the problem, Humiston says, is nationwide, not just in Utah.

After meeting with Edie Fernandez, one cannot help but wonder if separating the two daughters from their mother is really "in the best interest" of the children. The question must be asked: Do children in foster care, like Edie's children, receive the nurturing and love that they should? Edie claims that two weeks after the girls were taken away, she received a distressed telephone call from one of the girls pleading for help. She could hear her other daughter crying and screaming in the background. Her daughter shouted, "They're beating her," before the phone went dead. Noticing the number on the caller ID, Edie dialed back, demanding to know what was happening to her daughters. Edie says she was told by an adult female on the other end that it was none of her business and she would be arrested if she called again. [Again: "drunk with power." -RT]

Humiston believes that the more children DCFS handles, the more money they get, and according to Humiston, for every dollar spent by the state, the federal government grants the state three dollars. "It's ironic," Humiston says, "that after the state takes the children they bill the parents for the cost of foster care. [A cost that's already paid by the feds. -RT] That's what happens in a system based on power, not justice. And I cannot overemphasize that once DCFS has possession of your children, they are in control of the game." [The same as with other kidnappers. -RT]

In another incongruity, Humiston says children are more apt to be molested while in foster care than in their own home.

According to Humiston, "There is a very distinct pattern of those who become the victims of the system." He outlines three factors that distinguish those who most often find themselves in a conflict with DCFS:

Poverty: It is rare that parents of affluence have their children taken away.

Ignorance: Ignorance of the law and one's rights. Parents are under no obligation to let DCFS into their home without a search warrant, and parents have the right to remain silent. The more you volunteer, the better their case against you. [And they never tell you that. -RT]

Isolation: If you are without influence, there is strength in numbers. Victims are astounded to find out they are not alone, hence Humiston's class action lawsuit.
Some parents face potential problems within their own homes. Cases involving the DCFS have garnered such a high profile that some children have threatened their own parents with calling the state agency. It is horrific for a parent to hear the words, "You rough me up and I'll report you to DCFS" coming from a child's lips. A sampling of teenagers in the Jordan School District confided that they are routinely taught that if they are ever abused at home, "The school will see that the proper authorities are notified." Humiston adds, "One more reason home school is so popular."

The DCFS Responds

DCFS Regional Training Manager Troy Randall says that his agency is indeed reimbursed by the federal government. Randall states that $3.00 are reimbursed out of every $4.00 spent, but only for "eligible children." An "eligible child," according to Randall, is one who has been removed from a home. In other words, the federal government funds 71 percent of the cost for each "eligible child." [In other words, they only get paid if the child is removed. And the $3.00 out of $4.00 is only the beginning of the money they get from each "removal." -RT]

In 1998, DCFS received 16,570 referrals. Of those, 5,424 were substantiated, 8,301 children were victims and 1,236 children were removed from the home. Approximately 260 children were permanently separated from their parents. DCFS currently has between 2,300 and 2,500 children "in care" at any given moment. In 1996, out of 15,254 referrals, 2,076 children were removed from their homes. [In other words, only about 20% of all the "referrals" could be substantiated. And of those, about one out of eight were removed and about 25% of those were permanently removed. Doesn't sound like the "epidemic" they want to promote, does it? I might also add that many of those "substantiated" were done so on the subjective definition of child abuse made by the worker, who is "predisposed" to find abuse. It's how they judge job performance.-RT]

In order for a case to be considered valid and for removal to ensue, the case must be substantiated. Substantiation means that a caseworker has determined [A subjective definition of abuse. -RT] that neglect or abuse of a child has occurred. In the Hadleys' case, their names have been placed in a permanent record that may affect future employment and can only be removed by requesting a formal hearing and proving that the allegations are either "without merit" or "unfounded." Humiston says that the burden of proof is on the parent. [And why should it be? As I remember it, we are "innocent until proven guilty" under our laws. In actual fact, their names can be placed on such a list without convicting them of anything, and it's nearly impossible to get off the list. -RT]

Troy Randall says the DCFS budget in 1994 was less that $50 million. Last year's budget was roughly $110 million, and 49 percent of that total came from the federal government via one program or the other. This means that DCFS in 1998 was reimbursed approximately $53 million for children placed in foster care. Therefore, according to Randall, Humiston's claim that the federal government has "rewarded" DCFS $500 million in the last five years is preposterous. [I saw no reference to "$500 million except as an "estimated figure" used to determine the amount asked for in a suit." In any case, the actual "fee" money is just a small part of what they get from each child. -RT]

Everyone agrees that truly abused and neglected children need to be removed from the home. But does the DCFS go too far? [Yes. -RT] Randall states that the rights of parents are "contingent" and the rights of children are "absolute." Children have the right not to be abused, the right not to be neglected and the right to a minimal standard of living. He goes on to say that legislation has deemed that the "absolute rights" of the child can supersede the "contingent rights" (due process) of the parents, and the juvenile court judge attempts to achieve parity between the rights of both parent and child. [Parental rights are not "contingent" on anything. They are as "absolute" as those claimed for the children. To remove them, abuse should be proven, not "inferred." -RT]

By law, a year after removal, a termination of parental rights hearing is held, and at that time the parents must prove that they have satisfactorily completed the "reunification service plan" and are qualified to be reunited with their children. A "service plan" is a DCFS program in which parents are required to complete certain requisites to the satisfaction of DCFS before they can be reunited with their children. According to Humiston, DCFS claims that Edie Fernandez has not met that requirement to the DCFS' "satisfaction." [Their "reunification service plans" are subject to change at any time the parents are seen to be succeeding in satisfactorily completing it so that they cannot possibly succeed. These "plans" are a "smoke screen." -RT]

Troy Randall emphasizes that DCFS exists only to serve the children and takes exception to Humiston's philosophy that parents should not cooperate with DCFS caseworkers. He calls Humiston's beliefs an "extreme right wing" approach, and states, "We are not the enemy." [DCFS, like most child protection agencies, exists to build its own fortunes, not to "serve the children." If they were there for the children, they would not abuse them in the name of "protection" and pursue the 80% of "reports" that aren't sustainable as if they were prima facie evidence that abuse did occur. And I might add that calling Humiston "right wing" is simply a ploy to use when you have no other arguments. If you can't answer a logical argument, just start calling names. It works for other power seekers, why not here? From their actions, in my opinion, they are the enemy. -RT]

Humiston, on the other hand, believes that while parents are cooperating, they are helping DCFS caseworkers complete their agenda of ultimate child removal. "In other words," he says, "the objective of each DCFS investigation is to remove children from the home." [Actually, the real agenda (of the federal government) is to take total control over what is taught in our schools without parental interference. To completely destroy parental rights and the family. The money the local agency gets at each step is merely the "grease" that lubricates the system that will ultimately destroy all families and parental rights. -RT]

However, Randall agrees that children do best in their own home, but DCFS has a legislative mandate to evaluate families and act in the best interest of the child. A juvenile court rules on what constitutes best interest. ["Lip service" is all this is. You have to go by what they do, not what they say. And what they do says Randall's statement is a lie. -RT]

Randall states that an operational reform program drawn up by DCFS Director Ken Patterson, called the "Milestone Plan," is being reviewed by federal Judge Tena Campbell. Milestone is the aftermath of a lawsuit filed in 1993 by the National Center for Youth Law, accusing the Department of Human Services of not doing enough to protect Utah's children. Randall believes that the Humiston lawsuit is "opposite" of the Youth lawsuit recently settled out of court. "Now we are being charged with leaning too far the other way at the expense of parental rights," he says. [Actually, they are being charged with trampling on the rights of both the parents and the children for the agency's gain, and for the gain of the federal government. It's not a matter of "leaning too far in the other direction." It's a matter of "criminal acts under color of law." -RT]

He believes DCFS carefully screens caseworkers and has, in the past, fired caseworkers who have abused their authority. [When? Where? Names, facts and figures, please, or it's another lie. -RT] He says that his organization is still in the "youth stages," only 19 years old. It has only been since 1994 that DCFS received the controversial mandate from the legislature. "We're still learning, reforming and improving," he says. "The 'Practice Model' in the Milestone will make more clear the direction of caseworkers resulting in improved performance." He asserts that among DCFS employees, "There are many dedicated, professional workers doing their very best to be fair to both parents and children." [Yeah, right. One or two, maybe. Until they figure out they're in a racket and quit in disgust. -RT]

On August 30, 1999, Edie Fernandez will appear in court, making a final appeal for the return of her children. She, like so many other parents in her position, looks forward to being reunited with her daughters. But any decision ultimately rests with a judge, and the mercy of the Division of Child and Family Services.

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Vol. 15, No. 18
August 30, 1999
Table of Contents More on Family

Beware the Child Protectors
by William Norman Grigg

When Salt Lake City police and caseworkers from the state Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) surrounded the home of Janet Adolf on June 4th, they were not responding to an accusation of child abuse or neglect. The armed raid had been staged to seize Mrs. Adolf’s eight-year-old daughter, who wasn’t at home — although her three terrified siblings were. According to Mrs. Adolf’s attorney Michael Humiston, the order had been issued because he had advised caseworkers of his intention to monitor their visits to Mrs. Adolf’s home in order "to protect Janet’s rights."

As the case is described by Humiston, Mrs. Adolf’s problems began when her eight-year-old daughter was "intimidated" into making allegations of sexual abuse. Although the family’s original caseworker, Kirk Soderquist, "tried to tell the court that there was no basis to the allegations," the youngster was removed from her home and temporarily placed in foster care; Soderquist was removed from the case and replaced with another caseworker.

"What Rights?"

After a month in a foster home, the child was returned to Mrs. Adolf and a second caseworker was assigned to make regular home visits. Humiston left a message with DCFS announcing his intention to "coordinate" the visits, so that he could be present to protect "the family’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights." According to Humiston, when this was explained to Judge Sharon McCully of Utah’s Third District Juvenile Court — who issued the order that led to the June 4th raid — she exclaimed, "What rights?"

Humiston, an attorney from Heber City, Utah, contends that the State of Utah has conducted "a systematic reign of terror." "By law, parents can be anonymously accused, and never get to face their accusers," observes Humiston. "There’s no right to a jury, no right to remain silent, and no presumption of innocence. Worst of all, all proceedings are conducted in secret. The State regularly terminates parents’ rights without ever showing that the parents are unfit."

In early March, Humiston filed a $500 million class-action suit against Utah Attorney General Janet Graham and several other state officials on behalf of five families whose children had been seized by the DCFS. According to Humiston, the amount of damages sought in the lawsuit is equivalent to the amount of child welfare subsidies received by the state of Utah since 1994.

The situation described by Humiston is by no means unique to Utah. Across the United States, thousands of families have been ripped apart by child "protection" bureaucracies. Parents in such circumstances find that if they have been "hot-lined" — that is, reported anonymously by a dutiful citizen, teacher, or acquaintance — they enjoy none of the rights and immunities associated with due process. Acting in the "best interests of the child," social workers can terminate parental rights on a whim, and order police agencies to enforce those whimsical decisions at gunpoint.

Even more ominously, child "protection" agencies across the nation, following a totalitarian blueprint and fueled with taxpayer dollars, are seeking to create a compulsory "home visitation" system, through which agents of the state will be able to subject parents to regular scrutiny — and determine whether or not children, as "state property," will be permitted to remain with questionable parents. Supporters of this concept have worked stealthily for nearly a quarter of a century to create a national home visitation network. Should they succeed, armed raids similar to the one mounted against the home of Janet Adolf may become quite common.

"Village" Takeover

During her recent "listening tour" of central New York State, Hillary Rodham Clinton had scheduled a visit to Elmira to call attention to that city’s "early childhood intervention program" — the Pre-natal and Early Infancy Project (PEIP). Christopher Caldwell of the neo-conservative Weekly Standard, who covered the First Lady’s Senate campaign swing, explained that PEIP is a child abuse program that "involves sending social workers on regularly scheduled pre-emptive visits into the homes of children whose parents are deemed to put them ‘at risk’ of wrong parenting."

In her ghostwritten manifesto It Takes a Village, Mrs. Clinton gushes, "I cannot say enough in support of home visits" by government social workers. After all, she declares, "Keeping children healthy in body and mind is the family’s and the village’s first obligation," and in those "terrible times when no adequate parenting is available … the village itself must act in place of parents. It accepts those responsibilities in all our names through the authority we vest in government...."

Insisting that in matters of suspected abuse or neglect of children, "a child’s safety must take precedence over the preservation of a family that has allowed abuse to occur," Mrs. Clinton contends that "social workers and courts should make decisions about terminating parental rights of abusive parents more quickly, rather than removing and returning abused children time and again." Government-authorized "home visitors" of the type extolled by the First Lady are authorized to pass judgment on the "adequacy" of parents, and to summon child protection workers should it be decided that the "village" must now "act in place" of inadequate parents.

Like most advocates of home visitation programs, Mrs. Clinton invokes the tragedy of child abuse to justify state intervention within the home. However, as the Physicians Resource Council (PRC), an affiliate of the Alabama Family Alliance, documents in a new study entitled The Parent Trainers, "most advocates of home visitation … clearly state that their goal is to institutionalize home visitation services for all new parents." Deborah Daro, a former research director for Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA), candidly explained that the objective "is to bring home visitation services to all new parents." The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, which was empanelled by George Bush in 1991, reached the same conclusion, calling for "the sequential implementation of a universal voluntary neo-natal home visitation system" (which by strict definition could not be at once "universal" and "voluntary").

Home visitors — who are also called Family Support Workers (FSW) — serve three missions, according to the PCAA. First, "being a teacher is central" to the FSW’s mission. Second, "the home visitor is also a friend, adviser, and advocate for parents," and is responsible for helping forge links between the family and local "community service" agencies. "Finally," states the PCAA, "the home visitor is a monitor" who is expected to develop a "collaborative relationship" with the local Child Protective Services (CPS) agency, and in that capacity she is expected to "set up regular consultation sessions with CPS to review ‘high risk’ cases" and to take "appropriate actions … when abuse or neglect or imminent harm are suspected." One FSW explains that "because so many of our families are at risk of child abuse and neglect, our watchful eye can see the potential for danger before it becomes a real problem and do something about it."

In other words, home visitors/FSWs are the designated "watchful eyes" of the state within the home, empowered to "teach" parents, shepherd them into the suffocating embrace of the welfare state, and arrange for the seizure of children from parents deemed unsuitable. Furthermore, since enrollment in most home visitation programs begins with the birth of the child (and in some, enrollment begins before birth), the clear purpose is to make the state, by way of the home visitor, the custodian of first resort for the children involved.

"We must remove the children from the crude influence of families," Soviet Communist Party educators were instructed at a conference in 1918. "We must take them over and, to speak frankly, nationalize them." Dr. C. Henry Kempe, the most influential American advocate of home visitation programs, subscribed wholeheartedly to that concept.

Dr. Kempe was co-author of the ground-breaking 1968 book The Battered Child, which inaugurated the contemporary "war on child abuse." Kempe’s work was cited as authoritative by the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and by the American Academy of Pediatrics when it recommended in 1998 that pediatricians should "advocate at the local, state, and national levels for the funding … of quality home-visitation programs." Not surprisingly, Kempe also earned favorable mention in Hillary Clinton’s It Takes a Village. What makes Kempe’s influence troubling is the fact that he was an unabashed proponent of the totalitarian view that children are "state property," and that home visitation should be "a compulsory, universal service" imposed on American families. In a June 9, 1975 lecture to the Ambulatory Pediatric Association in Toronto, Dr. Kempe set forth his vision of a system intended to enforce "children’s rights" within the home — a vision remarkably similar to the one expressed by Hillary Clinton in her law journal writings and in It Takes a Village.

"A free society does not want to interfere with the rights of parents to … raise their children in any way they desire," observed Kempe. "But, far too often, children are considered the property or chattel of their parents, many of whom think that they are entitled to dispose of them at will." Invoking the common-law maxim, "A man’s home is his castle," Kempe insisted that "all too often the child is a prisoner in its dungeon. It is a dungeon of constant anger, dislike, aggression, or even hatred."

While most people would acknowledge that such dismal, tragic circumstances do characterize the plight of a relatively small number of children in our country, Kempe insisted that the conditions he described were normative rather than exceptional, and thus justified a "limited intrusion into family privacy by society" in the form of "health visitors." Such visitors would be regarded as "fully capable of determining which children are at risk, whether they are thriving adequately or not doing well," and help to "form a bridge between these families and the health care system." Regular intervention in the home would continue until the child reached school age, at which time "many of the health visitor’s duties will be taken over by the teacher, the school nurse, or the school nurse practitioner."

Kempe emphasized that the regime he described would not be limited to troubled families; rather, participation in the home "health visitor" program would be compulsory for all, "similar to the concept of compulsory, universal schooling": "It seems incomprehensible that we have compulsory education, with truancy laws to enforce attendance and, I might add, imprisonment of parents who deny their child an education, and yet we do not establish similar safeguards for the child’s very survival between birth and age 6."

Lethal Guardians

It is important to recognize that Kempe, in well-established totalitarian fashion, assumes that parents are more dangerous to children than strangers acting as officers of the state, which is, after all, the most powerful instrument of organized coercion and lethal violence. Once again, Kempe’s priorities are in harmony with instructions given in 1918 to Soviet educators, who were told: "From the first days of their lives [Soviet children] will be under the healthy influence of Communist children’s nurseries and schools. There they will grow up to be real Communists."

Kempe also emphasized that a stealthy, incremental approach would be necessary in order to construct a nationwide home visitation system. The program could begin in "any state, or any of our 3,362 counties," he told his audience in Toronto. Furthermore, he admonished advocates to be flexible enough to adjust their proposals to meet local conditions. "If it should turn out that local or state health departments are not very interested or are unwilling to undertake the health visitor program, there may be other approaches for its implementation," he observed. Pointing out that the state of Michigan had "placed the charge on the [state] Department of Education to assure that everyone is ‘educable,’" Kempe explained that this mandate "gives the Department the right to provide screening procedures and comprehensive health care to make every child school-ready."

This same approach has been used by the federal government in recent years to justify intervention in the home at ever-earlier stages in the life of a child. The Clinton Administration’s Goals 2000 — which was an outgrowth of a national education agenda created by the Bush Administration in 1989 — provides millions of dollars in federal subsidies for state early-intervention programs, all of which are justified by the supposed need to ensure that children arrive at the doorstep of government schools "ready to learn."

State Property

According to Kempe, "those of us who are qualified to assess and correct the problems that produce child abuse and ‘failure to thrive’ should have the authority to intervene effectively for the good of the suffering child." The range of interventions anticipated by Kempe is limitless, given that he explicitly described the child as the property of the state.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton provoked widespread criticism for her suggestion that children should have the right to "divorce" their parents — but, once again, she was merely building upon Dr. Kempe’s work. "When marriages fail, we have an institution called divorce, but between parent and child, divorce is not yet socially sanctioned," Kempe commented during his 1975 lecture. For parents deemed unsuitable by the state, "voluntary relinquishment [of parental rights] should be put forth as a desirable social act — to be encouraged for many of these families," Kempe declared. "When that fails, legal termination of parental rights should be attempted."

From Kempe’s perspective, parents exercise authority over their children only by the grace of the state, and the state has the right to revoke parental authority at any time: "Where the state is supreme, the particular problem is easily managed; in a dictatorship each child belongs to the state and you may not damage state property. The really first-rate attention paid to the health of all children in less free societies makes you wonder whether one of our cherished democratic freedoms is the right to maim our own children."

Of course, it is nonsense on stilts to say that children who live in "less free societies" have been the beneficiaries of "first-rate attention." When Kempe offered this paean to totalitarianism, the world had not yet beheld the horrifying spectacle of the state-run orphanages in Communist Romania, in which thousands of children lived and died in unimaginable filth and squalor. Nicolae Ceausescu, the Transylvanian despot who ruled Romania until he was murdered by his outraged subjects in 1989, articulated a statist philosophy of child care nearly identical to Kempe’s, insisting that the individual Romanian child "is the socialist property of the whole society."

Communist China’s child care policies are also in harmony with Kempe’s vision of the child as "state property." A Chinese population control commissar explained in 1979: "China is a socialist country. This means that the interests of the individual must be subordinated to the interests of the state.... Socialism should make it possible to regulate the reproduction of human beings so that population growth keeps in step with the growth of material production." Since children are "state property" in Red China, those conceived without authorization by the state are either killed in the womb, murdered through infanticide, or confined in state-run orphanages.

Steven W. Mosher, one of the world’s leading experts on Red China’s "one-child" policy, describes that nation’s government-run orphanages as "killing fields." Human Rights Watch-Asia reported in 1989 that Chinese orphanages have a mortality rate of at least 72 percent, with medical neglect and malnutrition the leading causes of death. Most of the children consigned to this hell are girls; an account recently smuggled out of China described a case in which a starving girl child, desperately seeking surcease from starvation, attempted to eat the flesh from her own arm.

Such is the fate of children blessed by the "first-rate attention" provided by the "less free societies" extolled by Kempe as models for an American child care regime.

Foot in the Door

Dr. Kempe was the founding director of the Kempe National Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect at the University of Colorado. Kempe’s successor, Dr. Richard Krugman, served as chairman of President Bush’s U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, which recommended "the sequential implementation of a universal voluntary" home visitation system.

In 1985, the state of Hawaii enacted the "Healthy Start" program, a home visitation program that identifies "at risk" families through screening at birth. Healthy Start literature acknowledges that the program "evolved from the work of the Kempe program in Denver."

A recent evaluation of Healthy Start conducted by a panel of Ph.D.s found that for families enrolled in the program, "no overall benefits emerged on child development; the child’s home learning environment; parent-child interaction; well-child care; pediatric health use for illness or injury; child maltreatment … or maternal life skills, mental health, social support, or substance abuse."

However, the program was successful in its chief covert objective: the insinuation of state agents into the private affairs of a majority of Hawaiian families. Healthy Start officials, according to the PRC report The Parent Trainers, are now "screening over 52 percent of all new births in the state and provid[ing] services to roughly 20 percent of all newborns and their families."

In 1992, Hawaii’s Kempe-inspired Healthy Start program was used as the template for the Healthy Families America (HFA) initiative, which was created by Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA) in conjunction with the Freddie Mac Corporation and Ronald McDonald Charities. PCAA, it will be recalled, seeks a "universal, voluntary" home visitation program, and the organization boasts that "virtually all 50 states have a public/private sector task force" promoting home visitation services under various program names. "In California," notes the PRC, "programs are called ‘Welcome Home Baby,’ Georgia’s program is known as ‘First Steps,’ Colorado’s ‘Bright Beginnings,’ Illinois’ ‘Good Beginnings,’ Massachusetts’ ‘Good Start,’ and Arkansas’ ‘New Beginnings’...."

To those state-level examples, a recent report published by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation (a major corporate supporter of home visitation programs) adds Missouri’s "Parents as Teachers" program; the "Nurse Home Visitation Program" — based on Elmira, New York’s PEIP program — which has been put in place in Memphis, Tennessee and Denver, Colorado, "and [is] now being replicated nationally"; Arkansas’ Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), "which seeks to prepare 3-year to 5-year-olds for kindergarten and first grade"; and the Comprehensive Child Development Program, "a five-year federal demonstration program that worked with poor families in 24 sites to promote children’s development, parents’ ability to parent, and family self-sufficiency." Irrespective of the program title, all elaborate on C. Henry Kempe’s malignant design of using home visitation programs as an incremental means of nationalizing children as "state property."

The PCAA reports that "Healthy Family" sites, under various names, are operating in 42 states and the District of Columbia. A recent survey by the organization found that one in five parents with children under the age of one received some type of home visitation service in 1997. Furthermore, the organization’s effort to make home visitation universal received a tremendous boost in the federal budget for fiscal year 1999: The PCAA received $33 million through the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and an additional $14 million for "research and data collection." The organization’s 42 state chapters also have access to Children’s Trust Funds, which are financed through surcharges on marriage licenses and birth certificates, fees for vanity license plates, and check-offs on individual state income tax returns.

In addition, the PCAA "was instrumental in the reauthorization of the Family Preservation and Support Services Program (renamed the Safe and Stable Families Program)," points out The Parent Trainers. Federal funding for that program, which totaled $275 million in fiscal year 1999, is projected to increase to $305 million by 2001 — and a large portion of that amount will be devoted to cultivating and expanding government home visitation efforts.

Testing for Child Abuse

In order to determine which newborn children are "at-risk" and thus qualify for home visitations, observes The Parent Trainers, state-based "Healthy Family" groups must "gain access to medical records of women who are pregnant or have just given birth. To complete this phase, HFA programs employ ‘Family Assessment Workers’ (FAWs) who will screen and assess mothers to determine their risk status." In some cases, an FAW "is designated as a temporary, volunteer employee of the hospital (when she is on hospital grounds) to allow her access to medical records. In other cases, a member of the hospital staff may agree to do the initial record screen and then make referrals to the FAW. Or, the FAW may not have access to medical records, but may be allowed to enter hospital rooms and administer ‘verbal screens’ by asking postpartum mothers directly to answer the questions on the 15-point initial screen."

The questions in the initial screening deal with the mother’s marital status and history, education, socio-economic status, family background, and the like. A "positive score on any two" of the items, notes a PCAA document, will result in a referral for an "in-person interview" involving the "Kempe Family Stress Checklist" (FSC) — ten open-ended, invasive questions presented to both parents. The FSC is supposedly designed to determine a parent’s propensity toward child abuse. On each question the parent receives a score from 0 (no risk) to 10 (highest risk). According to Hawaii’s Healthy Start training manual (a model for state-level programs nation-wide), "a total score of 25 or above for either parent places a family in the high risk category, eligible for Healthy Start home visitor services." However, as The Parent Trainers points out, "A score of 25 … is fairly standard. In other words, if either parent is classified as a ‘moderate’ risk on any five of the ten issues listed above, that parent would be considered a high risk and in need of home visitation services."

Among typical FSC questions can be found inquiries regarding "harsh punishment"; PCAA literature emphasizes that spanking is considered a form of abuse. Having been "suspected of abuse" is another risk factor for a parent, as is being "in the midst of multiple crises or stresses," having "unrealistic expectations of the child’s behavior," or perceiving a child’s behavior as "difficult or provocative." Clearly the FSC is designed to define most — if not all — parents as placing their children "at risk." This is to be expected, given that the objective of "Healthy Start" and its offspring is a universal system — based on voluntary enrollment if possible, but employing coercion if necessary.

The FAWs charged with conducting "screenings" and arranging for home visitations are generally volunteers who may have had only a few days of training. No specialized academic background is required to become a FAW; a high school diploma or its equivalent is sufficient. (One PCAA survey found that one-quarter of all FAWs had no college training.) FAWs are encouraged to lure parents into visitation programs by offering bottles, breast pumps, or other helpful gifts to parents as a pretext for a post-hospital visit. "Comments made at a recent HFA national conference indicate ‘creative outreach’ may also include sending flowers to the reluctant mother on Mother’s Day, or even sending flowers to the mother of the mother, if it appears she is the source of resistance," observes The Parent Trainers. "It may also include taking the reluctant mother out to the beauty parlor if this may gain her confidence and make her feel obligated to participate in the program."

To illustrate the success of such tactics, an Arizona program reported that "90 percent of mothers offered the program accept HFA services." Furthermore, PCAA urges FAWs to make "persistent outreach efforts" for several months, if necessary, until reluctant families "have explicitly indicated that they do not want the service." Recalcitrant parents, according to PCAA, are "often at greatest risk and, therefore, are in greatest need of the service." Should Kempe’s vision of compulsory home visitation to protect children be consummated, it stands to reason that rebellious parents would be the first to have their children taken from them — as the case of Janet Adolf’s family in Salt Lake City would seem to illustrate.

Levels of Involvement

As is almost always the case with any grand, malevolent scheme, the Kempe-inspired home visitation campaign makes malicious use of the worthy motives of otherwise decent people. Diana Lightfoot, director of the Physician’s Research Council and co-author of The Parent Trainers, explained to The New American: "There are three levels at which the home visitation scheme is working. At the first, most immediate level, we have the social workers or FAWs themselves, who usually have no agenda beyond doing what they consider to be the right thing — fighting child abuse, helping children get a good start, helping parents who may be overwhelmed. And of course, these are all very commendable motives."

At the second, intermediate level, continued Lightfoot, "we have the state departments of social services and other government officials who know some part of the larger picture and consciously deceive the public about what’s going on, but they believe that their noble end justifies the unethical means they employ. For a lot of state officials, the chief motivation is money; there is a lot of taxpayer money being thrown at the states by the federal government for these programs. At the top level we have the ideologues — the Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Donna Shalala types — who have an ideological commitment to create a certain type of society, and are willing to use the power of the government to re-structure the traditional family."

Dr. Sam Watson, Lightfoot’s co-author, remarked to The New American that "Kempe, despite his reputation as a great humanitarian, praised totalitarian states and urged that we adopt a totalitarian child care policy. This is also very much the mindset of the current administration, and much of the institutionalized anti-child abuse and ‘children’s rights’ movements. The model and demonstration programs that are springing up all over the country are the product of that same mindset as well. In some states, money from the state lottery is underwriting home visitation programs; in others it is money from the tobacco settlement. These sources of revenue have been a real windfall for advocates of home visitation."

"The seed of Kempe’s vision has been planted, it has been watered with taxpayer money," Lightfoot stated. "Whether it will grow to fruition depends upon the American public. It is vitally important that we educate families and parents about the dangers of home visitation programs, and the totalitarian nature of the vision behind those programs."
http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/1999/08-30-99/vo15no18_beware.htm

2006-02-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

TX CPS makes up kid for Cash

Dec 9, 2005 1:14 pm US/Central

State Agency Makes Up Kid For Cash
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(AP) HOUSTON It was a heart-wrenching story: A 10-year-old boy named John, separated from his mother since the hurricane, was living with other foster children in an emergency shelter, and he had one Christmas wish — to go home.

"But there's no way I'll get gifts for Christmas. I don't even believe in Santa anymore," he was quoted as saying.

The Brazosport Facts ran the profile on its front page Nov. 29 as part of its Fill-a-Stocking series, which features a different foster child each day from Thanksgiving through Christmas and solicits donations for a local charity to help fulfill the child's holiday wish.

But the story was a work of fiction.

State caseworkers apparently made it up to tug at readers' heartstrings.

Dan Lauck, a reporter with KHOU-TV in Houston, discovered the story was phony after calling state officials to request an interview with the child. He believed that if the boy's story was told on television, the youngster might find his mother.

Lauck said his requests were repeatedly denied because of what he was told were privacy concerns. Eventually he was told that the boy was living with relatives. Finally, an agency spokesman told him the profile had been made up.

Caseworkers with state Child Protective Services in Brazoria County, outside Houston, were responsible for writing the profiles for the newspaper's charity drive, which has been a holiday fixture in the 19,000-circulation paper since 1982.

CPS has apologized to the paper, which immediately suspended its series and returned the $1,070 collected so far this year from donors.

Bill Cornwell, publisher of The Facts, said the newspaper trusted the agency to present accurate stories, and believed only minor changes — such as names and ages — were made to protect the children's privacy. Given privacy issues related to foster children, Cornwell said there was only so much verification the newspaper could do.

CPS is investigating how it all happened, spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.

Lauck said it does not appear the CPS caseworkers had any bad intentions.

"They were just trying to tell stories that would clearly tug at the heart, capture the emotions of the readers and inspire them to give more money," the TV reporter said. "But they did it in a way that misled the public."

Bob Steele, a former TV news director who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, said the problem could have been averted if the profiles had been done by reporters rather than caseworkers.

"The integrity of the paper is damaged, the good cause that was intended is eroded and those in need are then not served as they should be," Steele said.

Cornwell said his newspaper is now trying to determine whether previous stories were falsified, too. He said he does not understand why a caseworker would resort to fiction, since foster children's real stories that are compelling enough.

Meanwhile, he said some readers are frustrated with the newspaper for canceling the series and think The Facts abandoned the children.

"We are not going to walk away from the kids' needs monetarily," Cornwell said. But he said: "We are out to get to the bottom of the situation so people can trust what they read."
http://keyetv.com/watercooler/watercooler_story_343141821.html

2006-02-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

PARENTS RIGHTS WHEN CHILDREN ENTER FOSTER CARE

The following is from the state of NY, but laws are similar for each state:

PARENTS KEEP CERTAIN RIGHTS AND HAVE CERTAIN RESPONSIBILITIES when their children go into foster care. These rights come from the New York State and United States Constitutions. The law actually ALLOWS AND ENCOURAGES YOU to be VERY INVOLVED with your children when they are in foster care, even if it may not seem that way to you.

Whether children are taken away by The Administration for Children's Services (ACS; also known as BCW or CWA) or voluntarily placed by their families, their parents' rights and responsibilities are the same. The only difference is that children taken away by ACS cannot come home UNLESS a judge permits that to happen.

The law says that children who are voluntarily placed do not need a judge's permission to return home UNLESS a court order says something different. However, because the foster care agency may not agree that the children should go home when you ask for them back, parents who voluntarily place their children often have to go to court anyway to try to get their children returned to them.

PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE ALL THE MAJOR DECISIONS about their children (except in a life-and-death emergency). The ONLY TIME THIS IS NOT TRUE is if a judge orders something different. Parents do lose some rights over their children when they are in foster care, however.

BOTH GUARDIANSHIP RIGHTS AND CUSTODY RIGHTS

PARENTS KEEP GUARDIANSHIP RIGHTS WHEN THEIR CHILDREN GO INTO FOSTER CARE

"GUARDIANSHIP RIGHTS" are the rights to decide the most important issues about your child. Parents of children in foster care always keep guardianship rights over their children UNLESS:

* a judge makes a separate order that overrules a specific decision you made (which your guardianship rights give you the right to make) after hearing from you, the agencies, and perhaps other witnesses;

OR

* A JUDGE TERMINATES YOUR PARENTAL RIGHTS TO THE CHILD(REN).

A very important Court case said your "child still legally `belongs' to (you) and ... for some crucial (things) ... the agency has NO AUTHORITY to act." (emphasis added). This means only you have the right to make major decisions regarding your children's lives even though they are in foster care.

That case said only you can:

* decide your child's religion;

* give, or not give, consent for major or unusual medical, surgical, psychiatric or psychological procedures that are not an emergency;

* give, or not give, consent for special school programs (special education, college, pre-school);

* give, or not give, consent for your child who is between 16 and 18 years old to marry;

* give, or not give, consent for your child who is under 18 years old to go into active duty in the armed forces;

* represent your children in lawsuits brought in their name where:

1) they may have a trial in front of a jury;

and/or

2) they will get money if they win the case.

PARENTS LOSE CUSTODIAL RIGHTS WHEN CHILDREN GO INTO FOSTER CARE

Parents lose "CUSTODIAL RIGHTS" when their children enter foster care. These are rights to make day-to-day decisions about, and the right to live with, your child now.?

Examples are:

* deciding on bedtime for the child;

* making sure s/he washes his/her face and brushes his/her teeth;

* deciding what clothing the child must, can or cannot wear;

* deciding on the time for meals and what food s/he will be given;

* HOWEVER, your guardianship rights allow you to dictate any clothing required by, or to forbid any foods or clothing prohibited by, your child's religious beliefs and/or health needs;

* getting the child to school each day;

* deciding if s/he must come right home from school or will be allowed to visit with a friend;

* making sure s/he does homework;

* deciding when, and how, s/he will be disciplined (however, the foster care regulations do not allow physical discipline, legally called "corporal punishment");

* deciding on "playtime" and who/what can be included.

WHO GETS CUSTODIAL RIGHTS OVER CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE

When a child goes into foster care the "care and (legal) custody" of the child is given to the COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SERVICES OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. Under the law, this commissioner is given "legal custody" and becomes the "legal custodian" of children in foster care. NO OTHER PERSON OR AGENCY HAS LEGAL CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILDREN.

THIS COMMISSIONER GIVES RESPONSIBILITY for caring for your children to the COMMISSIONER OF THE ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN'S SERVICES (ACS; also known as BCW or CWA. This is the boss of your ACS worker). ACS has now been given the responsibilities of the "legal custodian." Legally, only you (as the guardian) and ACS (now responsible for the job of the "legal custodian") have the final say over what happens to your child who is in foster care (UNLESS a judge makes an order overruling you and/or ACS).

THE ROLE OF THE FOSTER CARE AGENCY

ACS often makes a contract with a private foster care agency to take care of the child and usually to also offer you, your child and the whole family services so you can try to be together again. This is called giving the private agency "case planning responsibility." LEGAL CUSTODY, HOWEVER, STAYS WITH THE COMMISSIONER AND IS NOT GIVEN TO THE FOSTER CARE AGENCY.

Because the private agency has "case planning responsibility" that agency's caseworker is the person a parent deals with most of the time. ACS lets that worker and agency plan what services the family needs, and what the parent(s) and/or the children must do. The law now sets how much time the parents will have to accomplish what is expected of them, in order to be reunited with their children; usually this is only one year. Just as important, ACS gives the agency responsibility for giving you services, or helping you get them from other places. The agency must try to give you services as long as that would be safe for the children (called making "reasonable efforts") UNLESS a judge orders that the agency does not have to make reasonable efforts to help you.

The agency must also make reasonable efforts to involve the parents and children when they make those plans and decisions UNLESS a judge orders that the agencies do not have to do this. ACS also lets the agency decide if the parents are doing what was asked of them and whether the plan needs to be changed.

Since ACS acts as legal custodian, it must continue to supervise the foster care agency. If ACS does not agree with the agency?s plan, it can overrule the plan; the agency then must follow ACS? directions UNLESS a judge orders something else. You can also ask ACS to overrule the plan UNLESS it is being discussed in court, or has already been approved by a judge. To request this, call ACS? Office of Advocacy (212- 676-9421). If the agency can later give ACS more and/or different information about why its plans should be followed, ACS can then approve those actions.

THE ROLE OF THE FOSTER PARENTS

FOSTER PARENTS may actually care for the child every day but THEY DO NOT HAVE CUSTODY of a child in foster care. THEY NEVER HAVE CUSTODY UNLESS they go to court and the judge gives them custody. Usually this does not happen UNTIL AND UNLESS all your parental rights have been terminated AND the foster parents plan to adopt the child.

There are some exceptions, however. If the permanent plan for the child is that s/he will not return home, or be adopted, or be given a legal guardian, and there is no appropriate relative willing to care for him or her, then the foster parents might be able to get custody UNTIL AND UNLESS one of these things happens, the foster parents are like AGENTS of the agency and ACS; they must care for your children every day and THEY MUST WORK WITH YOU and your caseworker to return your children to you, if that is your family's goal.

Published 7/20/01

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON BLS PUBLICATIONS SEE www.bronxlegalservices.org OR CALL 718-993-6250

http://www.bronxlegalservices.org/Publications/TIPS/19.html

2006-02-20T14:12:00.000-08:00

DV: EX-TROOPER KILLS WIFE, SELF, WOUNDS LAWYER

COURTHOUSE SHOOTING
Ex-trooper kills self, wife, wounds lawyer before divorce hearing
Peggy Schenk, Register Staff
06/16/2005
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A state trooper stands by at the scene of a triple shooting behind the Middletown Superior Court Wednesday. Scattered debris is from a medical helicopter landing to take victims to a near by hospital. AP
MIDDLETOWN — A former state trooper fatally shot his estranged wife and injured her lawyer before killing himself in a public parking lot behind Superior Court Wednesday.

The three had been scheduled to appear at a divorce hearing, police said.

Donna Bochicchio, 42, of Harwinton, was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Her attorney, Waterbury lawyer Julie Porzio, 42, was listed in serious but stable condition after surgery at Hartford Hospital.

The shooter, Michael L. Bochicchio Jr., 47, of Torrington, died at Hartford Hospital Wednesday evening, hospital spokeswoman Lee Monroe said.

Porzio, the wife of former Waterbury Mayor Joseph Santopietro, suffered wounds to her face and left arm, said Waterbury Police Chief Neil O’Leary, a family friend.

The Bochicchios were in the midst of a bitter divorce and custody battle. After the shooting, the court granted custody of their 12-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son to Donna Bochicchio’s family.

Lorette Dzialo, a Middletown resident and crossing guard, was at the courthouse to see a friend when she heard gunfire.

"I heard a series of shots; then it was quiet, and then I heard more," she said. "At first, I didn’t realize what it was, because it doesn’t sound like you expect gunshots to sound."

Police said they received a 911 call at 9:34 a.m. that shots had been fired on the top deck of a city-owned garage about 200 yards from the station. They were the first to respond to the scene, said Sgt. Peggy Liseo.

Police secured the scene and recovered Bochicchio’s semiautomatic handgun. Police said numerous witnesses have been identified.

A postmortem examination on Donna Bochicchio’s remains will be performed today at the chief state’s medical examiner’s office.

Michael Bochicchio’s job with the state police at one time was to determine the suitability of applicants to hold gun permits.

He came from a large family of police officers, friends said, retiring from the state police in 1998 after a 21-year career. He also worked for a private company providing security at federal courthouses, U.S. Marshal John Bardelli said.

"He was a wonderful person, a state cop for all those years. I don’t know what went through his mind," said his uncle, Anthony Bochicchio Sr. "He was going through a bad divorce. He just snapped."

The Raymond Baldwin Courthouse was shut down for about two hours. The dozen or so cars parked inside the crime scene remained sequestered throughout the day while the state police major crime squad conducted its investigation.

Paul Tolif of East Hartford, who works at an auto shop below the parking deck, said he heard about eight shots, then a pause, and then another shot.

Tolif said he thought someone was shooting off fireworks or trying to scare pigeons, but a man yelled down at them to call police.

"This happened 30 yards away," he said. "It freaked me out. I couldn’t believe it."

Mayor Domenique Thornton assured area residents that at no time was there any danger to the public.

But Lynn DeTour, owner of Karelyn’s Shoes in the mall leading from Main Street to the parking lot, said living in the shadow of the courthouse is unsettling.

"So many bitter people come out of that courthouse every day," she said.

The couple, who had been married almost 17 years, apparently had marital problems for some time. Michael Bochicchio had filed for divorce in 2003, according to documents filed in Superior Court in Litchfield.

Donna Bochicchio had filed motions for child support, alimony and exclusive use of the family house.

In November 2004, Donna Bochicchio was granted a protective order against her husband.

Michael Bochicchio was sued for debt collection by Thomaston attorney Kie Westby in December 2004 and by the lawyers in his divorce case in March.

According to court documents at Superior Court in Milford, Bochicchio owed $9,237 to the Seymour law firm of Perelmutter, Potash and Ginzburg in his divorce case.

The firm filed an application seeking to attach 4.6 acres Bochicchio owns in Litchfield County.

The lawyer handling the complaint against Bochicchio could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Twenty years ago, a fatal domestic shooting in a Norwich courtroom led to tighter security measures, including metal detectors, at all state courthouses.

Kenneth Spargo shot and killed his wife, Priscilla, during their divorce proceedings in May 1984. Spargo walked up to his wife while she sat on a bench in the front of the courtroom and fired several times.

At the time of that shooting, the Norwich courthouse was the second-newest in the state and was one of just three equipped with a built-in metal detector. The detector, however, could be easily bypassed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Staff reporter Phil Helsel, the Associated Press and the Middletown Press contributed to this story. Peggy Schenk can be reached at (860) 664-4118 or pschenk@nhregister.com .

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14703590&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=517515&rfi=6

2006-02-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Court Rules Against Child Caseworkers UTAH

Article Last Updated: 02/11/2006 2:03 AM MST

Court rules against child caseworkers
Lawsuit: A boy, then 12, was removed from his parents; a judge says the workers may be liable
By Kirsten Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune

Connie with a picture of Rusty as a young boy. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune )

Utah child welfare caseworkers violated state law when they removed a 12-year-old Davis County boy from his home in 1999 - and the workers can be held personally liable, a federal appeals court has said in an unusual ruling.
Caseworkers should have offered services to Connie and James Roska "to prevent removal" of their son Rusty, wrote Judge Michael R. Murphy of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.
Neglecting to do so, especially after the boy's doctor warned removal would be harmful, constitutes a violation of Utah law, which presumes it is in the best interest of a child to be raised in the care of his parents, Murphy wrote.
The Thursday ruling is the latest twist in a nearly seven-year legal battle, and frees the Roskas to seek damages before a jury.
"We're close to the end now.

Connie Roska and her son Rusty, now 19, relax in her Layton home. Rusty was removed from the home by Utah Division of Child and Family Services caseworkers in 1999 when he was 12, and the family has been embroiled in a legal battle ever since. Below, Connie with a picture of Rusty as a young boy. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune )

I want my time in court," said Connie Roska, vowing Friday to pursue her lawsuit against the Utah Division of Child and Family Services caseworkers: Melinda Sneddon, Shirley Morrison and Colleen Lasater. Morrison no longer works for the division.
The lawsuit seeks $15 million in punitive damages. Roska said the money would help pay mounting legal bills, but her main desire is to prevent other families from going through "the same turmoil."
"I can't tell you how horrible it is when a sick son gets ripped out of your arms and you get accused of being the one who is making him sick," she said.
Roska's lawyer, Steven Russell, said any award of damages would be "groundbreaking," because "we're asking them to decide what's it worth when the state comes in and takes your child."
But first, child welfare officials may ask for a review by the full 10th Circuit bench. Friday's ruling was crafted by three judges and contained a lengthy dissent by Judge Terrence L. O'Brien.
The Roska suit centers on the May 28, 1999, removal of Rusty Roska from his Layton home.
Social workers and school officials believed the boy was a victim of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a condition in which a parent acts as if a child is ill, or even causes the child's illness to get attention from doctors. Rusty had lost 70 pounds in a year, was in a wheelchair and had been fed through a tube. School officials expressed concern that he might die if the state did not intervene.
The Roskas said their son suffers from chronic pain syndrome caused by problems with his gallbladder and kidneys. But doctors interviewed by caseworkers could not diagnose the boy's ailment.

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The caseworkers tried but were unable to reach Rusty's primary care provider, Judith Gooch. But on the day of the removal, Gooch warned caseworkers by phone that removing the boy would "destroy this family emotionally and Rusty may never recover."
Nevertheless, two workers took Rusty into protective care. He was returned to his family after a hearing one week later.
Rusty is now 19, living in the same home with his parents and working in retail.
"I just wanted to roll over and die that day," he said recalling the day he was removed. "I thought I would never see my parents again."
The Roskas sued, alleging that caseworkers failed to get a warrant and failed to use less intrusive methods as required by law. The suit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson in 2002, but it has since bounced back and forth on appeals.
In its latest appeal, the state argued the caseworkers are entitled to immunity against the Roskas' lawsuit because state law permitted removals without a warrant.
But Murphy, one of the Utah judges on the court, said caseworkers "failed to actually comply" with the law, which directs them to make "reasonable efforts" to offer services first.
In a dissenting opinion, O'Brien argued emergency removal was warranted because Munchausen's by Proxy "is one of the more dangerous forms of abuse" with "substantial risk of mortality."
But the majority opinion countered that three investigations by child protective workers and doctors at Primary Children's Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles failed to prove that Connie Roska suffered from the syndrome.
It is not immediately clear how the ruling will affect DCFS practices. Utah law has since been amended, and now there must be an emergency before caseworkers can move in without a warrant.
Also uncertain is whether the state will indemnify the caseworkers and pay damages. "We need to read the lawsuit and . . . talk to the attorneys," said DCFS spokeswoman Carol Sisco.

http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_3498537#

Monday, February 13, 2006
Court rules against Utah child caseworkers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY -- A three-judge panel on a federal appeals court has ruled that Utah caseworkers violated state law when they removed a 12-year-old Davis County boy from his home, and that the workers can be held personally liable.

Caseworkers should have done more to help Connie and James Roska keep their son, Rusty, wrote Judge Michael R. Murphy of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Neglecting to do so, especially after the boy's doctor warned removal would be harmful, violated Utah law, Murphy wrote.

Connie Roska vowed Friday to pursue her lawsuit against three Utah Division of Child and Family Services caseworkers.

Child welfare officials may ask for a review by the full 10th Circuit bench. Thursday's ruling contained a lengthy dissent by Judge Terrence L. O'Brien.

The Roska suit centers on the May 28, 1999, removal of Rusty Roska from his Layton home.

The state said social workers and school officials believed the boy was a victim of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, a condition in which a parent acts as if a child is ill in order to get doctors' attention. Rusty Roska had lost 70 pounds, was unable to feed himself and was in a wheelchair when school officials expressed concern for his safety.

Rusty's primary care provider warned caseworkers against removing the boy, the court ruled. Rusty Roska was returned to his family a week later. He is now 19, and living with his parents.
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/165274/4/

The family sued, alleging the caseworkers failed to get a warrant and failed to use less intrusive methods. The case was thrown out by a judge in 2002 and has since bounced back and forth on appeal.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D2.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This may contain copyrighted ( © ) material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

2006-02-19T11:49:00.000-08:00

HORNER WV MAN IN MIDST OF DIVORCE KILLS FAMILY

"MAN IN MIDST OF DIVORCE KILLS FAMILY"
from Wire Service Reports, in Salina Journal, 1-28-03
Horner, West Virginia: "A man in the middle of a divorce shot two of his children and a foster child child to death in the woods and killed himself....Gayle Sams estranged wife and their 14-year-old daughter escaped unharmed and ran to a neighbor's house to call 911...Two 4-year olds and a 17 year old boy were killed when Sams who was living elsewhere went to the family home...The sheriff said the family was adopting one of the 4 year olds."
http://www.amfor.net/KillerAdopters/

News Like this makes you wanna cry

http://wchs8.com/newsroom/ky/news12.shtml

Man kills three of his children, then himself
January 27, 2003 2:37 PM

Horner, West Virginia
A Horner, West Virginia man in the middle of a divorce has shot two of his children and a foster child to death, burned down a house the family was building and killed himself.

Gayle Sams' estranged wife and their 14-year-old daughter escaped unharmed and ran to a neighbor's house to call police.

Sheriff Robert Rinehart says a four-year-old son of the estranged couple and a four-year-old who was being adopted were slain along with a 17-year-old boy. The children's bodies were found upstairs in the farmhouse.

The sheriff says after the shootings, Sams went to a house the family was building about a mile away, and set fire to his truck and the house, destroying both. Later, a shot was heard. Sams' body was found this morning in the woods between the two houses.

The location is on US 33 near Elkins in north-central West Virginia.
http://www.thehighroad.org/printthread.php?t=6270

2006-02-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

BREAKING THE SILENCE - CHILDREN'S STORIES

Breaking the Silence - Children's Stories - Click to view the excerpt
This is an eight minute excerpt of the program that aired on Public Television October of 2005. The documentary tells the stories of children who are taken away from their protective mothers.

Contact your local cable tv company and request that "Breaking the Silence- Children's Stories" be aired in your area.

One has to wonder- Are these judges who are awarding sole custody of children to documented abusers, and cutting children totally off from their protective mothers, just woman-haters, are they getting bribes or are they just pedophiles themselves? Or a combination of the three?

Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories starts out:
""All over America, Battered mothers are losing custody of their children when they file for divorce..."
"I niavely thought that if someone was molesting his kid, I just thought they'd be put in jail..."
"...Even with a proven record, abusers are winning joint and sole custody..."
"To win custody of the kids over and against the mother's will, is the ultimate victory - short of killing the kids..."
And from a former child: "...I was just snatched out of my normal life and all that anyone would tell me was that my mom was crazy and that she was going into the mental hospital..."

R. Lundy Bancroft
-Understanding the Batterer in Child Custody and Visitation Disputes

BATTERER WARNING SIGNS

Domestic Abuse is a pattern of controlling and coercive behavior which can involve physical, sexual, economic, emotional and psychological abuse. It affects people who are married, divorced, living together, or dating. People in heterosexual or homosexual relationships from all social, economic, racial, religious and ethnic groups can experience domestic abuse. Anyone can be a victim of domestic violence, but women are by far the most common victims.

Cycle of abuse
*Tension-building - This is a time of minor conflicts and, possibly, some physical abuse. This stage may last from a few hours to many months. The victim is aware of the building tension and tries to please and humor the abuser.
*Battering phase - This may be triggered by a small quarrel. Once an attack starts, there's usually little the victim can do to stop it. Apologizing and reasoning with the abuser seldom works.
*Honeymoon phase - The abuser feels ashamed and guilty, and promises it will never happen again. The abuser may be on his best behavior for a while and treat the victim with great kindness and generosity. He can be as charming as the man she fell in love with. But sooner or later, the cycle starts again. The cycle may get shorter and shorter as the abuse goes on.
*Many women feel trapped in abusive relationships
*They may find it hard to leave because of:

*A low sense of self-worth - Repeated abuse can chip away at a woman's self-esteem. This may prevent her from making a change. With physical abuse there is usually emotional abuse as well.
*A fear of more violence - Often, a woman's attempts to leave result in more severe attacks. Studies have shown that leaving is the most dangerous time for a woman.
Financial dependence - Financial dependence on her partner can make it hard for a woman to leave. This is especially true if there are children involved.
*False hope - Abused women usually love their partners. They want to believe their partner's promises to change. (Without outside help this change rarely happens.)
*Religious or cultural beliefs - These may lead a woman to think that her first priority is to keep the family together.
*Isolation - As an abuser's control increases, the victim may become cut off from friends and family. Felling that no one cares.

Look for these warning signs in your partner:
1. Any force during an argument
Pushing or shoving
Physical restraint

2. Blames others for his feelings

You make me mad I can't help being angry
Will use feelings to manipulate others

3. Blames others for his problems

Someone is always doing him wrong
Tells the woman she is at fault for almost anything that goes wrong

4. Breaking or striking objects

Used as punishment (breaks loved possessions)
Action is used to terrorize the woman into submission
May beat on tables with his fist
May throw objects around or near the woman

5. Controlling behavior

At first he says he is concerned for her safety
He then becomes angry when she is late
He then questions her closely about her activity
He then begins to not let her make decisions
Economic abuse may start

6. Cruelty to animals or children

Punishes animals brutally, shows insensitivity to their pain
Expects children to do things beyond their ability

7. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

Sudden changes in mood

8. Hypersensitivity

The man is easily insulted
Claims his feelings are hurt when he is really very mad
Rants and raves about the injustice of things that have happened to him (daily
life situations)

9. Isolation

Tries to cut the woman off from all resources and friends
Plays mind games by saying: ~ if she has male friends she's a whore ~
if she has female friends she's a lesbian ~
if she is close to her family she is "tied to the apron strings" ~
her support people are referred to as "causing trouble"
He may want to live without a phone He may limit her use of a car,
not allow her to work or go to school

10. Jealousy

In the beginning he says his jealousy is a "sign of love"
He eventually becomes jealous of whoever she spends time with
He calls her frequently during the day or drops by unexpectedly
He refuses to let her work or attend school for fear of her meeting someone else
He may check car mileage or ask friends to watch her

11. Past battering

He may admit to hitting a woman in the past but say they made me do it
The man's relatives or ex-spouses say he has been abusive

12. "Playful" use of force in sex

He may throw her down and hold her during sex
He may want to act out fantasies during sex where she is helpless
He may sulk or use anger to manipulate her into compliance during sex
He may demand sex when she is tired or ill

13. Quick Involvement

He claims "love at first sight"
Usually become engaged or living together within six months
Statements like the following show his desperate need for someone and will pressure her to commit to him ~ "You're the only person I could ever talk to" ~
"I've never felt loved like this by anyone"

14. Rigid sex roles

He expects her to serve and obey him
He sees her as inferior to him and other men
He believes she is not a whole person without a relationship

15. Threats of violence

Any threat of physical force meant to control her
Justifies his threats by
saying "everyone talks like that"

16. Unrealistic expectations

He is dependent upon her for his needs
He expects her to be the perfect wife, mother, lover, etc.
She is to take care of everything for him emotionally

17. Verbal abuse

He says things to her that are ~ cruel ~ degrading ~ hurtful
He belittles and curses her
He may awaken her at night to verbally abuse her or to not let her sleep
Source: http://www.ci.round-rock.tx.us/police/signs.htm

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE -TACTICS OF CONTROL
-USING CHILDREN
-USING EMOTIONAL ABUSE
-USING COERCION AND THREATS
-USING ISOLATION
-USING MALE PRIVILEGE
-MINIMIZING DENYING BLAMING

USING CHILDREN

Making you feel guilty about the children
Using the children to relay messages
Using visitation to harass you
Threatening to take the children away

USING EMOTIONAL ABUSE

Putting you down
Making you feel bad about yourself
Calling you names
Making you think you're crazy
Playing mind games
Humiliating you
Making you feel guilty

USING COERCION AND THREATS

Pushing, slapping, hitting, or other physical abuse
Making or carrying out threats to do something to hurt you
Threatening to leave you, to commit suicide, to report you to welfare (or child protective services)
Making you drop charges
Making you do illegal things
Using intimidation
Making you afraid by using looks, gestures, or actions
Smashing things
Abusing pets
Displaying weapons

USING ISOLATION

Controlling what you do, who you see and talk to, what you read, and where you go
Limiting your outside involvement
Using jealousy to justify actions
Preventing or discouraging contact with family

USING MALE PRIVILEGE

Treating you like a servant
Mking all the big decisions
Acting like the "Master of the Castle"
Being the one to define men's and women's roles

MINIMIZING, DENYING, BLAMING

Making light of the abuse and not taking your concerns about it seriously
Saying the abuse didn't happen
Shifting responsibility for abusive behavior
Saying you caused it

2006-02-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

How to save $5-$7 BILLION Taxdollars

Concerned about the US Deficit, the Trade Deficit, the multi-trillion dollar budget?

TAXPAYERS would be saved Several BILLION dollars annually IF CPS stopped taking children into CPS custody unnecessarily.

As Dr. Orr, Associate Commissioner Children's Bureau, pointed out in her recommendations for Child Protection Reform http://www.reason.org/ps262.html the definitions of child abuse and neglect should be NARROWED and children have been taken into CPS custody for things NOT MERITING GOVERNMENTAL INTERFERENCE.

Dr. Orr points out that caring for children in foster care costs taxpayers 10 times more than if children were left safely with their natural families and those families received a "welfare check".

Richard Wexler NCCPR http://www.nccpr.org/newissues/5.html points out 91 out of every 100 children in foster care are cases of false allegations or cases where poverty has been confused with neglect. Only a tiny fraction of children in foster care were placed there due to serious abuse or neglect.
(see FN 1. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Child Maltreatment 2001. Available online at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm02 )

"Far more common than a child who comes into care because he was beaten are children who come into foster care because the foodstamps ran out or because an illness went untreated after parents were kicked off Medicaid or because a single mother trying to stay off welfare could not provide adequate supervision while she worked. Indeed, the director of intake for child protective services in Denver, Colorado acknowledges that some children are taken just because their parents are down on their luck, out of work, or unable to provide adequate shelter.." FN 2. James B. Meadow, "Homeless Alone" Rocky Mountain News, Jan. 13, 2000, p.4

The emotional/psychological harm to children due to being taken away from their natural families and placed unjustly into foster care:
A law professor who attempted to defend a mother with a CPS case in the New England area began researching these matters and wrote a paper indicating that children should not be removed from their natural homes unless they were in imminent danger of death. He pointed out that for very young children, all it takes is for the child to be moved three times in foster care (which is extremely common) and the children may develop attachment disorders. The law professor pointed out that frontline social workers don't see the children seized unjustly and unnecessarily, awake all night, crying for their parents and literally banging their heads against the wall out of sheer frustration from being separated from their loved ones and placed with strangers in a CPS shelter.

There are perverse financial incentives for CPS departments to seize custody of children in order to get the funding desired to keep the CPS departments running. This results in numerous children being removed unnecessarily from their natural families each year in the U.S.

CPS departments should have flexibility in spending in order to provide concrete help to families with family preservation as the goal in appropriate cases. By shifting the focus (and funding streams) from taking children into foster care to family preservation in appropriate cases children will not be traumatized and psychologically harmed by unnecessary removals, social workers can get back to what they were intended to do - helping families, and it would save taxpayers billions of dollars as it would be far less expensive to have children remain safely with their natural families in appropriate cases and provide assistance to those families on a voluntary basis to keep the family safely preserved. This would free up CPS manpower and resources to focus on real cases of child abuse or neglect and to provide high quality foster care for those cases.

~*~
"All it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing" ~Edmund Burke

Parents/families are requesting an investigation of Child Protective Services and a REVIEW of their CPS cases by a fair, impartial independent commission.

Please sign the Petitions:
Request for Congressional Inquiry of HHS Child Protective Services in All States
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/25340447
HELP MOTHERS FALSELY ACCUSED OF CHILD ABUSE AND/OR NEGLECT HELP THEM PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/51296688
http://www.geocities.com/family_rights_wv

2006-02-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

DHHR LIED: Freezing death of 5 day-old Jonathan Coffman
-The Coffman family, Ms. Coffman a mentally challeneged mother and her two children, was under Child Protective Services (CPS) supervision.
-CPS had a duty and obligation to properly supervise the Coffmans and to ensure the Coffman's basic needs were met.
-The heat for the Coffmans had been turned off for a year and CPS knew it.
-DHHR had fallen behind in paying the heat bills for the Coffmans and $1,100.00 in overdue heat bills were owed.
-The Coffman's furnace was "red tagged" and in need of repairs.
-A CPS caseworker promised the heat would be turned on Dec. 9, 2004, the day Ms. Coffman gave birth to Jonathan Coffman.
-The heat was never turned on.
-After Ms. Coffman gave birth, caseworkers allowed Ms. Coffman to take her children and return to her unheated home in spite of the fact hospital personnel called CPS and questioned Ms. Coffman's ability to care for the infant, Jonathan Coffman.
-Five day-old Jonathan Coffman froze to death in the Coffman's unheated home.

-Register-Herald reporter Jessica Farrish wrote a series of articles outlining the problems of CPS in West Virginia, including the extreme difficulties other families had in getting heat assistance. Contact the Editor, perhaps he will restore those articles online http://www.register-herald.com"

This is one of the reasons we are requesting an investigation of CPS - The failure of CPS to take appropriate action when needed to protect children.
Petition to Request for Congressional Inquiry of HHS Child Protective Services in All States
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/253404476

WEST VIRGINIA CPS "LIED" IN BABY CASE

The Article originally appeared on:
http://www.register-herald.com/articles/2004/12/20/news/bbaby21.txt
It is archived for research on
http://forums.prospero.com/kr-mercurynews/messages?msg=1038.86

Detective: DHHR 'lied' in baby case
By Jessica Farrish/Register-Herald Reporter

Raleigh County Department of Health and Human Resources officials "lied" to police last week about providing heat and supervised shelter to a mentally handicapped woman whose five-day-old son froze to death in his home, authorities said Monday.

"What they did was prevent us from getting (the mother) help on Friday," charged Lt. Steve Tanner of the Raleigh Sheriff's department. "They assured and promised us she was in a shelter and her gas had been turned back on.

"That's a lie. There is no other way to say it."

Tanner said community churches, businesses, law enforcement, non-profit organizations and individuals began pulling together Saturday to help the mother, 28-year-old Sherry Coffman of Stanaford, get shelter and counseling.

Although DHHR officials, including Raleigh manager Nancy Forsburg, allegedly told police that the mother's needs had been met Friday, Tanner said neighbors notified him Saturday that Coffman was still in the home alone, grieving, and using electric heaters for heat.

Tanner said that he sent a deputy to Coffman's residence Saturday, and the deputy verified that the residence did not have gas service and that Coffman was alone.

Although other media outlets reported that Coffman's residence was receiving heat Friday, Coffman and her mother, Nora Jean Phillips, told The Register-Herald that "gas company" officials were still waiting on DHHR approval to resume service to Coffman's home.

Tanner said Coffman awoke around six a.m. last Wednesday and called her mother when she discovered that her newborn infant was "unresponsive."

Phillips notified Coffman's neighbor, Trudy Wardensky, who called 911 and performed CPR on the baby.

The baby revived briefly but later died at Charleston Area Medical Center due to complications resulting from hypothermia.

Coffman -- the mother of a nearly-three-year-old girl who is now in state custody and staying with relatives -- told The Register-Herald she had been using three electric heaters for warmth this fall and that DHHR had promised her when she was pregnant that heat would be delivered to her home.

Phillips said that a DHHR worker stated on Dec. 9 -- the day Coffman gave birth -- that the heat would "be on" before Coffman brought the baby home.

Tanner said DHHR officials told him Friday that gas was being delivered to the residence, that Coffman was in a "warm, safe place" and that the 2-year-old was in CPS custody.

An investigation into the case revealed that DHHR had fallen $1,100 dollars behind in paying Allegheny Power for Coffman's heating bills, and Coffman's heat had not been delivered in about a year, Tanner said.

He added that her furnace had also been "red-tagged" as unsafe by Allegheny workers, who could not deliver heat to Coffman's residence for that reason.

Tanner added that Coffman's water pipes had burst due to the cold weather, and there was "exposed wiring" in her house.

According to Phillips, Coffman had not had hot water since June and had been heating water using a microwave.

"(The heat had been turned off) a year before and everybody was aware of it," charged Tanner. "This was not something done in inclement weather. The case workers were aware of it."

Tanner said caseworkers told him "they hadn't gotten to it yet" when he asked them why Coffman did not have heat for a year.

"I don't care how busy you are," he said. "There's no excuse for it."

Officials said despite her handicap status, Coffman was a "dear and loving mother" who did not intentionally put her children in danger.

"It seems to me that DHHR procedures are no longer in line with their goals (of helping someone)," said Tanner. "The problem as I see it is they are too tied up with paperwork to help people."

He said the situation contained "atrocity after atrocity."

DHHR spokesman John Law stated that under DHHR policy, he is unable to comment specifically on services delivered to clients.

He added that any statement from a DHHR agent other than those in his office are not official DHHR statements.

The chief detective added that he was encouraged by the number of people who have offered support and help for Coffman.

Wardensky provided CPR to the baby, he said.

Area churches have raised $500 to help offset the cost of the overdue gas bill, he stated.

"Sheriff Danny Moore offered to pay for a hotel room for her out of his pocket," said Tanner. "Meadows Heating out of Cool Ridge heard about it and got their distributors to agree to give them a floor furnace.

"They're putting it in," he added.

Although the Women's Resource Center -- a shelter for abused women -- does not normally accept homeless cases, they made an exception so Coffman would have a place to stay, he added.

WRC has been providing food, shelter and grief counseling to the mother, who is mourning the death of her son and separation from her daughter, Tanner said.

"(WRC) could've said, 'We don't have the funding available,'" he remarked. "When they go beyond what they're supposed to do ... and they have no reason other than they are compassionate, decent people, they're heroes."

-- E-mail:

2006-01-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

Reading: Beginning and Remedial Reading

Parents can start teaching their children reading at home at very early ages before school by using phonics. Parents can also assist their children who are having difficulty with reading in school with remedial instruction in reading at home as well.

A good book on the subject is "Why Johnny Can't Read and What you can do about it" by Rudolph Flesch. The book has a straight to the point, no nonsense primer for reading and instructions beginning in the middle of the book. If parents follow the instructions in the book, parents can teach beginning reading AND assist children who are having difficulties with learning reading in school. The book is out-of-print, but can be special ordered through bookstores at a cost of about $11 or this book can be ordered new or used through the Amazon.com bookstore on the Family_Rights_WV website http://www.geocities.com/family_rights_wv/2/books3.html.

A review of phonics sounds can be found free online on
http://www.tampareads.com/realaudio/tests/index-rm.htm It takes Real Audio to hear the phonics sounds and that can be downloaded on http://www.real.com/ and look for the "free RealAudio Player" link.

TIPS:
Teach letter recognition and the sound the letter makes until the child can automatically say the name of the letter when he/she sees it and can say the sound the letter makes and then do frequent reviews.

When using the "Why Johnny Can't Read" book, keep reviewing each lesson until the child definitely knows the letters and sounds covered in the lesson before going on to the next lesson. Have the child sound out the letters/words, read the letters/words out loud, write the letters/words, and spell out the words repeatedly until the child thoroughly knows the lesson.

The VOWEL SOUNDS: For both beginning reading and remedial reading, start with the short vowels sounds first: a e i o u ( See Test 8 and click to hear the sounds

The parent can draw the letter "a" on a sheet of paper and draw some things that begin with the short vowel "a" like an APPLE and an ANT. Help the child color the letter "a", the apple and the ant and place it in a place of honor on the refrigerator. Help the child write the letter "a" the proper way. For very young children, show them how to trace their finger on the letter "a" in the way one would write the letter "a".

Have the child look for the letter "a" on cereal boxes, books, magazines at home and in street and shop signs when out. Draw images of things with short vowel "a" like hat, cat, bat, let the child have fun coloring the images in and coloring the "a" bright red and then add their masterpiece to the place of honor on the refrigerator.

Another fun activity is to use construction paper to make a collage. For example, start with blue paper as the background, cut out a tree limb out of brown paper, some leaves out of green paper, and a big apple out of red paper and allow the child to assemble the picture, with the apple showing prominently in the center.

Stores carry inexpensive activity books for phonics and nice books like Little Golden Readers. Coloring books are great sources of images to use to incorporate in phonics instruction.

For remedial instruction, the hardest part will probably be convincing the child that he can read. Lots of patience, reassurances and working at it systematically will probably be required.

The best time to help a child with remedial reading is during the summer.

Most importantly, make learning reading as fun as possible for the child. A very young child learning to read for the first time will probably take to it like a duck to water. The parent may have to be creative to make it fun for the child who needs remedial help in reading and if he's already had bad experiences with reading in school. Be patient and very reassuring, praise the child for his efforts, frequently tell the child that this method is guaranteed to work (and it will work, if you follow the instructions in the book and do the lessons).

Need more tips, ideas or suggestions for working with teaching remedial reading? Write family_rights_wv@yahoo.com

*Images created by Family_Rights_WV

2006-01-29T21:05:00.000-08:00

Social Workers Caught Lying, Fabricating Evidence

Family Rights WV is against all forms of child abuse and neglect.

The problem is that many innocent people are falsely accused of child abuse or neglect every day in the U.S.

The articles below illustrate the problem of CPS workers lying, fabricating evidence, falsifying records, etc. in child endangerment cases.

Please sign the Petition to Request for Congressional Inquiry of HHS Child Protective Services in All States
click here http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/253404476

The WV DHHR CPS case involving the freezing death of 5 day-old Jonathan Coffman:
Detective: DHHR 'lied' in baby case
click here

CPS SUPERVISOR ARRESTED FOR FABRICATING EVIDENCE, WITNESS TAMPERING, CHILD ENDANGERMENT CASE – STATE OF CT
click here

More on the CT cps supervisor who lied, fabricated evidence, tampered with witnesses in a child endangerment case, she had an annual salary of $103,000.00 and the article indicated she was placed on paid administrative leave....
click here

Ex-DCF worker lied skillfully
click here

CPS WORKER FILES FALSE DEATH THREAT
click here

Delusions of an institutionalized patient causes havoc in family
RE: Lies and false allegations, even the delusional allegations of mental patient can cause great harm and havoc to innocent families...

A case where a patient with a long history of mental ilness was admitted to a mental institution and falsely alleged her brother-in-law was going to murder his young son and offer the child as a sacrifice to Satan in the "Fall Equinox ritual" on September 23...
click here

2006-01-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

Family_Rights_WV Blog:

The Family_Rights_WV website:

http://www.geocities.com/family_rights_wv/

Please Sign the Petition to Request a Congressional Inquiry of CPS in all states

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/253404476

Richard Wexler, NCCPR:

The National Coalition of Child Protection Reform