America's dead children and Child Protective Services

Examiner Bio
November 11, 11:04 PMSurry County CPS ExaminerLisa Nixon4

One of the many bruises that Onslow County DSS ignored on Kayla Allen
use with the permission of http://hope4kidz.orgThe list is long and heartbreaking, the children on it have been beaten, broken, drowned, burned, strangled, starved or neglected, and all of them are dead. Headlines have drawn attention to the cases of some of them, Danieal Kelly, Erin Maxwell, Kayla Allen, and Christopher Thomas, but there are many more, Phoenix Jordan Cody-Parrish, Brandon Williams, Elizabeth Goodwin, Logan Marr and Alexis (Lexie)Agyepong-Grover, just to name a few.

The children on this list died in very different settings; some died in their own homes, some in foster care, while others were killed by their adoptive parents. Yet, all of these dead, abused, children had one thing in common, Child Protective Services.

Statistics

Bill Bowen in his short documentary film, Innocents Destroyed, states that, "Over 1,000 children die of neglect or are tortured and murdered each year, in the care of an entity where children are up to 600% more likely to die a horrific death, CPS."

According to Child Welfare Information Gateway, "The National Child abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,760 child fatalities in 2007." All of these deaths are attributed to child abuse or neglect.

The math of these statistics is alarming, if these numbers are to be believed roughly 57% of all child abuse deaths in America have some type of Child Protective Services involvement.

In a report released by Every Child Matters, titled, "We Can Do Better", there is a list of 51 children that died between 2001 and 2009. During research on the children listed in this report, this reporter found the following:

27 of them (53% percent) had prior Child Protective Services involvement before their deaths
19 had no evidence or no evidence was found of prior CPS involvement
4 had previous investigations or convictions for child abuse on children other than their victim, 1 of these had a report of abuse made to the police and 1 was a known sex offender
1 was a police officer who killed his girlfriends child
The numbers are eye opening; more children are dying in this country with CPS involvement then without it.

How is this allowed to continue?

The pattern of these types of deaths has become the norm in this country. A child dies of abuse or neglect and then it is later discovered that CPS was already involved with the family, that the child was a foster child, or had been adopted by the parent who killed them. CPS is rarely held accountable in these cases, even when negligence is proven; there is no punishment for the agencies that are legally obligated to perform the duties of Child Protection.

The director's and social workers in these cases hide behind confidentiality laws, that were initially implemented to protect families and children, but that now seem merely in place to protect CPS. They also hide behind immunity laws that make it nearly impossible for them to be held accountable for these children's deaths.

Criminal prosecution for these workers is almost unheard of, even with proof of forged documents, perjury, failure to perform statutory duties, and in some cases a complete and total disregard for the well being of the children entrusted to their care. These workers, their supervisors and all involved, walk away from these deaths free and clear without any ramifications for their behavior at all, often times right back into the office and back to work, like nothing ever happened.

It is hard to get a District Attorney or the Police to investigate the people they work so closely with on a daily basis, who they may even consider friends.

Kayla Allen

Take for example the North Carolina death of Kayla Allen, Onslow County had received numerous reports of abuse on Kayla, they even received pictures of bruises on Kayla taken by the Michigan Police Department after Kayla's grandmother out of desperation to protect Kayla from the blatant abuse that was being ignored by Onslow County, kidnapped Kayla and took her home to Michigan.

Kayla's grandmother was arrested, and Kayla was returned to North Carolina into the care of Carolyn Furtell, Kayla would be dead 14 months later and Carolyn Furtell was eventually convicted of involuntary manslaughter in her death. Kayla's Grandmother committed suicide after Kayla's death because she had promised her beloved granddaughter that no one would ever hurt her again.

The Onslow County Department of Social Services was not held accountable for their failure to protect Kayla, in fact, Roger Penrod, Onslow County Director of Social Services stated, "I've reviewed the case, and no one has found any fault in what DSS was involved in," he said. "That doesn't satisfy some people. They are free to say what they want, but I can't comment on it."

"Allowing Child Protective Services to investigate themselves, is akin to allowing a murderer to be the judge and jury at their own trial, of course they will find themselves innocent of all charges."

How to end these needless deaths

The needless deaths of these children have to stop and the only way to do that is to change the laws that govern Child Protective Services.

In this country when someone breaks the law, whether it is a police officer, a doctor, or an ordinary citizen they are charged with a crime. Should it be any different for CPS?
When a doctor is negligent in performing his duties and his patient is injured or killed because of that negligence he is held accountable. Should it be any different for CPS?
When a child dies, and there is even the suspicion that the other parent could have known of the abuse, that parent is charged with failure to protect. Should it be any different for CPS?
When a government agency in this country isn't following the law, and performing its duties as required, they are investigated and if needed, the Federal Government intervenes to make them perform those duties or shuts them down. Should it be any different for CPS?
Evidence shows that Child Protective Services isn't working in this country, it is a broken system not merely full of cracks, but riddled with big gaping holes that America's children are falling into. Hasn't the time come to change this department?

Complaints about Child Protective Services at the federal level are met with the assertion that CPS is not a federal issue, but a state issue. How can that be when children in every state are dying with Child Protective Services involvement? Children dying in America are not just a state issue, it is a national issue and until these American children's deaths are viewed as an American problem, the deaths will continue.