Covering foster care in LA: The case of the selective sidebar

NCCP: Child Welfare Blog; The Case of the Selective Sidebar

TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010
Covering foster care in LA: The case of the selective sidebar
I'LL BE DISCUSSING CHILD WELFARE IN LOS ANGELES THIS MORNING ON KPFK PACIFICA RADIO'S "SOJOURNER TRUTH" PROGRAM, SOMETIME DURING THE 7 TO 8AM HOUR, LOCAL TIME. IT ALSO SHOULD BE AVAILABLE AT KPFK'S WEBSITE.

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times story, apparently some kind of half-hearted effort to add context to the paper's child welfare coverage was accompanied by a sidebar apparently designed to reinforce the "master narrative" of Times reporting – that the only fatal mistake the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services makes is leaving children with dangerous parents.

Called "A timeline of death" a better title would have been "A highly-selective timeline of death." Because a quick check of NCCPR's own archive of child welfare news coverage turned up these cases, which the Times left out:

● 1999: Four-month-old Garnet Peels is placed with a foster mother who allows her brother – a narcoleptic – to drive the boy in his SUV. The infant was not in a car seat. He died when the foster mother's brother drove the SUV into a pole.

● 1999: Gilbreania Wallace is taken from her grandmother when the pipes in their rented house burst, flooding the basement and making the home a health hazard. Instead of helping them find another place to live, DCFS places Gilbreania in foster care. She dies there, allegedly killed by her foster mother. (DCFS, which would spend nothing to move the family offered $5,000 for the funeral). Just as in the case of Viola Vanclief more than a decade later (making it the one death of a foster child too recent for the sidebar to ignore), Gilbreania's foster mother has previous complaints against her, and the home is overseen by a private agency with a troubled history – the same agency that oversaw the case of Garnet Peels.

● 2001: Two-year-old Jasmine Garcia dies of what police call "catastrophic injury to her head." Jasmine was placed in a foster home overseen by another private agency – and there had been warnings to DCFS about alleged abuse of other children in the home. The foster parents are charged, but one foster parent is acquitted and charges against the other are dropped.

● 2003: Dakota Prince, age 5, and Nehemiah Prince, age 3, are taken from their mother because of what the DCFS deputy director at the time calls "just an inability to provide adequate care." They are placed with a foster mother who was under the supervision of still another private agency. The foster mother can afford the best – including a Cadillac Escalade SUV. But one day she forgets that she'd left Dakota and Nehemiah in the Escalade in 100 degree heat where, a deputy district attorney says, "they cooked inside the car and died." The foster mother is convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

There is nothing in the Times chronology to indicate why it only goes back to 1998 – seemingly an arbitrary choice. But perhaps it's because that avoids including another case, the particularly searing story of Jonathan Reid, taken needlessly from his mother only to die in foster care in 1997. You can read all about that case in this 2002 story - by Garrett Therolf, the Times reporter who now wants us to forget all about such cases, or at least write them off as aberrations, as he crusades to keep more children in the system that killed Jonathan - and Dakota, and Nehemiah, and Garnet, and Gilbreania, and how many others?

And for another example of the kind of story Los Angeles Times systematically avoids, check out today's lead story in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Posted by NATIONAL COALITION FOR CHILD PROTECTION REFORM at 6:20 AM

Foster Care and Criminal Behavior: Are the two linked?

Foster Care and Criminal Behavior: Are the two linked?

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 1:54 pm
Are youth making the transition from out-of-home care to independent adulthood more apt to commit crime then others? A recent DOJ study comes to the following conclusions: the link between group care and violent crime was particularly strong for African-American youth, high numbers of foster-care placements contributed to increases in both violent and nonviolent crime and foster youth were much more likely than their peers to be arrested as they made the transition to adulthood.

Read the full report here.

http://thecrimereport.org/2010/03/30/foster-care-and-criminal-behavior-are-the-two-linked/

Help! My grandchildren have been taken by cps

Family Rights News
Help! My grandchildren have been taken by cps

March 30, 2010
The title is an actual internet search by which somebody found the AFRA website today. We get quite a few grieving grandparents desperately looking for help. They usually find our How to Fight CPS page, which should serve their needs.
However, there are a few comments I would like to add. Here's the LAW about "kinship preference"
42 U.S.C. § 671 : US Code - Section 671: State plan for foster care and adoption assistance was amended in 1996-
COATS (AND WYDEN) AMENDMENT NO. 4909 (Senate - July 18, 1996)
[Page: S8227]
Mr. ROTH (for Mr. Coats, for himself and Mr. Wyden) proposed an amendment to the bill, S. 1956, supra; as follows:

At the end of chapter 7, of subtitle A, of title II, add the following:

SEC. . KINSHIP CARE.

Section 471(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)) is amended--

(1) by striking `and' at the end of paragraph (16);

(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (17) and inserting `; and'; and

(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(18) provides that States shall give preference to an adult relative over a non-related caregiver when determining a placement for a child, provided that the relative caregiver meets all relevant State child protection standards.

This amendment is now fully incorporated in the law, but I wanted to point out who sponsored it and when it was amended.

The current rendering of 42 U.S.C. § 671 : US Code - Section 671 states-
(19) provides that the State shall consider giving preference to an adult relative over a non-related caregiver when determining a placement for a child, provided that the relative caregiver meets all relevant State child protection standards;
That's the law. I don't know when the word "consider" was sneaked in. However, many states have no intention of observing this law. That's exactly why you should memorize it.
Now what about the second part- "...provided that the relative caregiver meets all relevant State child protection standards"?
Here is where you have to quit playing "Winston" in "1984". YOU have to ask "What do I need to do to meet the State child protection standards?"
If the CPS agent wants to be coy with you, put the ONUS ON HER- "What do YOU need to do to HELP ME qualify?"
The #1 rule is- DOCUMENT everything said and done. Keep meticulous records of who said what, when. Keep any correspondence to and from the agencies.
Grandparents (and aunts, uncles and cousins) are nearly ALWAYS the best place for kids to be.
With the passage of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act in October 2008, Federal resources are supposed to be available to assist children who leave foster care for legal guardianships with family members.
Use this information wisely to keep YOUR relatives with family instead of going to stranger care.
COMMENTon this story
"Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own." --Aesop (c. 550 B.C.) legendary Greek fabulist

If CPS hasn't attacked YOUR FAMILY yet, see If you are ever approached by anyone from social services.... and WHEN THEY COME AFTER YOU
Learn as much as you can, as fast as you can at "How To Fight CPS"-
http://familyrights.us/how_to/fight_cps.html

Get YOUR VERSION OF HISTORY ON THE RECORD with your Sworn Affidavit-
http://familyrights.us/bin/FORMS/sworn_affidavit.html

Leonard Henderson, co-founder
American Family Rights Association
http://familyrights.us
"Until Every Child Comes Home" ©
"The Voice of America's Families" ©

Have you seen AFRA News Today?
http://familyrights.us/news

I am not a lawyer and I do not pretend to give legal advice. If you need legal advice, see AFRA's Lawyer Friends who certainly are not pretenders (http://familyrights.us/info/law) I merely relate the things I learned in the past that seemed to work in my own case or things that others have related to me that worked in their cases. I provide information for free and do not expect to receive any form of payment or reward on this side of heaven. Therefore, DO NOT rely on this information as legal advice. Real Legal advice would come from a real lawyer who hates CPS and prepares a VIGOROUS DEFENSE against a negative (proving nothing happened) instead an ATTORNEY (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/attorn) talking you into a plea bargain (http://familyrights.us/bin/The_Problem_with_Plea_Bargaining.htm)

http://familyrights.newscred.com/editorials/1413/help-my-grandchildren-have-been-taken-by-cps

Hush Little Baby Don't You Cry-For Trinity

Song For Trinity From Mommy

Hush little baby don't you cry,
and please don't do that thing with your eye.
Your feet are big & your toes are long,
I made up these words cuz I don't know this song.
You poop every morning at the same time,
being that cute shuld be a crime.
You pee on the floor like a little dog,
pees ok but not a log.
7 weeks old, already growing teeth,
when u grow up please don't cause me grief.
That pouty lip, & all that drool,
I'm already scared 2 send you 2 school.
Those big blue eyes & that pretty smile,
please stay a baby....if even just for awhile.....

Sent to me From Trinity's Mommy

CPS Hostage Speaks Out

CPS Hostage Speaks Out
March 26, 2010 yvonnemason


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWaxglL0Wb8

http://protectingourchildrenfrombeingsold.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/cps-hostage-speaks-out/

Death of Sen. Nancy Schaefer - What the media won't tell you.

MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2010
Death of Sen. Nancy Schaefer - What the media won't tell you.
From a Facebook note by Julie Kempson:

From Garland Favorito

Note to VoterGA Supporters:

Normally my communications have been limited to subjects about our electronic voting method, ballot access for candidates and elections related investigations. I feel led to make an exception and bring to your attention another non partisan subject: The high profile investigation that has been initiated into Friday’s death of a former Georgia state senator.

Garland

http://conservativestateproject.blogspot.com/2010/03/death-of-sen-nancy-schaefer-what-media.html


Saturday March 27, 2010

On Friday, former Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband were found dead in their home in Habersham County. Even before a GBI investigation could be initiated, media outlets began pronouncing that their death was a “murder-suicide” and shut off most public comment posting on their web sites. The “murder suicide” theory implies that Sen. Schaefer’s husband shot her and then killed himself (or vice versa). Both Habersham County and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation began investigating the case as a “murder suicide” rather than the more obvious “murder made to look like suicide”. Like so many people, I have known former Sen. Nancy Schaefer for 15 years and spoken to several people who know her better than I do. They believe that the “murder suicide” theory is highly unlikely for any one of the following reasons:

1. It is totally against Nancy Schaefer’s consistently strong commitment to the sanctity of life principles that she has fought so valiantly to uphold;

2. Nancy and her husband, Bruce, have five children and more than a dozen grandchildren who they would not choose to leave behind so abruptly;

3. Bruce’s problem with cancer was corrected and under control so there was no reason to end his life as one senator tried to imply;

4. Nancy or Bruce would not likely agree to commit such an act that violates the fundamental principles of their Christian faith;

5. Bruce was retired and the couple did not appear to be in any type of dire financial crisis that would lead them to commit such acts;

6. Bruce and Nancy knew that her sister who had Alzheimer’s disease needed her to help take care of her;

7. Friends who knew the couple best state that Bruce would simply not have the capability to kill his wife;

8. Nancy was dedicated, as a national leader, to help needy people overcome abuse within Child Protective Services organizations;

9. Nancy was actively exposing corruption within the Department of Family & Child Services (DFCS) including actions by the DFCS director in the county where she lived.

10. Nancy knew that she was needed in the fight against child sex slave trafficking in Atlanta which has one of the highest activity rates in the country;

11. Bruce was highly supportive of Nancy’s work for decades and would have little or no reason to suddenly try to kill her at such a critical juncture in her career.

Specifically in Georgia, former Senator Nancy Schaefer had found during the last few years that:

· DFCS in Georgia housed children in a foster home with a known pedophile who molested the children.

· DFCS in Habersham County failed to remove six children from a home where they are being abused and tortured.

· DFCS in Georgia turned two girls over to a California father who had a pornographic video business.

A report that Nancy Schaefer produced on these remarkable cases can be found here:

http://fightcps.com/2008/02/29/report-of-georgia-senator-nancy-schaefer-on-cps-corruption/


Nancy Schaefer was also interviewed extensively by talk show host Alex Jones about corruption in Child Protection Services nationally. A multi-part series of her interview and an Eagle Forum presentation can be found on You Tube here:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nancy+schaefer&search_type=&aq=f

In addition, Senator Schaefer led opposition to HB582 and SB304, two bills introduced by fellow Republicans that would have likely resulted in increasing child sex slave trafficking. These bills would have made it legal for teenagers to participate in certain illicit acts. The bills effectively removed the legal authority that police now have to pick teenagers up and get them into protective custody so that they can no longer be pimped for those acts.

As President of Georgia Eagle Forum, Nancy Schaefer planned to be in Alabama this weekend for an Eagle Forum convention. Instead she chose to stay in Georgia to develop new information that would have further exposed corruption in DFCS and beyond. Many Eagle forum members who were close to Sen. Schaefer were aware of her courageous efforts. None of them believe that either she or her husband was involved in any type of suicide.

It is particularly ironic that the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) chose to quote State Sen. Don Thomas in their March 26 article about Sen. Schaefer’s death. The AJC portrayed him as a friend of the couple even though he lives on the other side of the state from the Schaefer family and was diametrically opposed to many of their core beliefs. Sen. Thomas, the Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, immediately propagated and expanded the “murder-suicide” theory without any first-hand knowledge or evidence. That is very disturbing considering it is his committee that should have been helping to clean up the corruption at DFCS. Activists supporting Sen. Schaefer explained that he constantly advocated increased power and authority for DFCS in spite of the evidence showing the organization was misusing that authority.

With Nancy Shafer no longer on the scene the question may be raised as to how best to continue her legacy. I believe that she would want conservatives, progressives, libertarians, constitutionalists as well as grass roots Democrats and Republicans throughout Georgia to unite and work to rectify the corruption in DFCS and eliminate child sex slave trafficking in Georgia.

PERMISSION TO REPRINT GRANTED

Garland

DCF Worker Accused Of Killing Foster Child Found Not Guilty

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-dcf-suzanne-listro-not-guilty-0329,0,5350064.story

DCF Worker Accused Of Killing Foster Child Found Not Guilty

Connecticut Department of Children and Families employee Suzanne Listro stands at her arraignment in Superior Court in Rockville, Conn., Thursday, July 17, 2008 in this frame grab from WFSB-TV Hartford. Listro was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of a 7-month-old foster child in May, 2008. ((AP Photo/WFSB-TV) / July 17, 2008)
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The Hartford Courant
2:54 p.m. EDT, March 29, 2010

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TOLLAND - A judge this afternoon found Suzanne Listro, a foster mother, not guilty of manslaughter in connection with the death of her 7-month-old foster child who died nearly two years ago.

Judge William Bright Jr. also found her not guilty of risk of injury to a minor.

"I'm not saying this was an accident. I don't know," the judge said. "I cannot say without a reasonable doubt that Ms. Listro inflicted the injuries upon Michael Brown Jr."

Brown died May 19, 2008 of blunt traumatic head injury. Listro had been accused of killing the child by violently shaking him.

Listro, 44, has said the boy died after falling from her bed.

Prosecutors in the case declined to comment Monday.

— Staff Reports