I-Team: Data Reveal Cracks in Child Welfare System

I-Team: Data Reveal Cracks in Child Welfare System

POSTED: JUL 23, 2010 1:45 AM EDT
UPDATED: JUL 23, 2010 2:15 AM EDT
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I-Team: Data Reveal Cracks in Child Welfare System

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LAS VEGAS - Metro Police Captain Vincent Cannito went before state lawmakers late last month. His mission: to confront the status quo.

"I just want to stress how failed the system is," Captain Cannito told lawmakers.

Cannito came armed with a list of some 50 cases that was compiled by his team at the Bureau of Crimes Against Youth and Family. Cannito urged lawmakers to examine the failings of the Clark County Department of Family Services.

"I took this opportunity out of some of that frustration, but more importantly, out of sincere desire to fix this system and help the victims. Because, you're talking about children," Captain Cannito said. Cannito says the cases reveal a pattern of reluctance on the part of Child Protective Services to respond to reports of abuse and to remove at-risk children.

For example, in 2009, CPS refused to respond to a report of sexual abuse made by an employee at a dental clinic. Instead, according to Metro, the hotline operator directed the employee to question the victim. When the employee objected, the operator logged the call as ‘information-only' and told the employee to send the mother and child to a doctor. The doctor later contacted Metro.

"You can't expect a nurse who's not trained in forensic interview, who's not comfortable asking these personal private questions of a child… It is improper to ask somebody not in that profession in that role to assume that position. It is improper," Cannito said. "Not only is it improper for the person you're asking this of, but you've just jeopardized a case, and we have several examples of that as well." Cannito says additional cases detail poor investigative technique such as a failure to conduct private forensic interviews.

One Metro example notes CPS investigators questioned an alleged victim in the home of her suspected abuser. When the child did not disclose, CPS closed the case.

A subsequent Metro investigation revealed surveillance video of the sexual abuse which resulted in the suspect's arrest. "Had that not taken place, this child, who had been abused several times, would've been back in that home," Cannito said. "The offending parent would've returned home, and that child would've lived that cycle. That's the problem."

Case after case of neglect and abuse, both physical and sexual, are detailed in black and white. Cannito says they are missed opportunities to protect the valley's most vulnerable, and they can no longer be ignored.

"We owe it to the children of this community to take better care of them. We're the adults. It's our organization. People have entrusted us with these positions. That's what needs to happen," he said.

Cannito tells the I-Team that Metro has offered, free of charge, to provide training to Family Services investigators. He's hopeful the agency will accept the offer. Cannito and Family Services Director Tom Morton are scheduled to meet Friday. It's their second sit-down in two weeks. Cannito says he's hopeful the two will work together to find solutions.

Clark County management confirms it has started its own review of a separate list compiled by the District Attorney's office.

http://www.8newsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=12857918

A Message From Democrat Dave On Important Matters

FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2010

A Message From Democrat Dave On Important Matters

The letter below came to me yesterday. There is no "standing" in court for any family except the troubled parent who is about to have their child taken. The law says biological family is first in line for placement. That state lies in the court room about relatives, takes the child, and adopts the child to an "oh, I want a blue-eyed one" foster adopt woman. Susannah Frame of KING 5 has exposed the lying in court. How about the rest of the press?

Take a look at a new website www.metrodems.org This is the Metropolitan
Democratic Club of Seattle, which will feature a discussion at noon on
Wednesday, August 11 between me and Rep. Ruth Kagi. I intend to use the
opportunity to plug for jury trials. No time for a bunch of horror stories,
though I want one clear example of lives not ruined if there had been a jury to
require provable facts and consider the entire story, not a one-sided
presentation by social workers and AAGs in front of a kangaroo "family" court.
The Wolcott and Tillett stories are classic examples. Would Timothy be willing
to tell a little of his life as a forced ward of the state? I will touch
briefly on the Tillett story, telling enough disgusting details to show why
Prosecuting Attorney Russ Hauge would not even attempt to persuade a criminal
jury to convict your brother and sister-in-law. Your family got no justice
either way. You lost your nephew forever, and there was no
"not guilty" finding to clear the family name. The MDC, founded originally by
a whole bunch of Democratic lawyers, should find this unbelievable and
intolerable. {Dave}


My thought on this? Be at the meeting!

http://pamroachreport.blogspot.com/2010/07/message-from-democrat-dave-on-important.html

Stories detail DHS shortcomings

Stories detail DHS shortcomings
Attendees call for additional oversight
BY NATE TAYLOR • NATETAYLOR @COLORADOAN.COM • JULY 23, 2010

Three state lawmakers from Larimer County heard story after story Thursday afternoon from parents and those who have been "entangled" with the county's Department of Human Services calling for additional oversight of the agency.



About 50 Larimer County residents attended an open forum hosted by Reps. BJ Nikkel, R-Loveland, and John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, and Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud. About half of those people spoke; a majority of them were parents.

DHS services in Colorado are administered by counties and supervised by the state of Colorado.

The forum was held to encourage residents to share their experiences and thoughts on how to improve child welfare.

A majority of the speakers were parents sharing stories about their negative experiences with Larimer County DHS. Many of those parents said they've denied allegations raised by DHS caseworkers and accused department employees of lying, fabricating and abusing power.

"When did parents lose their rights to be parents? I can tell you: It's the moment DHS intersects with your family," said Sharon Goodnight, a parent whose child was removed from her home. "You're not criminals, but you're given allegations, allegations that you can never face, ever. From that point forward, DHS owns your children."

Added Ron Markwood, who said he's tried to help a family contacted by DHS: "There's no visibility and no transparency with any of these people. There's no accountability."

The three lawmakers, who all served on a bipartisan legislative panel in April hoping to reform child welfare in Colorado, tried during Thursday's forum to balance the complaints they heard without hearing both sides of the stories.

Linda Weinerman, executive director of the Colorado Office of the Child's Representative, explained that DHS struggles to work in a positive direction with parents who deny wrongdoing.

"If a parent denies the allegation, there's a higher level of scrutiny because it's hard to make a safety plan if you deny there is a safety issue," Weinerman said.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100723/NEWS01/7230333

Legislators open discussion on child welfare

Legislators open discussion on child welfare
Lawmakers need to clarify what their role will be in change
JULY 22, 2010

Local lawmakers are praised for planning a public forum today to allow residents to voice concerns about child welfare issues.



Such a listening session is commendable, but lawmakers are placing themselves in somewhat of a balancing act here. Residents who voice their concerns today likely will expect the lawmakers to do something about them. It will be up to Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, and Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, to explain after this meeting what their roles will be in making changes at the Department of Human Services.

While lawmakers are not in the position to change how specific cases are handled, a point that must be emphasized at the forum, they are empowered to work on changing how the DHS operates, particularly on the issues of transparency and accountability to the public.

There are two irrefutable facts regarding the DHS:

> Thirty-five Colorado children died between 2007 and 2009 after being in some level of DHS supervision within the last five years.

> State Department of Human Services employees failed to complete 10 of 11 child fatality reviews from 2008. Among the "dropped" reviews was that of 20-day-old Fort Collins infant Chad Munoz. Those reviews are the only documents about child fatalities connected to the DHS system released to the public.

This spring, a joint select committee in the Legislature met to attempt to reform the child welfare system.

We agree with Lundberg, who said, "I wasn't very satisfied with the progress we made at the Capitol last spring. We dug in a little bit, but it appeared to be a show for (Colorado DHS) more than anything else. This public hearing is a chance for the public to come and talk."

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100722/OPINION01/7220341/Legislators-open-discussion-on-child-welfare

Newport News man charged in death of 1-year-old

Newport News man charged in death of 1-year-old
Posted to: Crime Newport News News
MAP: Boy found dead
Map data ©2010 Google - Terms of Use


Newport News police investigating child's death - Jul. 21

By Lauren King
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 23, 2010
NEWPORT NEWS

Police have charged a 22-year-old man in the death of a 17-month-old boy who was found dead Tuesday evening.

Darius Orlando Brown of Newport News was charged with murder and four counts of malicious assault, a Newport News police news release said. He was being held at the city jail.

At 4:34 p.m. Tuesday, police were called to the 600 block of Aqua Vista Drive and found the 17-month-old boy in a bedroom. He was unresponsive and had signs of trauma on his body, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said the boy's cause of death was head trauma with blunt force abdominal trauma as a contributing factor.

The boy’s mother was not home at the time, police said. The boy and his 5-year-old sister were being cared for by Brown, the mother’s boyfriend.
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/07/newport-news-man-charged-death-1yearold

Texas mom tells 911 she used wire to kill children

Texas mom tells 911 she used wire to kill children
July 22, 2010 - 4:07am

The photo provided Tuesday July 20, 2010, by the Irving Police Department shows 30-year-old Saiqa Akhter. Police say the Dallas-area mother suspected of strangling her two children, including her 5-year-old-son who died, will be charged with capital murder. Irving police spokesman David Tull says Akhter is in jail pending arraignment Tuesday July 20, 2010, a day after she called 911 and said she had done "something terrible" to her children.(AP Photo/Irving Police Department) By TERRY WALLACE
Associated Press Writer
DALLAS (AP) - A suburban Dallas woman accused of killing her two young children told a 911 operator that she first tried to poison them because they were autistic and she wanted "normal kids," then choked them with a wire until they stopped moving, according to the recorded call.

Read the rest of this article at:
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=2007049

CYFS destroys fathers and children

MENZ Issues: news and discussion about New Zealand men, fathers, family law, divorce, courts, protests, gender politics, and male health.
Fri 23rd July 2010

CYFS destroys fathers and children
Filed under: General,Sex Abuse / CYF — julie @ 6:34 pm
How far will a father go to protect his little girl?

Two months ago I wrote about a father who has been protesting outside Prime Minister John Key’s home, Social Minister Paula Bennett’s office and CYFS offices around the country.

He has been trying tirelessly to save his 3 year old daughter from her mother’s abuse and gang affiliation.

New Zealand like other western countries follows feminist ideology when it comes to heterosexual relationships and uses the presumption men=bad and women=good. If a man does something wrong it’s ‘men’s power’, ‘ the myth of men’s superiority’ and ‘Patriarchy’. When women do something wrong it’s ‘men made her do it’ because of ‘men’s power’, ‘the myth of men’s superiority’ and ‘Patriarchy’.

Men have received the blame from the very beginning of ‘girl power’ where girls were encouraged to compete with boys and cheered when they could do something better than a boy while boys were encouraged to build the girl’s self-esteem, go easy on them and protect them from hurting themselves. If the boys failed to do this, society came down on them like a ton of bricks. “Good girl, bad boy” was something this generation of children were raised with and in turn as adults, they have placed it into law and policy. The writing of our laws don’t look to be discriminative but the policies on how the laws are practised are.

This not only puts men at a disadvantage but children who have abusive mothers. Statistics show mothers to be the greatest abusers of children, then step fathers, then biological fathers. Regardless of why this is or what sort of abuse it is, the children that suffer aren’t capable of raising the alarm to their abuse. They rely on another adult to protect them. Knowing this, New Zealand has poured millions of tax paid dollars into advertising the need for adults to speak up for children and not ignore the problem. Politicians have vowed for society’s vote, to tackle the problem with a zero tolerance on child abuse.

Primary schools have social workers who look for child abuse, childcare centres and community groups are trained to know what to look for, nurses won’t let parents leave the maternity ward with their baby if there’s an inclination something isn’t right, police arrest parents under policy that won’t allow exceptions and judges prosecute. There’s so much put in place to protect children until it clashes with feminism.

CYFS feminist policies for fathers is evil. Not only is a child never to trust a father but a father cannot protect his child. In this case the mother has a ‘P’ addiction and spends her time using and dealing drugs with the gangs. Ordinarily CYFS would care and take the child from the mother but because of it’s policy against fathers and that the father in this case (as in quite a number) can take care of the child, the child’s welfare comes second to feminism.

The child is being physically abused and the father wants it stopped. He told CYFS their decision to place the child in the mother’s care was the worst decision they could make but CYFS didn’t care to listen. He proved her ‘P’ addiction and CYFS turned around and said the mother could smoke ‘P’ but only outside the house. The father took the child to the doctor to have her wounds cared for and CYFS put a protection and supervision order on the father so he could not see his daughter nor ask if she was OK. The police have arrested him while the mother is under their radar for drug dealing. The child has been present in drug busts of gang members homes. The mother has 3 children in her care and they have spoken out on video and CYFS refuses to acknowledge their cries for help. All this has been in the name of destroying a father.

Every single National politician has been contacted with the Prime Minister saying, get rid of this father and those that follow him because he is going to bring bad publicity on us. MP Paula Bennett has just ignored this father’s pleas to care for an abused child while she publicly tells society she cares deeply for children.

Yesterday the 22nd July 2010 CYFS finally uplifted the father’s little girl and 2 other children in this mothers care. As you can imagine, our father didn’t sleep well last night and yet he’s been having sleepless nights for the past 10 months.

Today being the 23rd of July, our father is at yet another CYFS meeting where they will try to negotiate everything but allowing him to raise his child in a loving family.

CYFS and the police are worried for the father’s safety as he has uncovered not just his child’s mother drug dealing but that of the gang association. It’s a huge drug ring that will protect many parent’s children. As well as this lots of CYFS social workers (I mean lots and lots more to come) have been either fired or left CYFS for drug use and other corrupt behaviour. You wouldn’t think one father could take on a whole system but it has happened. He has CYFS safe houses under surveillance where children are being abused and CYFS are begging for addresses.

Alongside our father are MRAs and others that care very much for the welfare of children and their parents who are being abused by the system.

Who’s to know what is yet to come and what else this father has hidden away. I guess there is no limit to how far a father will go for his little girl. May all little girls be so lucky and may society start seeing that men are important.

http://menz.org.nz/2010/cyfs-destroys-fathers-and-children/