I appreciate you sending me this e-mail , you are most defiantly right , Child
welfare agencies are running rampant steeling Children and have no
accountability for what they do to the custodial Parents , Children are been
placed with alleged Pedophiles with in Ireland , I should know as this is what
has happened to my Partners son who is Placed in Foster Care with his Parental
and Marital Aunt in Foster Care after she and others related to her had made
False allegations against us of Physical and Emotional Abuse through a Social
Worker related to them , that had been Working with my Partner and her Child
when I met them , the Child is Paying for a Mortgage on this Marital Aunts Home
, expensive Holidays and Car`s , apart from hiding the Fact that their is too
alleged Pedophiles with in this Marital Aunts Family , My Partner had been
Married , and separated after her ex-husband produced Promiscuous Sexual
Behaviors / infidelity during 1999 her daughter had died of an alleged Cot Death
on Christmas day 1998 the circumstances surrounding the Child`s death are very
suspicious on the Fathers Part , pier to this he had tried to burn my Partner
and their 2 Children in their new Marital Flat in 1997 .

My Partner son before he went into care had accused to us that , his Father had
alleged Sexually abused him , in 2001 their was no truth to this however the
Child him self had tried to abuse another in this School , my partner was never
advised of this, the child had been influenced by a bigger boy in a different
class to him , we have found after this bigger boy had made an attempt on our
Baby Sons life in April 2006 who he is and third Cousin to my Partners son .The
health board did noting about it where is the accountability , the police have
did little to noting about it. Please visit our Website
http://cps-victims.wetpaint.com in which is an Irish Website full of
information , advice & Support for those HURT BY CPS.
----- Original Message -----
From: Leya
To: a_voice_for_children@yahoogroups.com ; AFRA_EAGLE@yahoogroups.com ;
AFRA_BB@yahoogroups.com ; Brenda ; Child Neglect Abuse ;
childrenneedbothparents@... ; childrescue2007@... ;
cafra@yahoogroups.com ; crimes_against_humanity@... ;
childprotectionreform@yahoogroups.com ; life-vs-cps@yahoogroups.com ; Lynn ;
Minister Ronald E. Smith ; nationalchildprotectionreform@yahoogroups.com ;
protect_our_children_from_cps@yahoogroups.com ; TAFUnited@yahoogroups.com ;
UFACPS_ComeTogether@yahoogroups.com ; vigeo2@... ;
VictimsOf-CPS-Abuse@yahoogroups.com
Cc: tofite4jstus@...
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 10:44 PM
Subject: [child_neglect_abuse] Lawsuit May Finally Hold Failing Child Welfare
Agencies Accountable


Lawsuit May Finally Hold Failing Child Welfare Agencies Accountable
July 31, 2006
By Wendy McElroy, WendyMcElroy.com
For years, child welfare agencies have been stained by accounts of children
beaten, starved and murdered while in foster care. Once dismissed as
aberrations or blamed on a single social worker, the incidents are
increasingly recognized as the tragic consequences of systemic failure.
A recent lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, Calif., places blame squarely on the
system. Last September, Los Angeles County supervisors celebrated the
reunion of Melinda Smith and her estranged father as vindication of a new
program within the Department of Children and Family Services (DCF), which
aimed at reuniting families.
Last week, Melinda (now 17-years-old) and her father Thomas Marion Smith
filed suit against the county for its 10-year failure to bring them together
The lawsuit alleges that social workers who knew Melinda was deteriorating
in DCS custody nevertheless blocked her father from even knowing she had
been removed from her mother's care and was "in the system." (Thomas says he
tried repeatedly to locate Melinda, whom he thought was still living with
her mother.)
Meanwhile, the county blames the "lost decade" on a communications breakdown
Is this case an aberration, or does it point to a common practice: the
exclusion of non-resident fathers from the foster care system? A study
released this April suggests an answer.
What About the Dads? Child Welfare Agencies' Efforts to Identify, Locate,
and Involve Nonresident Fathers was prepared for the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Service by The Urban Institute. The study "examined
nonresident fathers as placement resources" . "with a description of the
extent to which child welfare agencies identify, locate, and involve
nonresident fathers in case decision making and permanency planning."
Scant research has been done on the role of non-resident fathers except,
perhaps, as it relates to child support payments. Thus, the 186-page study
is openly preliminary about its findings.
For example, the study examines child welfare agencies within four
geographically and culturally diverse states -- Arizona, Massachusetts,
Minnesota and Tennessee -- but draws no national conclusions. Nevertheless,
What About the Dads?" constitutes the best available snapshot of how the
child welfare systems in general approach non-resident fathers.
Highlights among its findings:
"Caseworkers reported that half of the non-resident fathers with whom they
had been in contact had expressed an interest in having their children live
with them (.27 percent of the entire sample)..In 4 percent of cases the
child's case goal was placement with the father."
Fathers who want custody are particularly significant for children like
Melinda who circulate in the foster care system after being removed from a
custodial mother.
In 1988, Melinda was born out-of-wedlock. Her father agreed to pay child
support and maintained a close relationship with his infant daughter. When
Melinda was about 4-years-old, she and her mother abruptly moved. Although
they stayed in the same general area, Thomas had no way of finding them. In
1995, after two complaints of suspected child abuse, Melinda was placed into
"the system" where she remained for the next decade.
During her first five years in state custody, Melinda was housed at a center
with much older children who had been convicted of criminal activity; social
workers believed that her "emotional problems" made her "not appropriate for
adoptive placement."
At 8-years-old, Melinda stopped speaking and suffered from a deep depression
for which she was required to take Prozac at ever increasing doses. During
her last five years in custody, Melinda was shuffled between seven foster
families.
Last year, Melinda met with retired social worker Peggy Crist who was
consulting with DCF on how to find permanent placements for teens who had
grown up in foster care. Melinda reportedly told Crist that "the most
important thing" was to find her father.
It took Crist one day to locate Thomas at the same address where he had
lived since shortly after Melinda's birth. The County had neglected to alert
Thomas that his daughter was in foster care even though they were under a
legal obligation to do so with "due diligence."
The County explains that Thomas' whereabouts were listed as "unknown."
Nevertheless, they were able to find his address for the purpose of sending
him several years of child support bills, all of which he paid. Thomas'
attorney, L. Wallace Pate commented, "He's a registered voter with a valid
driver's license and an open child support case. All they had to do.was pick
up the phone and ask the L.A. County Child Support Services Department, 'Do
you have a contact on this man?'"
The lawsuit goes farther than charging mere incompetence however; it claims
that social workers told family court officials and Melinda that her father
was a "deadbeat dad" although his regular child support payments were a
matter of record. The lawsuit brashly states what the study "What About the
Dads?" suggests: Bias within child welfare agencies promotes the practice of
marginalizing non-resident fathers even when a child's only other
alternative is institutionalization.
The study explains that social workers fear fathers could be abusive.
Nevertheless, it concludes, "the serious problems identified in fathers are
the same kinds of problems and issues facing the mothers of children in
foster care."
These include alcohol and drug abuse, mental problems, and imprisonment--
with only imprisonment occurring more frequently in fathers. Indeed, the
study found that the "demographic characteristics" of non-resident fathers
were similar to those of resident mothers with the fathers being slightly
older and more likely to marry.
In short, whatever bias exists against nonresident fathers seems to have
little basis. Yet the consequences can be vicious. The consequences can be
seen in Melinda's childhood, which was a living hell. And needlessly so.
All the time her father's arms were waiting to shelter and offer her the one
thing no state agency can capture in a case file: love.
© 2006 Wendy McElroy
Comments

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]