My new e-mail address is jeffreyslaw@hotmail.com.
Thanks,
Amanda
About Me
- Amanda
- My goal is to have all Children's Aid Societies held accountable for their actions when placing or removing a child. They are responsible for societies most innocent, vulnerable and important citizens and should not forget this when making decisions on children's behalf. They are playing god to these children with absolutely no one to question their actions or motives. It is past time that tax payers, parents, and citizens of Canadian society stand up against the 'Canadian Mofia' and say enough is enough. Thank you for visiting this blog! I welcome all comments, suggestions and news updates! jeffreys_law@hotmail.com
33 comments:
I just wanted to mention the Dufferin VOCA (Fixcas)website has an anti-CAS petition some readers may wish to sign. Please spread the word to your family and friends.
Oprah had a show today on Foster parent abuse, ABC Brain Ross said no one listened to the children, the home was an excellent foster home, yet the foster mom had lost one of her own children from abuse, and her son was a child sex offender. Its still on her web site, By the way nothing happened to the social worker, they are not held accountable.
FAMILY PRESERVATION
Douglas Besharov, the first director of the National Center for Child Abuse and Neglect states that the incidence of false allegations is 70 percent.
According to the National Coalition for Child Protective Reform, as many as two of every three cases prompting investigation are determined to be false.
99 out of 100 children are not beaten up by their parents every year - 97 percent of all children are not abused or neglected in any way in the course of a year - 95 to 99 of 100 women were not sexually abused by their fathers, or step fathers during their childhoods. "Wounded Innocents" by Richard Wexler
"Partly what went wrong with family preservation was a political response. There were people who didn't like the notion of family preservation and trashed it. I don't think the evidence ever was conclusive that it was a failure. To my mind, the principal failing of child protection in the United States over the past 35 years ... is that family preservation has not been taken seriously enough almost anywhere in this country.... "
"Well, family preservation can't be a blueprint for every case.... However, those cases are, in this country, rare and certainly a distinct minority of the cases that are in the system. "
"Family preservation is appropriate for the majority of cases in which violence is not a serious issue and in which safety is not the first concern. The vast majority of children who are separated from their parents in the United States are separated for reasons that even state officials concede have nothing to do with the true meaning of safety... But the least restrictive intervention, the one that keeps children connected to their families, is the one that is best for children. "
"All children removed from parents, even children removed from parents for very good reasons, ... suffer mightily in the process of the removal. Preventing that suffering is itself a worthy goal of the state.."
Martin Guggenheim- A professor at New York University Law School and director of its clinical and advocacy programs, Guggenheim argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 that states should apply a higher standard of proof to terminate parental rights
Unchecked Government Making Large Profits by Taking Kids From Their Legitimate Parents
When your government is in the business of stealing children, do you still consider it your government?
Exclusive to American Free Press
By Tony Blizzard
Because of federal bounty money for a modern “commodity”—a bureaucratic term describing your children—every state and local government in the United States is now in the child stealing business. The more children stolen and subsequently adopted out to strangers—the younger and faster, the better—the greater the federal financing of our Orwellian family police.
That’s not the worst of it. Children so stolen—with police coercion but absent any semblance of due process of law—besides being traumatized by the loss of their parents and home, are often physically endangered.
Official federal child abuse statistics, circa 1997, were presented to Congress regarding misuse of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. They show that the .4 percent of our children removed from their families at the time suffered 2.1 percent of all child fatalities. The one percent of the nation’s children receiving government “services,” i.e. under some court supervision, accounted for 16.3 percent of all child fatalities.
Children under state control were recorded as “abused” at three times the rate of those with their parents. Adding to the insanity, 11 percent of those taken were never previously victimized even by hysterically ridiculous and arbitrary social services “standards,” while two percent had absolutely no report against their parents but were taken anyway.
In Massachusetts—one of the worst nanny states—five-year-old Kyle Ross woke early one morning and took a stroll in his backyard while the family remained asleep. But the door closed behind him, automatically locking Kyle out. He eventually crawled into the back seat of the family car and went to sleep.
A sensitized neighbor called the police, who made the mandatory call to Social Services, sealing the Ross family’s fate. Both Kyle and his little brother, Damien, were immediately taken by Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) and farmed out to a foster home, just two of the 20-25 children so traumatized in that state every day.
The boys had not yet been adopted when, on June 9, Kyle was mauled to death by a Rottweiler which belonged to his foster mother’s boyfriend and which had a history of attacking and biting.
The Rosses filed a wrongful death suit against the agency. This elicited a bit of media coverage that was embarrassing to DSS. Such uppity behavior is not tolerated by the family police.
Mrs. Ross gave birth to another boy Aug. 5. The next day a nurse took the baby to “check his vital signs.” Directly, DSS personnel, local and state police invaded the hospital room announcing they had seized the baby using as grounds an “anonymous phone call” received within hours of the baby’s birth, while the mother was still in the recovery room. Her crime was “neglect” as she allowed the baby’s grandmother to hold and feed it which was somehow evidence that Mrs. Ross couldn’t “feed the baby right.”
Her doctor was shocked and outraged at the obviously planned and premeditated DSS theft of the newborn infant on such a flimsy, bogus rational. No one has mandated to government agencies a right to commit the crime of kidnapping.*
More publicity has been generated by the Christine family’s ordeals. Brian and Ruth Christine, both in their late 20s and holders of multiple degrees, creators of businesses, deeply religious and very concerned about giving their children the best possible upbringing, rejected the “modern” lifestyle, refurbished a bus as a motor home and hit the road. Home schoolers, they wanted to be together with their three daughters, aged four, three and two, 100 percent of the time.
Finding an ideal setting in mountainous Grants Pass, Oreg., they accepted a farmer’s offer to park on his property where the girls could thrive and learn.
Using the local public library was the beginning of their travail as, again, a “sensitized good citizen’s” anonymous phone call brought in the notorious Oregon State Services to Children and Families (SCF), Oregon’s version of the family police.
The caller said a family was living behind the library in a bus and one child appeared dehydrated. This was enough to justify the kidnapping of all three girls and to charge the parents with starving and beating them since, beside one girl recovering from a childhood sickness, another had a band aid on her forehead over a recent cut. No proof of allegations, no due process of law, no mercy, no real concern for the effect on the children or the parents, no common sense from any cop or bureaucrat.
Above the trauma of being physically kidnapped from the parents they never left before, the girls were stripped, invasively “examined” and photographed in a manner a judge later called “pornographic.” These criminal actions took place on July 31, 2000, the eve of the oldest’s fifth birthday.
Once incarcerated in a “foster home” the girls were forced into an establishment lifestyle totally opposed by their caring parents, including inoculation of viruses into their systems and attendance at public school and probably a large dose of inane television.
Ruth Christine was eight months pregnant at the time and the family police, ignoring the politically correct dogma that an unborn is just “tissue,” demanded that unborn child also, when Ruth came to term.
Ruth fled to another state to give birth to her fourth child, Olivia, who is officially an outlaw in hiding.
For a year, the Christines fought the state in what passes in child cases for court. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Brian took back his daughters, allegedly at gun point, after a “supervised” visit with them.
Under Oregon statute, which is a rubber stamp of the federal “guidelines,” permanent adoption must be made within a year of taking a child (in order to get the best federal money) and the state was moving to terminate the Christines’ parental rights, an abuse of governmental authority that should never be tolerated.
Predictably, the full force of the states and the federal government came down on the Christines and those helping them recover their children from the government kidnappers. The FBI was only too happy to pursue these “kidnappers” of their own children.
Ruth is now in jail in Missoula, Mont., and Brian is incarcerated in Billings. Ruth is, once again, ready to give birth and Oregon’s SCF wants this child too. The three oldest children are back in foster care with parties fighting to adopt them.
WE ARE ABOUT TO BECOME A NANNY STATE, even in Canada pity*
Who is it that keps posting non-Canadian stats? Although you might think it is relevant it is not--just as their crime stats are not comparable to ours.
Post Canadian stats (relevant ones which are relatively current)...those are the ones that count.
THE RILYA WILSON CASE, Miami, Florida
5-year old disappeared from foster home for more than one year.
The social services did not miss her.
Article series by Associated Press, published on CNN.com
May 4 -- May 27, 2002, and other articles
Police Arrest Caretakers In Rilya Wilson Case
The caseworker for a missing 5-year-old girl faced being fired for falsifying records and "unbecoming conduct" before she was allowed to resign earlier this year, according to documents obtained by CNN.
Women Who Cared for Still-Missing Florida Girl Are Charged With Abusing Her Before She Disappeared
By Catherine Wilson
Two women who cared for a still-missing Florida girl were charged Wednesday with abusing her before she vanished - placing her in an animal cage and tying her to her bed.
Geralyn Graham, 58, was charged with kidnapping and aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm for actions leading up to the disappearance of Rilya Wilson - a unsolved case that rocked Florida's child welfare agency.
Judge 'Case of missing girl absolutely despicable'
The family court judge who has presided over the case of little Rilya Wilson since she became a ward of Florida was visibly agitated Monday morning at a status hearing for the 5-year-old who was missing for more than a year before the state realized she was gone.
Missing girls caseworker accused of lying
The caseworker for a missing 5-year-old girl faced being fired for falsifying records and "unbecoming conduct" before she was allowed to resign earlier this year, according to documents obtained by CNN.
Privacy law muddles missing girl query
A clash between laws respecting privacy and those urging open government has stalled a panel's investigation into the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl.
Police investigate past of missing girl's caregiver
Police investigating the case of Rilya Wilson, a 5-year-old missing girl from Miami, Florida, are widening their look into the youngster's caretaker, Geralyn Graham.
Florida panel: More children may be at risk
A review panel looking into the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl found that despite the attention given to the child's case, flaws in Florida's child welfare agency still exist and more children could be at risk.
child abuse and abuse of by the system is a global problem. We are not the only people that matter. Watch the 5th estate on Sat. for a bit on the problems with the system in Canada, also the stats on Canada are aboutthe same, posted on the Ombubsmans web site, and Senitor Ann Cools, more on Dufferin Voca.
Child abuse is a world wide issue, it matters. Abuse in the name of protection Matters more. do we want to raise ethical children? I do.
had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Coloroso, yesterday, her new book only available in Canada, tilted Just because it isn't Wrong doesn't make it Right,
We spoke not only about her book and why it is not available in Canada yet, ( political) the American editor has problems with her referring to what leads to genocide, and in all cases in history, they are the same reason, very interesting, a culture of meanness as she calls it, dehumanizing, and more. A culture not at all unlike we are allowing are children to be exposed to. video violence and intolerance of poverty, the importance of looking at the global village,and issues, teaching deep caring, strengthen the family bonds. We spoke a bit on Child protection, she rolled her eyes, its run amuck in her words. Removing children from a parent or parents, breaks bonds, she also sees it as part of the problems we are seeing today in the violence in youth, and they have lost the basic principal on what child protection was intended to do. I cannot agree more, so by your sating only Canadian stats matter, is where you fail to understand, we are not unlike the American system at all, only they now are turning it back in many states because it is corrupt and not working, costing to much money, and with out great benefits. The children are not benefiting by being protected by the government, in most cases.
Why the government allows it, is the issue. Its is trafficking in Canadian children. There has to be a better way.
Teaching kids to think and act ethically is the message. A lesson we know the government has not learnt. And Social workers and psychologist are anything but ethical, or they would not fear accountability, and over sight.
Perhaps, if the agency responsible for Jeffery and his siblings placement, had acted so, this blog would not be here.
But to make change, you must be well informed, on the issue at large, we follow the Americans, only about 5 years later, so by pointing out how this act is failing in other places, one hopes some one can take from late lessons learnt, and do better for children. Its not simple, its important, and it must be done before we have a culture of young adults with broken bonds.
If you read psychology, its all theory, its not science. And a profession that has caused so much suffering, it is that industry that is the driving force ( to keep themselves employed) that is driving this child maltreatment movement, No I am not in denial that many children are abused.
But when do we draw the line. Do you consider a mothers, breast cancer reason to remove a child, because there is a risk of emotional harm to that child, when and if the mother dies, ( even a child with a father and other supportive family) ? Have you read child maltreatment?, and what is now considered risk of harm. I am not talking about the drug addicts, and the like, the clearly neglected families, ( but I also have differing opinions then most on that issue)
This is the same industry that gave us repressed memories, and more, and many people including the children were destroyed as a result. Manufacturing Victims is a good read, some of it one the net. We need to take personal responsibility, and teach are children to do the same. And to deeply care about them, and teach them to do so as well.
I care deeply, It is my sincere hope, with actions I take everyday that I can make small changes, that better society as a whole in some small way, and know my child is watching, and learning.
This act needs to be change. And unfortunately, I believe it will not happen until we have many children die in care. Or the Supreme court rules.
I went on the website for The 5th Estate and do not see anything about a show on Saturday night.
Okay perhaps we should all be concentrating ON WORLD CAS!!!!!!!!!!!
Give me a break.....
US system is NOT similar to ours and neither is their governments and it's various levels.
There is enough bureacracy to unravel in ONTARIO CAS.
Maybe you should find another blog sight that deals with any and all of your issues...
Amanda
What are your thoughts on Bill 210?
Thank you to the person that posted these tremendously insightful articles. They fully reflect what is happening every day in Canada. Does the person who denies the American system is like our own have any information to support their position?
Sentences extended for parents of caged boys
Updated Fri. Nov. 5 2004 11:42 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Tougher punishments have been handed down to an Ontario couple who regularly beat their two sons and kept them locked in cages for years.
The mother is now sentenced to five years in prison, while the father is sentenced to four.
The boys, now 17 and 18, were physically abused, kept in diapers, and locked in makeshift cages over a period of 13 years after their adoption.
The parents pleaded guilty in January to two counts each of assault with a weapon, forcible confinement and "failing to provide the necessaries of life." In July, they were handed sentences of nine months.
The crown believed the sentences were too lenient and launched an appeal.
On Thursday, the Ontario Court of Appeal agreed that the sentences did not reflect the severity of the crimes.
"The sentences imposed here must clearly signal society's abhorrence and condemnation of the prolonged child abuse inflicted by the respondents,'' wrote Justice Eleanore Cronk in her decision.
"Stated simply, the appalling abusive conduct of the respondents cannot be tolerated and must be met with severe sanction.''
Cronk added that the prison terms would have been longer if it were not for the couple's poor health. She also noted that the couple were not a threat to the larger community, and the fact that the trial judge found that the abuse "was not sadistic in nature.''
The teens -- whose names cannot be published -- are now in separate foster homes and are going to high school.
Members of the Durham Regional Police who raided the Blackstock, Ont. house where the boys lived described the case as one of the worst incidents of child abuse and neglect they'd ever investigated.
Investigators found that the couple had often kept the boys in wire mesh-enclosed baby cribs. They were often forced to wear diapers, were subjected to physical punishment on a daily basis and were malnourished.
Through it all, the boys continued to go to school and even visited neighbours, but were warned under threat of more abuse never to talk of what they endured at home.
The parents claimed the boys suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and were hard to control. The Crown disputed that claim.
13 years of child abuse, nine months in prison
The Blackstock secret: Anger greets sentence for couple who caged two boys
By MARGARET WENTE
With a report from Gay Abbate
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - Page A1
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When police and child-care workers found the older boy, he was in a cage. The cage was a crib, with the bars of another crib set over the top, secured with a chain and padlocked. The boy was 14, and small for his age, but he was far too large to fit into his little prison without doubling up. He had no mattress, no blankets, no pillows, just a plywood board to sleep on. He was wearing diapers. He was made to, by the woman he thought was his mother.
That woman and her husband abused their two adoptive sons over a span of more than 13 years. Ontario Judge Donald Halikowski declared that the abuse "crossed the threshold to near torture." And yet, yesterday he sentenced them to just nine months in jail. They could be out on parole in three.
"The justice system sucks," said the younger boy after the sentence was pronounced.
It's hard to disagree with that. This is one of the worst cases of child abuse that people can remember. The damage the brothers suffered did not destroy their bodies. It destroyed their spirits and their souls. You marvel that they survived it.
The boys (their identities are protected by law) were toddlers when they went to live on an isolated farm near Blackstock, Ont., 60 kilometres east of Toronto. Their adoptive mother, now 43, claims they were damaged and unmanageable from the start -- so difficult that she and her husband were forced to tether them to their cribs at night, and later to chain and lock them in. Their biological mother, a drug and alcohol addict with nine other kids, was her sister. She's dead now.
As the boys grew older their adoptive mother kept them diapered, in case of "accidents." But they were also punished for them. And so they took to hiding their own feces, or eating them, to conceal their guilt. Sometimes they were so thirsty they drank their own urine. They were hit with belts, brooms, and a shoehorn. They were half-starved, and handcuffed, and put out in snowstorms with no clothes.
The older one was terrified of thunderstorms, and so, to punish him, they sometimes made him stand outside naked in them. Their faces were thrust in the kitty-litter box.
Their adoptive mother told them they were dreadful, hopeless, worthless. They believed her.
Later, in court, she claimed she didn't know any better. But she did. She has an older son, who was raised normally. She also has an adult daughter, who wants nothing more to do with her. She knew where to get help, but she never did.
How could such abuse have gone undetected for so long? After all, the boys went to school. They saw a doctor every so often. Relatives came to visit now and then. How could nobody have noticed?
"She'd convinced them that they deserved it," says Andrea Maenza, spokesperson for the children's aid society. "That's why they didn't tell."
At school, the boys were shy and slow, mentally and physically far younger than their years. And so they were taunted and bullied. If they never stuck around for after-school activities, the teachers figured, that was the reason. For years, the other adults in their lives treated them as near-invisible. Eventually a few relatives realized something wasn't right, and blew the whistle.
Even after the boys were apprehended, they were reluctant to admit what had happened to them. They were too ashamed. When you're 14 years old, how do you tell a stranger you're so afraid of your mother that you ate your own feces?
When the boys were rescued, they had never been allowed to defecate or take a shower by themselves. They had never gone to a birthday party. When they were told that their adoptive parents weren't really their parents after all, they were first shocked, then relieved. A real mother, they think now, could never behave like that.
Until recently, the sight of their adoptive mother made them intensely fearful. She is a sullen-looking, obese woman whom relatives paint as manipulative and controlling. But her lawyer painted her as a victim. First, he blamed the boys themselves. "I don't even know if a fit, worldly person would have been capable of taking care of these children," he argued, while failing to explain why, if they were such trouble, she wouldn't simply give them up instead of torture them. Then he invoked the abuse excuse. Her parents abused her too (her family denies it). She has post-traumatic stress disorder. She has chronic pain. In other words, it's not her fault, because she's a victim too. Besides, she meant well.
The judge sympathized enough to give her a slap on the wrist. Her husband -- a grey-haired, grandfatherly, illiterate man of 52, who always went along with his wife -- drew the same sentence she did. His passivity, declared the judge, was no defence.
Neatly dressed, brushed, and combed, the boys came to court yesterday to watch justice be done, or not, depending on your point of view. Now 18 and 17, they will probably need therapy for the rest of their lives. "I'm much better off than before," said one. They are very quiet and very shy, but they insisted on making a statement to the media. "I accept what they did and forgive them for what they did," said the older boy. "But if they get hold of other kids I hope they don't do it again." They said they felt compelled to speak out on behalf of other children who are abused.
And so you have it. Nine months (three, actually) is what you get these days for inflicting 13 years of something very close to torture. Nine months, for shattering the souls of two extremely vulnerable kids. With time and a great deal of help, they may find the makings of a life. But nobody can give them back their childhood.
Suit filed against sex offender, children's aid
Updated Mon. Jul. 12 2004 11:18 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been filed against a now-deceased Ontario repeat sex offender, and the Peel Children's Aid Society.
The suit was filed by a father who alleges his son was sexually abused by Douglas Moore while under the care of the Peel Children's Aid Society, in Brampton, just north of Toronto. He is suing the society and the foster parents for $8 million.
Moore, 36, was a convicted pedophile and is suspected in the murders of three young men. He killed himself in a Milton, Ont., jail on April 2, 2004.
The father alleges the society and the foster parents knew, or should have known, that Moore was a high-risk sexual offender who should not have been allowed near children.
The boy became a ward of the society at age 12 and lived with foster parents between November 2001 and August 2003, before being returned to his father. The suit alleges that Moore was a friend of the foster parents and had regular contact with the boy when he was in their care.
During the two years in foster care, the boy "was repeatedly exposed to and sexually assaulted and physically abused by Douglas Moore," the lawsuit alleges.
It goes on to allege that when Moore was visiting the family, he would play with the children "and lure them to various areas of the property where he would forcibly confine and sexually assault the foster children, including the plaintiff."
While Moore was never actually put in charge of any kids from the Children's Aid Society, the suit claims he went out of his way to befriend at least three separate sets of foster parents for the sole purpose of molesting the children, CFTO's John Lancaster reported.
Paul Miller, a lawyer representing the family, says the boy's life has been completely ruined.
None of the allegations have been proven in court. The father's name is being withheld to protect the identity of his son.
The Peel Children's Aid Society says it hasn't been served with the suit and can't comment.
Moore had a lengthy record of sexual offences dating back two decades. He was arrested again in March 2004, in connection with alleged sexual assaults of three children who were wards of the Peel Children's Aid Society. Before police could lay charges, Moore hung himself.
Moore was also the prime suspect in the deaths of Robert Grewal and Giuseppe (Joseph) Manchisi. As well, he was suspected in the death of Rene Charlebois, 15.
Grewal of Mississauga and Manchisi of Milton, Ont., were last seen on Nov. 12, 2003. Grewal's remains were discovered on Nov. 15, 2003, near Montreal. Remains believed to be those of Manchisi were discovered in April, about 25 kilometres from where Grewal's remains were found.
The remains of Charlebois, 15, were found in a landfill north of Toronto in March. He had been missing since December 2003.
Police suspect that all three were murdered by Moore in Mississauga shortly after their disappearances.
Moore's common-law wife, 30-year-old Sandra Martin, has been charged with two counts of being an accessory after the fact in the deaths of Manchisi and Grewal. A 14-year-old boy faces the same charges.
Mom, 81, jailed for abuse
Woman gets 4 years for torturing foster kids
By JANE SIMS, SUN MEDIA
TORONTO SUN
LONDON, Ont. -- An 81-year-old woman became the oldest female prisoner in Canada yesterday when she was sentenced to four years for torturing and abusing children who were in her care.
Edith Sanders, who ran a boarding house for kids from the 1950s to the 1980s, is now the oldest woman in federal custody, Corrections Canada officials say.
"The impact upon the lives of the three complainants is irreparable," Superior Court Justice Edward Browne said in passing sentence.
"There was a terrible breach of trust. The evidence I heard was more appalling than any I have experienced in excess of my 40 years since my call to the bar, with more than 20 of those years being judicial years."
Victims testified that while under Sanders' care, they were beaten with hockey sticks, tortured with a cattle prod and forced to eat animal feces.
PRACTISED 'DOMINATION'
Browne said while he took Sanders' age and health into consideration, she practised "domination through fear and control."
Sanders, convicted in October of seven counts of assault -- four of common assault and three of assault causing bodily harm -- stared in open-mouthed shock and lowered her head into her hands when Browne announced the sentence.
She walked slowly and stumbled near the judge's dais, grabbing it for support before she was led to the cells. She had not spent any time in custody during the trial.
Sanders' 58-year-old daughter, Yvonne Overton, who was one of the complainants, said the sentence was "a long time coming" and the scars will always remain.
The other victims were an adopted daughter, Kimberly Campbell, now 45, and Beatrice Feick, now 64, who was kept as a house slave for more than 30 years from the 1950s to 1985.
"She would beat me and I got all bloody," Feick told the court.
She described how she was forced into a tub of boiling water and held down with a plunger by Sanders, then placed into ice-cold water outdoors. Later, Sanders broke Feick's blisters with her fingernails.
"I'm glad," Feick said outside the courtroom. "I'm glad to see her put away ... Now she can't harm anybody else."
Copyright © 2003, Canoe, a division of Netgraphe Inc.
Woman beat and shocked kids, says witness
By FEDERICO BARAHONA, Free Press Reporter
London Free Press
An elderly woman facing charges of child abuse repeatedly beat and used electrical shocks on children for not doing their chores, one of her accusers testified yesterday.
Londoner Edith Sanders, 80, faces 14 charges related to alleged beatings and torture of children dating back to 1951.
Yesterday, a 58-year-old witness who lived with Sanders until she was 17 described a beating she saw in which a young teen received about 100 whacks with an altered hockey stick.
"I walked into the bedroom and her bum was bleeding," said the witness, who referred to the beatings as "getting the belt."
"Her back looked like first-degree burns it was so blistered."
She said Sanders would also use electrical shocks, using an unspecified method, on the same teen if she fell asleep before doing her chores.
Sanders has no lawyer and is defending herself. Yesterday, she looked frail and had trouble getting up when Superior Court Justice Edward Browne left the courtroom.
At one point, a court technician was asked to turn up the volume of a speaker on Sanders's counsel desk after she complained she was having difficulty hearing testimony.
"Your obligation is to signal that you didn't hear right away," said Justice Browne, who also urged Sanders to take notes while others testified so she could cross-examine them.
Later, Sanders's voice was shaky, as she tried to cross-examine a witness. She then started to cry when she described how much she loved a witness who testified Wednesday but was cross-examined again yesterday.
Minutes earlier, a friend who was supposed to be taking notes to help Sanders fell asleep during the proceedings.
"Please wake up," Sanders pleaded as she struggled to poke her friend awake.
The trial is slated to last as long as three weeks.
The witness told court as many as 10 kids, including children from Children's Aid and foster kids, lived in the house under Sanders's care during the 1960s.
The witness, who lived with Sanders in a Hill Street house until 1962, said the children feared Sanders because of the random beatings she would deliver.
"It all depends on the mood she was in," said the London woman. "When she does it, she doesn't stop till she's worn down."
She said the house's back bedroom was known to the children as the "whacking room."
Sanders, who was charged in 1998 -- unlike the U.S., Canada has no statute of limitations -- is also accused by women ages 44 and 58.
As a previous witness testified, the woman referred to incidents when Sanders used a belt to beat the children.
The woman said many of the children in Sanders's care had run away.
The trial continues today.
Copyright © 2002, The London Free Press.
Mar. 8, 2003. 01:00 AMAbused siblings sue own mother $1.9M award after `horrifying' abuse Children's Aid regrets not acting HAROLD LEVYSTAFF REPORTER
A Superior Court judge has ordered a mother to pay two of her four children $975,000 each for abusive conduct that "robbed them of their childhood," and was "among the worse kinds of betrayal possible." And the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto has acknowledged that it should have acted sooner to protect the children from the mother. Andrew Cho, now 33, and his sister Cecilia, now 31, claimed in the lawsuit that their mother Young Ja Cho had subjected them to horrific emotional and physical abuse, from the time the children, then 6 and 4, were brought to Canada from Korea in 1975, through to the time they left her home in 1983 and 1984 respectively. Madam Justice Anne Molloy said in a 23-page decision released Feb. 27, that she accepted their evidence as true and accurate, even though, "it is a shocking and disturbing story, one that I almost wish I could say was untrue." That story involved years of daily beatings faced by both children — and much more serious abuse. "On a number of occasions, she shoved food down his throat with her hands or pushed a J-Cloth down his throat until he gagged," Molloy said of Andrew. "She would make him run up the basement stairs and then push him down the stairs and make him run up again. This would be repeated over and over." Some of his worst memories related to incidents in the bathroom. She would hold his head under water repeatedly until he passed out. "Deliberate twisting and bending back of her fingers was a common occurrence," Molloy said of Cecilia. "After she reached puberty, her mother would often punch her in the area of her developing breasts. On occasion she would pinch or twist `her vaginal area...'" "She testified that when she was a very small child her mother would hold her upside down by the feet and dunk her head in a bucket of water while she struggled for air." Molloy noted that the (Catholic) Children's Aid Society first became involved with the family in 1977 when Cecilia's kindergarten teacher observed her legs were black and blue from the knees to the ankles. Cecilia admitted her mother had hit her. The CAS did not remove the children from the home even though Mrs. Cho admitted beating them with a coat hanger, and "immediately after" the Chos transferred the children to another school. They Page 1 of 2TheStar.com - Abused siblings sue own mother3/8/2003http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_...
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Legal Notice:- Copyright 1996-2003. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Distribution, transmission or republication of any material from www.thestar.com is strictly prohibited without the prior written permission of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. For information please contact us using our webmaster form.were left with their parents in spite of further reports in subsequent schools "from time to time" in which both Andrew and Cecilia reported incidents of being scalded and/or beaten. Jim Ziliotto, director of service for the Catholic Children's Aid Society of Toronto (CCAS) confirmed yesterday that this was a CCAS case. "We were involved over a long period of time and attempts were made to work with the family," Ziliotto told the Star. "We have not had a chance to review the case fully, but clearly in hindsight we probably should have acted sooner to remove the children." Although Cho's two youngest children testified on her behalf, Molloy said, "I discount their evidence ... I accept that they cannot comprehend that the mother they love could have committed these atrocities." Molloy awarded each sibling $100,000 general and aggravated damages for "breach of a fiduciary duty," and $850,000 to compensate for loss of income, "to reflect their loss of earnings, both past and future as a result of their mother's wrongdoing." She also ordered Cho to pay Andrew and Cecilia $25,000 each as punitive damages "to mark the court's strongest condemnation of the defendant," noting that, "Mrs. Cho has never faced criminal charges or any other punishment." Haines said although his clients are pleased with the outcome, "they are very devastated children and they are going to have life-long consequences that they have to deal with." Ian Mang, Cho's lawyer, said he will file notice of appeal.
October 11, 1998
Rage follows lad to his grave
By MICHELE MANDEL
Toronto Sun
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them
not; for such is the kingdom of God ... Mark 10:14.
It was the signs of his suffering that made what followed inevitable. How could you gaze for even a moment inside little Randal Dooley's casket and not rage at the evil he had suffered? For there he lay before yesterday's funeral, that seven-year-old baby so achingly still on the white satin, his tiny hands placed around a spray of white carnations, his dark tuxedo so loose on his frail bones, and despite whatever makeup they applied, his bruises still so evident over his closed eyes.
And as mourners stopped short and the sobs began at the sight of this helpless, beaten child finally at peace beside a stuffed teddy bear and a little Tigger, grief turned to anger.
Where was his father when this poor child was being beaten? Where, for God's sake, was his big, strong dad?
His wife, Marcia Dooley, the boy's stepmother, is charged with second-degree murder. When asked about further charges, Toronto Police say only their investigation is continuing.
Wherever Edward Dooley had been during his son's short, tragic life, he was there to bid him farewell in death. He arrived at St. Margaret In The Pines Anglican Church, leaning heavily on the arms of two men. He wore sunglasses as dark as his black suit, and seemed oblivious to the angry stares and the murmurs that followed him down the aisle as he was led to his seat in the front wooden pew. Earlier this week, he was rushed to hospital after, friends say, he took an overdose of pills. Now he was out, if only for the day, to attend his son's funeral, his bowed head swaying oddly from side to side.
He hardly looked up when his cousin, Violet McFarlane, told the hundreds who filled the pews and stood in the aisles and overflowed to the parking lot outside, that "we have failed" little Randal.
"The next time, we must have our eyes open for these little ones," she told them. "They have no protection, but us to take care of them."
It was only when mourners began wailing in despair at a hymn that spoke of "My father's arms around me. My child, we are going home," that Dooley buried his head.
Where were those father's arms? For weeks, that question has been simmering as this city has mourned this little boy.
His tall, strong father lived in the same home as his battered son. He had sent for Randal and his brother from Jamaica, telling their mom, Racquel Burth, that he could give them a better life here with his new wife.
Just seven months later, Randal lies in a donated casket, and the father entrusted with his care never once dares to glance across the aisle at the boy's weeping mother.
Randal had always dreamed of his mom and dad reuniting, his cousin said in his eulogy. That little child even promised his mom that he would send for her one day. And so he had, but only to lay him to rest.
"Every form of abuse must come to an end," Rev. L.D. Walters exhorted the mourners who replied with applause and a resounding, "Yes."
So when the crowd emerged from the emotional service and spotted the boy's father, their questions finally turned to rage. "That s.o.b.," screamed one woman with tears streaming down her cheeks. "That boy was just a baby."
In the ensuing melee, there were rumours of a gunshot and chilling hopes that some had "gotten some licks in." Northel Small watched the mob of anger pounding on the father's car as it tried to leave the funeral. "This is not the right way," she said sadly. "But there's so much anger in people."
At Pine Hills Cemetery, Randal's father did not appear for the burial. His mother collapsed at the gravesite and had to be whisked away. And so hundreds of strangers -- most from the Jamaican-Canadian community-- helped bury that little boy yesterday. He'd been so alone in life, it seems. In death, they would not abandon him.
They lingered long by his side as the fall sun grew colder, repeating those endless questions that have yet to be answered. Which must be answered.
Of a father who failed to protect his child. Of a community and a system that let him down. The Children's Aid Society had been alerted by Randal's school last year. If there was not enough evidence to lay charges, then why, at least, didn't the CAS check back on Randal?
"This should never have happened," Pauline Spence said furiously, echoing so many others. "How did he fall through the cracks? This child should be out playing with his buddies and instead he's dead."
Instead, he's buried in a donated plot, with a few flowers and a little box of Smarties strewn on the fresh dirt.
And a father still too cowardly to be seen. In death, it seems, as in life.
Michele can be reached by e-mail at mmandel@sunpub.com
Toronto children's aid workers disciplined over porn e-mails
By VICTOR MALAREK
Wednesday, June 19, 2002, Page A9
Six workers have been fired and 26 suspended without pay from Toronto's Catholic Children's Aid Society for sending e-mails to each other containing hard-core pornography and offensive jokes. Another six received letters of warning.
Of the 38 workers disciplined, four are male and 34 female, and of the six who were fired, four are women.
Mary McConville, executive director of the CCAS, said yesterday that the scandal has rocked the agency to its core. "It's very distressing for a child welfare agency to be involved in activity of this nature."
Ms. McConville said no child pornography was discovered in the investigation and the agency's protection services have not been compromised. "However, the misconduct that did occur is completely unacceptable in a child-welfare agency and a Catholic organization."
One of the employees who was fired was a child-protection worker but was in an administrative capacity. Another was a case aid worker who dealt with people on the phone. Of those suspended for three to five days, six got the maximum number because they are front-line supervisors. Another six are child-protection workers, one a case aid worker and 13 administrative support workers.
The CCAS has a total staff of 500.
The e-mail porn was discovered in early April during an investigation of a sexual-harassment complaint at one of the agency's branch offices. Action to shut it down was swift and firm.
Ms. McConville said the worst material circulating through the agency computer network was "sexually explicit pornography which someone downloaded externally from a sex porn site. The mildest end of the spectrum, if I can put it that way, was off-colour jokes and cartoons.
"Obviously the discipline meted out was a reflection of that misconduct."
Ms. McConville said that when she was first informed of the e-mail porn activity she was "quite stunned and extremely disappointed." She said the entire episode has had a devastating effect on morale.
"The staff are appalled and completely puzzled that people would do this in a professional workplace, especially in an organization like this one," she said.
Send abusive mother to jail
Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, October 25, 2002
An adoptive mother who abused a toddler, causing six bone fractures and injuries, should go to jail, a court heard yesterday.
Calling the abuse Louise Lavergne, 43, inflicted upon the child inexcusable, assistant Crown attorney Brian Holowka told Justice Lynn Ratushny society demanded denunciation of the crime.
"The community entrusted the care of that child to Ms. Lavergne, and that trust was violated," he said. "This is not an incident that happened once. ... These injuries happened on at least three occasions."
Earlier this week, Ms. Lavergne pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing bodily harm, which covered her actions between March 2000, when she adopted the 10-month-old girl, and September 2000, when doctors detected the abuse on a trip to CHEO.
She initially denied the allegations and claimed the injuries were the result of accidents.
She later admitted to police she caused the injuries in various ways, including pushing the child into the table while the child was in a high chair, banging the child's elbows into the floor and swinging the child into the side of a bathtub.
In his submissions to the judge, Mr. Holowka said an 18-month jail sentence, followed by two years' probation, would adequately reflect society's abhorrence of the crime.
Earlier, Ms. Lavergne's lawyer, Joe Burke, introduced evidence showing Ms. Lavergne will never have custody of children again, has true remorse for the crime, is taking counselling and has changed.
He suggested a conditional sentence, which would spare his client time in jail, was an appropriate sentence in the circumstances.
Judge Ratushny will sentence Ms. Lavergne in two weeks.
© Copyright 2002 The Ottawa Citizen
Louise Lavergne's case reminds me of the social worker who adopted a child and murdered her by wrapping her in duct tape.
There are so many cases, I cannot remember that one but it does not surprise me in the least.
Here is another case from the States that is like the Baldwin, Blackstock, and Sanders case.
Wanted couple arrested in Utah
Saturday, February 5, 2005
A wanted Citrus County couple is now behind bars in Utah.
San Juan County authorities arrested John and Linda Dollar in Monticello, Utah, Friday night.
A San Juan County Sheriff's Office lieutenant said they located the couple through their cell phone records.
"They didn't act at all surprised that they were under arrest," Lt. Alan Freestone of the San Juan Sheriff's Office said. "We approached the vehicle from both sides, asked for the names of identification for each person and they identified themselves."
The couple is accused of viciously abusing five of their seven adopted children.
The charges include using electric shock, yanking the kids' toenails off with pliers and starving them.
Investigators said their 14-year-old son weighed 38 pounds.
All seven children are now in DCF custody.
Prior to their arrest on Friday, Polk County authorities located the couple's motor home in an RV park.
A warrant was issued for their arrest when they failed to show up for court on Monday.
There is no word about when the Dollars will be extradited to the Bay area.
Wow its not simple is it.
This is what I have been on about, The Bill Ont. wants to put in effect has FAILED, more children died in care, more failed adoptions, it was not in the best interest of anyone, and NOT the child, SWEEPING reform in the US. We can learn by there mistakes. Look how much this has cost, and it was wasted, it will now cost a great deal more to try and do the right thing.
I hope for the children and familys the Minister understands and can learn before its to late, by what has happened in the US.
State taking baby steps along child welfare path
Related articles
• Reform efforts in other states
Related links
• Indiana Family and Social Services Administration
• Indiana Department of Child Services
• Prevent Child Abuse Indiana
• Prevent Child Abuse Indiana
• National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
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By Tim Evans
tim.evans@indystar.com
Reform has come slowly in the past year as Indiana worked to rebuild its troubled child welfare system.
How agency is doing
Where the Indiana Department of Child Services stands with several of its goals:
Hiring
• Goal: Add 400 new caseworkers to help reduce unmanageable caseloads.
• Plan: Hire 200 new caseworkers by July 1 and 200 more by July 1, 2007.
• Progress: Hired 201 new workers -- 122 to fill new positions and 79 for vacancies; 65 of those hired to fill new positions have been trained and are in the field. The agency is on track to get all 400 new positions filled by the deadline. The agency receives about six applications for every available position.
Caseloads
• Goal: Cut caseloads to 12 investigations, or 17 children receiving services, by July 1, 2008.
• Plan: Hire 400 caseworkers; change philosophy to provide more front-end services that keep children out of the system.
• Progress: Filled 122 new caseworker positions. Small decreases in caseloads have been noted in some regions but not statewide. Agency is developing a new strategy with more focus on prevention and family preservation programs.
Training
• Goal: Improve training of caseworkers.
• Plan: Expand initial training program to 12 weeks and provide more ongoing training.
• Progress: New hires now undergo 12 weeks of training, up from about three weeks. Work is under way to develop more ongoing training opportunities on topics such as methamphetamine, and the agency is considering establishing a Caseworker Training Institute where staff members can learn about new ideas and approaches, then take them back to their co-workers in the field.
Education
• Goal: Upgrade education of caseworkers.
• Plan: Require new caseworkers to have a college degree in the social work field, rather than a high school diploma and experience in a social services agency.
• Progress: A new education requirement is in place. The agency is working with state universities to develop agency-specific training programs and a pilot program in which social work students, who commit to working for the agency, receive tuition assistance and will be ready to step into jobs when they graduate.
Technology
• Goal: Upgrade technology and make more available to workers.
• Plan: Improve speed and connectivity issues with existing equipment and purchase new equipment.
• Progress: All caseworkers have cell phones; infrastructure improvements are about to begin to increase speed of access to existing computer systems; about 1,500 "tablet" PCs are being ordered to help caseworkers document work in the field and transfer information to the agency's main computer system, avoiding the redundancy of taking notes and re-entering the information into a computer; and digital cameras are being provided to many workers.
Money
• Goal: Secure additional funding and assistance.
• Plan: Aggressively seek out new federal and grant funds and outside expertise.
• Progress: The agency recovered $31 million in federal money that was due the state but had gone unclaimed; raised federal funding for children in foster care from 22 percent to 48 percent (near the national average of 50 percent); and received assistance from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Child Welfare League of America and other national advocacy groups.
Prevention
• Goal: Expand focus on prevention.
• Plan: Put more emphasis on heading off family problems before they become more complicated and costly to deal with.
• Progress: It launched pilot "family-partnership" programs that will allow workers in two regions more policy and funding flexibility to help families with issues such as child care, substance abuse and job skills; reduced reliance on foster and institutional care when it does not put a child in danger; and encouraged caseworkers to look first for ways to keep children with families or, when safety is an issue, with a relative so they can maintain important family contacts.
Here's how to report child abuse
Indiana law requires anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect to report it to authorities. The 24-hour statewide hotline is (800) 800-5556.
But changes -- required after Gov. Mitch Daniels and the legislature in 2005 broke off the child protection agency from the Family and Social Services Administration -- are beginning to show.
More than 120 new caseworkers have been hired since July 1, and 65 have completed training. Now, they are heading into the field as the Department of Child Services begins to roll out a new family-centered approach to addressing more than 60,000 abuse and neglect reports investigated each year.
The first year has been busy, said Child Services Director James W. Payne. Much of the work involved building a solid foundation to support other changes over the next several years.
"They have established a vision, communicated that to the employees and the public, and appear determined to make changes," said Andrea Marshall, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Indiana, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Child Services officials have worked with child welfare experts from across the country to adopt a philosophy that will place more emphasis on prevention and helping families overcome problems. Community advisory councils are meeting with a focus on better serving children and families in their communities.
Indiana has finally been brought into compliance with the federal Child Protection and Treatment Act. More than $31 million in federal funding the state was due, but had not pursued, has been received.
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform in Alexandria, Va., said he hopes Indiana officials make meaningful changes for the sake of the state's children. But the frequent critic of Indiana's child welfare system and some reform advocates like him remain skeptical.
Wexler said what he has seen so far -- including hiring new staff and expanding training requirements -- are improvements. But, he said, "that's really more of a testament to how bad things were," rather than a sign of new, innovative thinking.
Just two weeks after Daniels created the Department of Child Services with an executive order, a Marion County caseworker was convicted of obstruction of justice for her role in a botched adoption case in which a boy died. The trial revealed an agency marred by poorly trained and overwhelmed caseworkers, poor supervision, sloppy record-keeping and pressure to take shortcuts.
Problems ran far deeper than anyone knew or imagined, Payne said. He expects the impact of reforms to become apparent in the next two to three years.
The road to reform has required Payne and others to study the agency's problems, look at how other states are fixing their systems and begin implementing reforms to turn around a bureaucracy with about 2,000 employees statewide.
"I want things to happen more quickly, believe me, but I have been convinced that this is a huge undertaking, and we have to address it in a thoughtful and logical way," Payne said.
The reform project is progressing along two different tracks. Work to fix problems within the department's existing framework, such as poor training and technology issues, is under way. At the same time, officials are trying to sell the staff on the new approach to child protection.
Plans for a more family-friendly agency rely on an emphasis on what Payne has dubbed "the four P's": prevention, preservation, placement and permanency. The concept counts on more community involvement -- from families to faith groups to nonprofit organizations -- and has been a key to child welfare reforms in many other states.
"We have got to do more at the front end to help families before they get in trouble, and we can't do it all alone," Payne said.
Pilot programs utilizing the new prevention-preservation approach were rolled out in December in two of the state's 18 regions, while workers in the rest of the state are being directed to embrace the new philosophy and look for more opportunities to work with families.
Ultimately, Payne said, the success of reforms will depend on getting caseloads down from as high as 50 or more to manageable levels. Even the grandest, most forward-thinking plans will fail, he said, if caseworkers don't have enough time to help families and children address substance abuse, job training, child care and other issues that can trigger abuse and neglect.
Adding staff is a big step toward reducing caseloads, and the agency has already hired 201 caseworkers -- 122 of the 200 new positions the legislature funded for this year and 79 others to fill vacancies. The new caseworkers all have college degrees in social work fields, an improvement from the past when only a high school diploma and a few years of work experience in a social services agency were required.
About 900 caseworkers now are in the field, and 278 others will be hired by July 1, 2007. All the new workers will receive 12 weeks of training, rather than the previous three weeks, and cannot go into the field alone until they have finished the training. That is another change from the past, when new workers often were sent out to deal with troubled families after as little as three days of training.
The goal is for caseworkers to have no more than 12 investigations, or 17 ongoing service cases. Those numbers are recognized as best-case practices by the Child Welfare League of America and are lower than in many other states that have made significant reform strides. The new caseworkers have started to help cut caseloads in some areas, but many workers still have 30 cases or more to handle.
Payne said the agency also must find ways to reduce the number of children in the system -- currently about 10,000 -- by better evaluation and finding more support services for families. The agency also must speed cases through the system, so children don't languish in foster care or institutions.
"Change is coming," said Tracey Feild, with the Casey Strategic Consulting Group, a division of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
"It took a lot longer than a year for Indiana to get into this situation, and it will take a lot more than a year to fix. But I have seen a lot of energy and motivation to make real, meaningful improvements. Things are moving in the right direction."
But the push to change hasn't made it into the field in places such as Union County, according to Diane Elliott, Richmond.
Elliott, a grandmother, claims caseworkers refused to offer any joint counseling or help reuniting her daughter with her children, who were removed after a molesting allegation that a police investigation found lacked credible evidence. She also claims calls to the state headquarters failed to bring assistance.
"They talk about wanting to help families," Elliott said, "but they aren't giving us any."
I posted above, I will not post anonymous, michele
please read the national coalition for child protection reform. ask are MPs to read it, and take a hard look at the bill they will be voting on, it is the Bill the Americans in almost every state are now paying for in spades with public funds, This Bill is the one that failed in the US. Why on earth would we not want to learn for that tragic outcome, it did not work there, it will not work here.
The people that are reforming the act are child maltreatment experts.
Less children in care, not the if in doubt grab em all, mentality of the agencies now.
We also cannot afford to keep amending the ACT, the children cannot afford it.
Child Advocates Wary of Overreaction
Staff and agencies
28 January, 2006
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer 17 minutes ago
NEW YORK - There is no argument that Nixzmary Brown‘s death was horrific; the 7-year-old Brooklyn girl was allegedly tortured and beaten by her stepfather. There is, however, concern and contention over the next phase for New York City‘s child protection agency and the families it monitors.
Often, some experts argue, the result is a harmful overreaction to public pressure. Too many children have been wrested from poor but well-meaning parents and placed in troubled foster-care systems where the long-term outlook for children is bleak, they contend. Florida, Illinois, Washington and Connecticut are among the states which some advocacy groups say have experienced foster-care panic in the past 15 years.
"Despite all the good work, they‘ve still got a panic on their hands now," said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. "They‘ve got to do more to stop it, for the sake of children‘s lives."
"It‘s legitimate for the advocates to be concerned — they‘re on the front line, they know the history," said ACS deputy commissioner Jennifer Jones Austin.
"People who suspect abuse have got to let the authorities know," Austin said. "The number of reports are up, removals are slightly up, but we‘re not seeing a panic."
"For them to begin to see ACS as a more positive presence in the communities — that‘s huge progress," Arsham said. "We sit now right on the cusp of losing that if we‘re not careful."
Despite measured statements from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials, Rittenhour believes most front-line child-protection workers have been affected by intense news coverage of Nixzmary‘s death and are so wary of being blamed for a similar tragedy that they unnecessarily recommend removal of children.
Austin insisted that New York would not revert to that policy — but did want to be vigilant in identifying endangered children whose plights might have been overlooked.
Illinois, like New York, is credited by advocacy groups with having learned lessons from past overreaction. That state experienced what advocates describe as an intense foster-care panic after the 1993 death of 3-year-old Joseph Wallace, who was hanged by his unstable mother after being returned to her Chiacgo home despite experts‘ misgivings.
Ben Wolf, a Chicago-based American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said the ensuing outcry led to a tripling of foster-care placements — to more than 50,000 in 1996 — before a new child welfare director, Jess McDonald, calmed the panic and changed policies. By now, Wolf said, the number of Illinois children in foster care is down to 17,000, yet with a better safety record than at the peak of the panic.
"Removing kids from their families, especially to the care of strangers, is always psychologically devastating and entails huge risks," Wolf said.
In Florida, by contrast, the number of children in foster care has remained high since placements more than doubled after the 1998 beating death of 6-year-old Kayla McKean by her father.
"Every time there‘s a horrific child death, the reaction is for legislators to convene and expand the net, which results in more children in foster care," said lawyer Howard Talenfeld of the advocacy group Florida‘s Children First. "When you have twice as many children and don‘t double the resources, you weaken your foster system."
___
On the Net:
NYC child welfare agency: http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/
Child protection reform coalition: http://www.nccpr.org/
do we need Change, please lets all agree to that.
Baby abuse secret
Tanya Giles
30jan06
A REPORT by the State Ombudsman into the case of a five-month-old boy left in the care of a sadistic foster mother is being kept secret by the Bracks Government.
Community Services Minister Sherryl Garbutt, who announced her retirement from politics last week, has refused to release the damning report.
The Herald Sun revealed last year a pediatrician from the Royal Children's Hospital recommended baby "Ben" should not be returned to his foster carer after being treated for broken bones, cuts, burns and bruises in November 2003.
But it was only after the foster mother allegedly gouged out the baby's teeth with a knife a month later that the boy was removed from her care.
Ms Garbutt refused to comment last week when asked if the report would be tabled in Parliament before she retired at the November election.
"Today is not a day for that sort of detail," she said. "I will be hard at work on all those issues and completing the reform agenda I have set in place."
Police and the Ombudsman are investigating the abuse of Ben, who was returned to the care of his natural parents. Opposition health spokeswoman Helen Shardey said yesterday she understood the Ombudsman's report had been with Ms Garbutt for at least two months.
"The community has a right to know what happened to this little boy and what steps have been taken to ensure that this never happens again," Ms Shardey said.
Ms Garbutt said last year the Department of Human Services was implementing new measures to prevent other children in government care from being harmed.
Child protection workers will be asked to take the most conservative and cautious approach if they are confronted with conflicting medical advice on a child's injuries.
Better communication would also be set up between the RCH and child protection workers.
Ombudsman report will ‘hold politicians feet to the fire’ predicts lawyer
Thursday, May 12, 2005 - John Driscoll
Lawyer Douglas Elliott says he has no doubts about what Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin will find out in his current investigation into whether or not parents have had to give up custody of their children to get access to residential services.
“We already know parents of children with severe disabilities have been asked to give up custody of their children,” says Elliott. “I hear from people every day who have been asked to give up custody.”
Elliott represents Anne Larcade, mother of a child with severe disabilities, who is the lead plaintiff for a group of families trying to launch a class action lawsuit against the government.
“I’m looking forward to the Ombudsman’s report,” he says.
The report will be presented in the Ontario legislature and “hold politicians’ feet to the fire,” Elliott says. The government has been “both stupid and cruel” in their treatment of vulnerable and stressed parents,” he says.
Elliott says he is hoping the government will quickly try to resolve the situation and sees a positive sign in a statement from Dr. Marie Bountrogianni, Minister of Children and Youth Services that mistakes have been made.
Larcade is the lead plaintiff for about 140 families attempting to launch the lawsuit and a decision on their appeal in Divisional Court that will decide whether they can sue for damages.
If they win the appeal, it does not mean they have proved their lawsuit but that they can go ahead with the case in Superior Court.
The plaintiffs allege the government stopped offering parents special needs agreements in the late 1990s in violation of provincial law, forcing parents to give up custody of their children to the Children’s Aid Society to obtain residential treatment.
“This special needs program was cancelled by a Minister’s directive and now the government says it can’t find the directive,” Elliott says. “The government couldn’t be bothered to change the law.”
The lawsuit calls for $500 million in compensation but if the parents were successful it would result in a series of individual hearings since each person’s circumstances are different, Elliott explains.
LETS ASK FOR HIS OVER SIGHT.
Children and familys. A government that allowed this,!!! and agency that tried to hide it??? and what caused the disorder,thats a huge issue everyone and their brother is trying to hide from the public.
why so much autisum and aspergers, and PDD, did are government fail to do the math, they may be to balme for the disorder, that they are refusing to pay to treat. and taking the children away????
In P.L.M. v. F.D. and the Children's Aid Society (1994), 27 C.P.C. (3d) 38, the O.C.G.D. considered the plaintiff's motion to require the Children's Aid Society to disclose records with respect to other foster children because it was asserted that those records may disclose evidence that the C.A.S. knew that a particular group home was not safe. The C.A.S. refused to disclose those records on the grounds that other individuals' files were confidential. The court ordered the records to be disclosed but with limitations and deletions. Also, in the same case but in a different interlocutory decision, at (1994), 22 C.C.L.T. (2d) 312, the court considered a motion by the Children's Aid Society to obtain production of psychotherapy records. The resistance came not from the plaintiff herself but from the psychiatrist in whose possession the records were held. Counsel for the physician argued that the records were confidential and production of them would interfere with the psychotherapeutic process. However, the court held that the evidence was highly relevant and, despite the valid concerns of the psychiatrist, the court ordered the records produced.
The production of confidential records in civil and criminal cases has been the subject of a great deal of legal and judicial consideration in the last several years. It would appear that the O'Connor case in the Supreme Court of Canada presently governs this issue in Ontario although this varies from province to province depending on the recent decisions with respect to the constitutionality of Bill C-46 (relating to production of records in sexual offence proceedings) which was struck down in Ontario. The constitutionality of that Bill is presently being considered by the Supreme Court of Canada.
What do they have to hide?? again and again.
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