http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/calif-boy-dies-after-signs-of-abuse-were-missed-report-says
This article details an 8 year old boy in California who had signs of abuse when he died. It was found that paramedics were in the home just prior to his death and they found broken ribs, a fractured skull and BB pellets embedded in his lungs. This story has gained a lot of traction because the family had involvement with the Department of Children and Family Services. The story reads that there were a total of 6 social workers who had been to the house over the preceding 10 years to investigate reports against this child and at least one brother. There has been outrage from the community and a county supervisor stated that there were red flags of abuse that were missed. Both parents are currently facing murder charges but have not yet entered pleas.
This is an extremely sad story that will unfortunately cast a shadow on social workers and particularly child welfare workers. There were numerous reports made and teachers were apparently aware of the child coming to school with bruises and other marks. Since the DCFS were involved, I think it's safe to say that there were some people who noticed the signs and made referrals. It's just unfortunate that there was apparently a lack of follow through. One of the biggest things that bothered me about the story is that the boy recanted his allegations a number of times. Is it because he made it up or because he was threatened and feared for his safety? Given this story, the agency clearly dropped the ball.
With that being said, I also had a problem with the light the agency was portrayed in by one particular line: "A recent internal review of the department found there haven't been any workers fired in 15 cases where children died." To most people that seems like a sickening statement because it means there's no accountability. I challenge that idea. There is zero context provided to those cases. It very we'll could be 14 cases of Sudden Unexplained Infant Death and this one case to make 15. It seems that the author wanted to go for shock value when he/she wrote the article. If so, well done, I'm sure many people got upset over this fact. If the author wanted to give an objective telling of whether or not workers are held accountable, there would be more info than just a number of deaths without a worker being fired.
I appreciate Justin's explanation and consideration of both sides of this case. One side being that child protective services really did drop the ball, versus the bias in which this article is written. I often struggle with articles like this due to the minimal explanation of the overwhelming caseloads these caseworkers deal with. The only time any one cares to review the workings of child welfare agencies is when a child tragically dies, rather than continually providing an agency as important as child protective services with the funding and proper amount of caseworkers.
ReplyDeleteI am drawn to a specific quote, "It also has a backlog of child abuse cases." Did anyone ever consider the danger of not having enough staff to deal with such an issue? It seems counties funding these agencies look the other way until something goes wrong, and unfortunately in child welfare that could be the tragic death of a child. While mistakes in child welfare can be made and allegations can be overlooked we cannot continue to ignore the complete lack of funding to child protective services and their workers.