Bill seeks to lift liability for child protective services workers
http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/051308/loc_local04.shtml
Lawmakers say it will reduce wrongful child removals.
By Jameson Cook
Macomb Daily Staff Writer
A state bill would remove civil protection for child protective services
workers who lie in their job, but it doesn't have the sup****t of the
heads of two agencies that try to protect children.
The bill, introduced by state Rep. Fulton Sheen, R-Plainwell, and
co-sponsored by local Rep. Brian Palmer, R-Romeo, is designed to help
stem the tide of children taken from their parents and removed from
their homes based on false information, according to its sup****ters.
"Although I don't think the majority (of workers) do lie or falsify
do***ents, because of the immunity, when they do it destroys families by
taking children out of their home and saying adults did something they
didn't do," Sheen said.
"Anybody can be accused of child abuse," and have their children removed
based only the word of a social services worker, Palmer said.
"There's very little due process," he said, and, "There's no reprimand
for an employee who falsifies a re****t."
The proposed law says the worker "is not immune from civil liability if
he or she files or produces a false re****t or false do***ent relating to
a Department of Human Services case or commits perjury in a proceeding
relating to a case" within his or her job scope.
But Jack Kres**** of Michigan's Children and Richard Wexler of the
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform said even though he wants
to keep more children with their parents, too, this bill is not needed
and would undermine workers.
The workers already can be sued civilly for gross negligence, he said.
They have protection for mistakes and simple negligence under "qualified
immunity" but don't have it for egregious acts, Kres**** said.
"I think the legislation is unnecessary because lying or deliberating
distorting the facts is gross negligence or public malfeasance, which
would negate qualified immunity," Kres**** said. "We can't have child
protective services workers being dragged into court if they make a
mistake. Sometimes there's a fine line between gross negligence and a
mistake.
"They have to be free of any kind of worrying or concern that actions
taken in good faith come back to haunt them. It's im****tant not to make
CPS workers fear what they are doing."
The bill, which has 26 co-sponsors, was introduced in March and referred
to the Judiciary Committee in April.
The issue of children needlessly being taken from their parents gained
attention recently when 7-year-old Leo Ratte was taken away from his
father, Christopher, after Leo was found drinking a Mike's Hard Lemonade
at a Detroit Tigers baseball game at Comerica Park.
Christopher Ratte of Ann Arbor said he didn't know the drink contained
alcohol. Even though no alcohol was found in his system, the boy spent
the night at Wayne County Child Protective Services and the next day and
night in foster care until his parents regained custody by a judge's
order two days later.
Kres**** conceded that sometimes "zealous" CPS workers take away children
from their home at times as insurance against something happening to the
child.
"It's always easier for a DHS (state Department of Human Services)
worker to put a child in foster care and let a judge decide, Kres**** said.
Wexler agreed that the law is not needed as long as there is qualified
immunity. He said CPS workers in many states are "under funded,
overworked and overwhelmed," creating "foster care panic" - children are
taken away without reason because the worker fears that if he or she
doesn't act and a child is injured or dies, the worker will lose his or
her job and blamed, Wexler said.
But that fear is unfounded, he said.
"In the more than 30 years that I've followed child welfare, I've never
seen a worker fired, demoted, suspended or even slapped on the wrist for
taking away too many children," he said.
He said national statistics show that in states where social services
workers place more children in foster care creates more danger for
children.
"The best systems are those that try to keep families together," he said.
Palmer contended passing the law also would give prosecutors more
ammunition in pursuing a charge against a lying worker.
"If you have something specific on the books, you can go a long way to
correcting the problem," Palmer said. "The courts like to have a clear
path.
It also would provide deterrence, he said.
"It sends a message that you can't destroy somebody's life and have a
loophole to get out of it," Palmer said.
Sheen also sponsored a law that requires CPS workers to identify
themselves when they visit a home.
An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and
the Child Protection "INDUSTRY"
Child Protective Services Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of CPS.
every parent should read the free handbook from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Wa****ngton. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
Perpetrators of Maltreatment
Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59
***ual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13
Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12
Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and ***ual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST
Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally
guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other
agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central
intelligence agency wiretaping programs…
THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES
BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia
http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/articles.php?filter=6
This is Child Protection?
By Gregory A. Hession, J.D.
http://www.jbs.org/node/4632
Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-callahan16oct16,0,5019944.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILURE:. A Brief Analysis of the Casey
Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler
http://www.nccpr.org/re****ts/cfpanalysis.doc
HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN
http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html
Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness
DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families
By Nev Moore Massachusetts News
http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/2000/5_May/mayds4.htm
A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster care:
30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children.
27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated
33% were receiving public assistance
37% had not finished high school
2% receive a college degree
50% were unemployed
Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children
not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems,
including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and
impaired social relation****ps. Some experts estimate that about 30% of
the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various
studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care
tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school
compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their
education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment
than the general population.
*Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Sup****t
80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system.
The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn
of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child
psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should
just be blown up.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991
Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s
foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent
housing.
This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would
have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in
the first place.
Front-page story in USA Today.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-02-foster-study_N.htm?csp=34#Close
Read the studies online.
Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Care: Findings from the
Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study,"
www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/NorthwestAlumniStudy.htm
MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects
of Foster Care,"
www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fosterlt_march07_aer.pdf
Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" re****ts:
www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren
The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system
for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than
walking wreckage...
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY
GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER
AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS....
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLI****NG CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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