MS: Leaving Children to be Sexually Abused
Bob Herbert rages in today's column (behind the firewall) at the gross criminal negligence that is the Mississippi childrens services and foster care system -- and which is the focus of a lawsuit by the childrens advocate organization, Childrens Rights Inc.:
When it comes to providing desperately needed services for children who have been beaten, starved, sexually abused or otherwise mistreated, the state of Mississippi offers what is probably the worst-case scenario.
Mississippi gets more than 25,000 allegations of abuse and neglect each year, and it can't handle them...
The situation in Mississippi has become so bad, said Marcia Robinson Lowry, the executive director of Children's Rights, that the state deliberately (and unlawfully) diverts children from the child welfare system by failing to investigate reports of abuse and neglect.
"Mississippi has one of the worst child welfare systems we have ever seen," Ms. Lowry said...
How bad is Mississippi? In the papers compiled by Children's Rights for its lawsuit is a reference to testimony by a key official of the Department of Human Services, who said the state would "not necessarily investigate" whether sexual abuse had occurred if a "little girl" contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
If you don't understand that a "little girl" with a sexually transmitted disease is a raging signal to take immediate steps to protect the child and to launch a criminal investigation, then you should not be allowed anywhere near vulnerable children.
Reread those last two paragraphs. Governor Haley Barbour oversees a children services system that doesn't make it a priority to investigate whether sexual abuse has occurred when little girls contract STDs.
This is the family values of the Bible Belt religious right leadership.
As reports submitted to the court overseeing the trial detail, it's little wonder that abuse is chronic in the system. Almost no children in the system see a case worker monthly as required by law and 8.4% had NO CONTACT at all with a case worker at any time over a full year. Given that Mississippi social workers often oversee 286 children -- as opposed to a national standard of 12 to 15 -- this gross neglect is hardly surprising.
But what is evil is that these bastards leave children to rot in abusive foster care situations, but then turn around -- as Missisippi does -- and bans gay couples from adopting children out of this neglected system. The state won't put money into the system to prevent little children from being abused and even raped in foster homes, but they then have the gall to pose as "protectors" of children from the supposed homosexual menace.
The menace are the hypocrites like Haley Barbour and other religious conservative leaders who use children as campaign props, then leave them to rot.
I lived there until I was 22, and this surprises me not a bit. If anything, I imagine that most residents are angrier about this sort of thing being publicized-- after all, why bring such unpleasantness to outsiders' attention?-- than they are about the actual problems. It's truly an alternate universe down there, one in which there was no such thing as the molestation or abuse of children until liberals & the media made everyone aware that s-e-x existed.
But yeah, I completely agree about the other-worldliness of their "values" talk. The idea seems to be that if people had to hide their questionable activities better, they wouldn't take the trouble to engage in those activities in the first place.
March 13, 2006 7:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
bluebell
The menace are the hypocrites like Haley Barbour and other religious conservative leaders who use children as campaign props, then leave them to rot.
Yes, and can you believe the brain dead media who have somehow been sold the idea that this guy did such a great job rebuilding Mississippi after the hurricane that he deserves mention as a Presidential candidate? Mississippi is a model! Sometimes I think the world has been turned upside down. Vermont gets mocked while Mississippi is revered.
March 13, 2006 7:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Using children as "campaign props" is nothing compared to how children are used in the Bible--dashed against rocks, raped by invading armies with God's permission. Look at the staggering number of sexual assault charges piling up against Catholic priests. "Suffer the little children to come unto me"... so I may molest them. Yes, it's no wonder the Bible Belt sees sexual abuse as less offensive than two consenting adults of the same sex engaging in a loving relationship.
How do you combat such backward thinking, especially when the leadership of the country sees nothing wrong with giving money to faith-based organizations? I'm scratching my head. Teach your children to say "no" to religion.
March 13, 2006 8:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
It has always seem to me tha the religious rights focus on matters related to sex have to do with control and power. Children are probably in the control of the dominating male. You can see this in their views of abortion and abstinence. Pregancies aren't to be prevented because they are the punishment women should suffer for engaging in unpermitted activities.
Daniel A. Greenbaum
March 13, 2006 8:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I went through 7 years of hell with Children's Services in Los Angeles, and my children suffered terribly. Though our situation was physical, not sexual abuse, the damage was compounded by apathy and agression towards my children by the social workers. Unfortunately, we had to wait until my children were old enough to obtain their own legal representation, because Children's Services consistantly and relentlessly undermined any legal arguments by accusing my children of lying. In the end and after considerable expense I did not have, I gained full custody and the court barred the children's father from contact-physical, verbal and written.
My objective for this disclosure is not to tell another sad story, but to point out that Mississippi is not the only state that fails children at risk. I believe that the 8 social workers that worked on my case through the years, is a good sampling of the program's general philosophy. It's broken.
March 13, 2006 9:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
I went through 7 years of hell with Children's Services in Los Angeles, and my children suffered terribly. Though our situation was physical, not sexual abuse, the damage was compounded by apathy and agression towards my children by the social workers. Unfortunately, we had to wait until my children were old enough to obtain their own legal representation, because Children's Services consistantly and relentlessly undermined any legal arguments by accusing my children of lying. In the end and after considerable expense I did not have, I gained full custody and the court barred the children's father from contact-physical, verbal and written.
My objective for this disclosure is not to tell another sad story, but to point out that Mississippi is not the only state that fails children at risk. I believe that the 8 social workers that worked on my case through the years, is a good sampling of the program's general philosophy. It's broken.
March 13, 2006 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
As the director of a group home for court referred pregnant and parenting adolescents, I've seen my share of horror stories where the state won't find abuse cases, let alone provide services. After reading this article, I feel maybe we don't have it so bad after-all. But it goes to show how nationally, states and government don't provide the funding for social services. This issue is much more important than much of what our government spends its money on. To really address this probelm over time could probably be funded by less than a month of expenses in Iraq. A big piece lacking here is accountability.
March 13, 2006 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just before reading this article, I chanced to read one from the BBC about abortion which starts,
and ends:
D'ya think there could be a connection between the kinds of tax policies common in the black belt states -- sometimes known as Jim Crow taxes -- which make life very difficult for the poor and landless and much easier for the wealthy and landed, and the level of human misery that causes people to harm their own children, and the attempt to outlaw abortion?
lvtfan
http://www.wealthandwant.com ... if you'd like to see an end to poverty
March 13, 2006 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
So they intimidate and urge the women to give birth to the child, but the child is destined to live a harsh life in their broken system?
Hypocrisy. The state has no plans to care for the child either.
March 13, 2006 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're right. This is also true of the Texas DHS system. Don't forget the DHS system covers the elderly, the hungry, the disabled, etc. Texas, a bottom 10 state, fails across the board. I'm sure this is true of many states as well.
Calling your children liars is only an excuse (one of many used) not to serve them.
March 13, 2006 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans have made it clear they protect only the MOST helpless and MOST vulnerable- stem cells, blastocysts and fetuses. The Republican governor of South Dakota said as much when he approved the new bill to ensure incest rights in his state.
Ten year old girls need not apply for help.
The current issue of the New Yorker has a piece called 'Political Science' where, among other flat earth Inquisition like schemes, Bush has killed approval of a Merck vaccine to prevent PAP virus infection in women, which therefore prevents a form of papillomavirus related cancer. Seems they think pre-marital sex can lead to this infection, so it's the old story, abstinence or die.
March 13, 2006 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mississippi has the highest infant mortality rates in the Country. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Someone should ask these raving lunatics what they think is more evil. Aborting a fetus, or allowing it to be born just to die slowly and horribly from abuse and neglect.
They ought to give an answer, as that is precisely what is happening in their state. The thing that bothers me the most about the backward and ignorant sheep is that they refuse to acknowledge the evils that their demands would cause.
Until they acknowledge them, they are nothing but murder, abuse, and child rape enablers and it's time someone stood up to them and told them so.
CSPAN junkies visit http://spannerbackup.ipbhost.com
March 13, 2006 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks very much for your post -- and thanks to Bob Herbert, too. For us parents of disabled children, this is the nightmare that keeps us up at night. Worrying about what will happen to our children if we don't have the money to pay for their care, or if we die before they do.
March 13, 2006 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
This problem is not a new one, and exists all around the country. It's not just sexual abuse, acts of physical abuse, resulting at times the death of children in foster care are very common. Within the past year and a half, here in Rhode Island, two young children in the state foster care system were beaten to death. This isn't something that one can blame solely at the door of states with majority right wing control of government. While I understand that child welfare departments are overburdened, I can say from personal experience, and from the experiences I have heard from many others around the country, that too many social worker's turn a blind eye to the abuse of children that are their clients. These children have at times tried to report abuse, and when no one listens they give up. Too often, people look down upon these children, they believe that if a child is in state care, they must be delinquents or bad children. This results in children who grow up with no capacity to trust others. I believe that all of us need to demand that our respective states become better custodians of the children in their custody. That they do a better job of hiring caseworkers and investigating potential foster parents. Additionally, while I am no fan of privatization, the private foster care agencies like Family Services and Casey, provide much better outcomes for the children they place. Not advocating privatization, but the realization that like those agencies, states need more caseworker's, and the rules/laws need to be changed so as to protect the children in their care.
When I was 11 years old, myself and my two younger sisters were placed in state custody. This was because my mother became too ill to care for us. By the time I was 18 years old, I had been in 7 foster homes, 6 of which were the most awful experiences of my life, there was physical and emotional abuse of varied degrees. In one home, I tried reporting what was going on, the beatings, watching a foster brother thrown down the stairs and then punched so his head cracked the plaster wall.. she did nothing. What actually moved her into action was when the teenaged foster kids got summer jobs, and the foster mother made them pay her board on top of the money she received from the state. After that they lost their license. I ran away from the 6th foster home, and ended up in the hands of a social worker from Family Services who had just started a pilot program specifically dealing with foster homes for teenagers. He placed me in my last foster home, which was a wonderful, sane and stable experience, I credit that with saving my life.
March 14, 2006 1:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
When I was 11 years old, myself and my two younger sisters were placed in state custody.
It must have been torture to know that your younger sisters were in this horrible system.
March 14, 2006 1:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Given that Mississippi social workers often oversee 286 children -- as opposed to a national standard of 12 to 15 -- this gross neglect is hardly surprising.
So the gross neglect was predictable.
March 14, 2006 1:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
My first husband spent time in foster care in Canada and told me some pretty horrific stories. He attended a Catholic boarding school with similar reports of abusive behavior.
The state does have a responsibility to protect children, but as individual citizens we also have a responsibility to watch out for children and be advocates on their behalf. Sometimes neighbors turn a blind eye to visible signs of abuse. We seem to find it difficult to get involved if we are concerned about the treatment of kids in our neighborhoods. We can't leave the job of protecting children solely to the "authorities".
I wonder why Bush has never gotten up on a podium to ask citizens to be watchful for child abusers and to report when we are suspicious, as he has done with the issue of terrorism. Child abuse is more widespread than terrorism and threatens its most vulnerable citizens and the country as a whole. Where is the declaration of "war on child abuse"? No money in it, I guess.
March 14, 2006 7:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, it was. All three of us were separated. My middle sister ended up in a good home, but like myself, the youngest went through a series of bad homes. It defies description... that particular kind of helplessness, it eats away at you. BTW, someone referenced that most states have a ratio of 12 kids per social worker. I googled for stats for my state, and found nothing. I called DCYF, and learned that the ratio for "new case workers" (those still in training) is 10-12 kids per worker, they wouldn't tell me what the ratio is for case worker's out of training.
When my daughter was in high school, she brought a friend home to ask for my help. The girl's parents were beating her and her younger brothers. The most recent abuse had been hammering the girls toes and locking her in a closet. I spoke with her and helped her to call the department of children youth and families, in my state to report the abuse... but my heart was just sick the entire time because I knew that she could be quite possibly going from the frying pan into the fire. That might be hard for some to understand, but what ended up happening was she was placed in a truly bad foster home. She ran away, and lived on the street for three months. When we learned of this, I tried contacting the social worker, there is no serious effort made to actually locate runaways in state custody. My daughter, and myself emailed the girl's yahoo email address constantly, begging her to turn herself in to her social worker and ultimately she did. She was placed in night to night care, and medicated to the point where no one who knew her would have recognized her. She ended up petitioning the court to allow her to return home to her parents. She was a straight A student, she was in the school band, a bright and intelligent girl who ended up quitting high school, and getting a job at a donut shop. She became pregnant and lives with her boyfriend. My daughter still tries to help her by encouraging her to apply for financial aid and start taking college courses. She works so hard and deserves better, but I think she's given up having faith in herself and her ability to achieve her potential.. I think any kind of hope and faith were crushed out of her.
Situations like that go on, every day all across the country. I'm sure there has been a rise in abuses cases since Bush took office, state budgets stretched to the breaking point and social services being first on the chop.. with children in state care being among the first to experience the pain of those cuts.
March 14, 2006 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
As someone who has a great deal of experience working with DHS in Mississippi, if anything this article is underplaying the situation. One glaring example that comes to mind is a conversation I had with a regional director for MS DHS.
ME: I just had a 12 y.o. child in my office who has had sex with 5 different people in the last week. I have DNA evidence of at least the mother's boyfriend, a sister's boyfriend, and step-dad. Physical exam shows massive bruising.
MDHS Region Director: Well, that's just the way those people are.
ME: Huh? Is that because they are MR, addicts, or black?
Her: That's just the way they are.
This particularly egregarious case was eventually taken over by the DA and prosecuted in spite of DHS, but that is very rare.
Edited to mention that this took place in the last 5 years.
March 15, 2006 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink