By Craig Schneider
State child protection officials acknowledged Tuesday that they failed to properly watch over a 4-year-old Fulton County boy who died Feb. 6 of head injuries in a case that has been ruled a homicide.
The state Division of Family and Children Services had an open case on the family of Nasir Patrick, but there was confusion about which worker was to visit the home, said Acting DFCS Deputy Director Kathy Herren. Consequently no workers made a documented visit there in nearly two months before Nasir was injured on Jan. 25.
“We were remiss in visiting the child,” Herren told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.
DFCS fired three employees after the boy died. The Fulton County Medical Examiner declared the death a homicide Tuesday, finding that Nasir died of delayed complications from blunt force head trauma. The Atlanta Police Department is investigating, but no arrests have been made.
Nasir’s mother, Yakerra Patrick, declined to comment when contacted by phone by an AJC reporter.
Nasir’s aunt, Mary Sewell of Coweta County, blasted DFCS for failing in its responsibility.
“He did not have to die,” Sewell said. “I blame them for not following up.”
Nasir’s death came to light through a joint investigation by the AJC and Channel 2 Action News. It was among 35 deaths in the past ten weeks of children whose families have a DFCS history.
The Patrick family came to the attention of DFCS in 2008, with allegations of neglect and inadequate supervision in 2008 and 2009. The agency could not substantiate those complaints, and the inquiries were quickly closed, according to DFCS records obtained by the AJC through the state Open Records Law.
Then, in August, Nasir and his younger sister were removed from the home after the little girl suffered a broken leg. The mother's boyfriend told investigators the injury occurred when the girl got her leg stuck between the bars of her crib.
But the doctor who examined the girl said that story did not wash, and DFCS classified the case as an instance of abuse. The girl was placed in DFCS custody and Nasir went to live with a relative.
DFCS officials say they asked the Atlanta police several times to look deeper into this girl's injury, but the department declined.
Atlanta Police spokesman Carlos Campos told the AJC Tuesday that police thoroughly investigated the girl's injuries at the time and found no evidence to support criminal charges.
In December, DFCS returned Nasir's sister to the home after a judge issued a protective order stipulating that some adult -- the name is redacted from the case file provided to the AJC -- would have no contact with her. At that point, Herren said, the case was supposed to be transferred from one caseworker to another, but each thought the other was monitoring the family.
At some point, the relative with whom Nasir was living returned him to his mother's home, without alerting DFCS. It is not clear whether DFCS workers ever discovered that he was living there.
The agency made no visits that documented the children's well-being between Dec. 9 and Jan. 25, when Nasir was injured. Caseworkers are supposed to visit families at least once a month. The DFCS record notes that a worker made a visit on Dec. 21 to deliver Christmas presents, but did not document that the children were seen.
Nasir was admitted to Scottish Rite children’s hospital Jan. 25 and diagnosed with a skull fracture. According to the police report, his mother told hospital staff that she had left Nasir with her boyfriend while she went to work. She said the boyfriend called her at work to say Nasir had suffered a seizure and fallen to the ground, striking his head on a toy truck.
Again, doctors said the injuries were not consistent with that explanation, and the case was turned over to the Atlanta police.
Herren said DFCS has been reviewing problems with internal communication for the past year, ever since its parent agency, the Department of Human Services, was put under the direction of a new commissioner, Clyde Reese. She said the handling of the Patrick case is being scrutinized and that the lessons learned will be communicated across the agency.
That’s small comfort to advocates who have monitored the agency for years.
“It’s a tragedy whenever people responsible for keeping children safe don’t do what they’re supposed to do,” said Normer Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children.
Sewell said her nephew's death should sound alarm bells throughout DFCS.
"This should be a wake up call for all DFCS workers," she said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dfcs-acknowledges-wrongdoing-in-1357736.html
CPS corruption hurts and destroys families worldwide. Please use caution posting about CPS here or anyplace on the internet. For your protection, using your full, real name and precise location is not advised. CPS has eyes everywhere and CPS is notorious for taking what people say, twisting it, embellishing on it and then using it against them in CPS "investigations" and at court proceedings.
Showing posts with label dfcs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dfcs. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Ohio - Verbal, emotional abuse case leads to teacher discipline at Miami Trace
Blog authors note:
Why are teachers and other "authorities" given lesser legal problems than parents or family member accused of the same type of abuse allegations or even lesser allegations? Why are they allowed to treat children poorly and basically only get a slap on the wrist? Why aren't they charged with child abuse? Are their crimes any less simply because they are not a family member? Is the child any less hurt or abused?
-----
RYAN CARTER
OCM News Service
FAYETTE COUNTY — The verbal and emotional abuse of a Miami Trace Middle School special education child has resulted in the discipline of a middle school teacher, the resignation of a teacher’s aide, and a $300,000 settlement with the child’s guardians.
On April 28, one of the child’s guardians alerted Miami Trace to the verbal abuse of the girl and following an investigation by the district, an audio tape of the abuse was presented to district officials by Children’s Services.
“The audio tapes were not the idea of Children’s Services, but the tapes proved that inappropriate comments had been made over a period of four days,” said Miami Trace Superintendent Dan Roberts.
According to court records, Christie Wilt is the teacher who was disciplined by both the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Professional Conduct and Miami Trace Local Schools. Kelly Chaffin is the teacher’s aide who resigned.
Roberts characterized the comments made by the Chaffin as “emotional mistreatment.”
“After hearing the tapes, we acted immediately and gave the teacher’s aide a copy of the tape to share with her attorney,” said Roberts. “She resigned immediately.”
The student was immediately removed from the classroom and transferred to another. She is still a student at Miami Trace.
As for Wilt, there was originally uncertainty as to whether she participated in the emotional abuse.
“We immediately contacted the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Professional Conduct and submitted a full report that their office received on May 5,” said Roberts. “It took the State Department of Education five full months to render a decision.”
The decision was to suspend Wilt’s teaching license for a year, however, that punishment will not occur if Wilt can complete a number of stipulations this school year.
“We will abide by all stipulations in order for her to keep her license,” said Roberts.
The ODE found that Wilt was guilty of some emotional abuse, mainly due to the fact that she allowed her teacher’s aide to verbally abuse the student.
“We would love to let the citizens know the whole story but because the parents signed a waiver that does not allow them to talk about it, we can’t,” said Roberts.
The complaint was also taken to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and presented to the Fayette County Prosecutor’s Office. It was determined that there was no basis for criminal charges and there was no physical abuse.
Roberts added that the guardians originally requested a $1 million settlement. Recently, the $300,000 agreement was settled on, according to Roberts.
“Miami Trace does have insurance coverage for matters like this, but the taxpayers will bear some of that burden,” he said. “Our mission is always to protect and educate our children. Anytime that mission is not achieved, we are extremely disappointed. Anytime something like this happens, we have to identify that issue and correct it…that is what we did. Mistakes have been made, discipline imposed, and we move forward. We’re regretful but we’re very much committed to this not happening again.”
All Miami Trace teachers are required to undergo five hours of training related to spotting signs of child abuse, verbal or physical, and being cautious about what they say to children.
Source http://www.wnewsj.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=156&ArticleID=193910
Why are teachers and other "authorities" given lesser legal problems than parents or family member accused of the same type of abuse allegations or even lesser allegations? Why are they allowed to treat children poorly and basically only get a slap on the wrist? Why aren't they charged with child abuse? Are their crimes any less simply because they are not a family member? Is the child any less hurt or abused?
-----
RYAN CARTER
OCM News Service
FAYETTE COUNTY — The verbal and emotional abuse of a Miami Trace Middle School special education child has resulted in the discipline of a middle school teacher, the resignation of a teacher’s aide, and a $300,000 settlement with the child’s guardians.
On April 28, one of the child’s guardians alerted Miami Trace to the verbal abuse of the girl and following an investigation by the district, an audio tape of the abuse was presented to district officials by Children’s Services.
“The audio tapes were not the idea of Children’s Services, but the tapes proved that inappropriate comments had been made over a period of four days,” said Miami Trace Superintendent Dan Roberts.
According to court records, Christie Wilt is the teacher who was disciplined by both the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Professional Conduct and Miami Trace Local Schools. Kelly Chaffin is the teacher’s aide who resigned.
Roberts characterized the comments made by the Chaffin as “emotional mistreatment.”
“After hearing the tapes, we acted immediately and gave the teacher’s aide a copy of the tape to share with her attorney,” said Roberts. “She resigned immediately.”
The student was immediately removed from the classroom and transferred to another. She is still a student at Miami Trace.
As for Wilt, there was originally uncertainty as to whether she participated in the emotional abuse.
“We immediately contacted the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of Professional Conduct and submitted a full report that their office received on May 5,” said Roberts. “It took the State Department of Education five full months to render a decision.”
The decision was to suspend Wilt’s teaching license for a year, however, that punishment will not occur if Wilt can complete a number of stipulations this school year.
“We will abide by all stipulations in order for her to keep her license,” said Roberts.
The ODE found that Wilt was guilty of some emotional abuse, mainly due to the fact that she allowed her teacher’s aide to verbally abuse the student.
“We would love to let the citizens know the whole story but because the parents signed a waiver that does not allow them to talk about it, we can’t,” said Roberts.
The complaint was also taken to the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and presented to the Fayette County Prosecutor’s Office. It was determined that there was no basis for criminal charges and there was no physical abuse.
Roberts added that the guardians originally requested a $1 million settlement. Recently, the $300,000 agreement was settled on, according to Roberts.
“Miami Trace does have insurance coverage for matters like this, but the taxpayers will bear some of that burden,” he said. “Our mission is always to protect and educate our children. Anytime that mission is not achieved, we are extremely disappointed. Anytime something like this happens, we have to identify that issue and correct it…that is what we did. Mistakes have been made, discipline imposed, and we move forward. We’re regretful but we’re very much committed to this not happening again.”
All Miami Trace teachers are required to undergo five hours of training related to spotting signs of child abuse, verbal or physical, and being cautious about what they say to children.
Source http://www.wnewsj.com/main.asp?SectionID=49&SubSectionID=156&ArticleID=193910
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
52% of foster kids are prescribed psych drugs—One of them is fighting back
By CCHR Int - Original Article 06-23-2011
At just 6 years of age, still grieving over the death of the only mother he’d ever known, his foster mother, Giovan Bazan received the first of many psychiatric “diagnoses” and drugs that would plague him for the next twelve years of his life. Moved from foster home to foster home, orphanages and other modes of state care, Giovan was stigmatized with a plethora of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs until the age of 18, when he could finally make his own medical decisions and quit. Now a child advocate working part time at the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) in Georgia, Giovan is on a mission: To get a full-time job with DFCS and help enact laws to combat the wholesale labeling and drugging of foster children. In the video below, Giovan tells his story and why he decided to fight back against the abuse of kids in foster care.
Foster kids—often removed from family homes because of abuse—are further abused when they are prescribed psychotropic drugs under state care. Many of these children are on cocktails of prescribed drugs, including antipsychotics and antidepressants with documented side effects of diabetes, stroke, mania, psychosis, tumors, coma, suicide and death.
Yet, the rates with which these children are being given drugs has been increasing. The antipsychotic use rate among foster kids increased by 5.6% between 2004 and 2007 (from 11.7 percent to 12.4 percent). Another study in Pediatrics, revealed that youth in foster care covered by Medicaid insurance receive psychotropic medication at a rate more than 3 times that of Medicaid-insured youth who qualify by low family income.
Only half of state child welfare systems have a policy to review usage of these drugs, and those are weak policies at that.
The psychiatric drugging of foster kids has caused so much concern nationally that in July 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) started an investigation into the use of these drugs in foster care, as they are widely used in dangerous combinations, and for so-called “off-label” uses to treat symptoms for which they have not been medically approved. The GAO is looking into the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud arising from this and is collecting and analyzing data from Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.
At just 6 years of age, still grieving over the death of the only mother he’d ever known, his foster mother, Giovan Bazan received the first of many psychiatric “diagnoses” and drugs that would plague him for the next twelve years of his life. Moved from foster home to foster home, orphanages and other modes of state care, Giovan was stigmatized with a plethora of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs until the age of 18, when he could finally make his own medical decisions and quit. Now a child advocate working part time at the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) in Georgia, Giovan is on a mission: To get a full-time job with DFCS and help enact laws to combat the wholesale labeling and drugging of foster children. In the video below, Giovan tells his story and why he decided to fight back against the abuse of kids in foster care.
Foster kids—often removed from family homes because of abuse—are further abused when they are prescribed psychotropic drugs under state care. Many of these children are on cocktails of prescribed drugs, including antipsychotics and antidepressants with documented side effects of diabetes, stroke, mania, psychosis, tumors, coma, suicide and death.
Yet, the rates with which these children are being given drugs has been increasing. The antipsychotic use rate among foster kids increased by 5.6% between 2004 and 2007 (from 11.7 percent to 12.4 percent). Another study in Pediatrics, revealed that youth in foster care covered by Medicaid insurance receive psychotropic medication at a rate more than 3 times that of Medicaid-insured youth who qualify by low family income.
Only half of state child welfare systems have a policy to review usage of these drugs, and those are weak policies at that.
The psychiatric drugging of foster kids has caused so much concern nationally that in July 2010, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) started an investigation into the use of these drugs in foster care, as they are widely used in dangerous combinations, and for so-called “off-label” uses to treat symptoms for which they have not been medically approved. The GAO is looking into the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud arising from this and is collecting and analyzing data from Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon and Texas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)