Tag Archives: broken foster care system

March 31, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Mousetrap

File:London-The Mousetrap celebrating 70 years.jpg

“The Mousetrap” at St. Martin’s Theater, London, Author Ji-Elle
(CC BY-SA 4.0 International)

WARNING:  Graphic Images

Thousands have enjoyed Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap”, the longest running play in the world.  Few realize that the play was inspired by a real life tragedy [1][2].

Fictional Plot

Set in a snowbound manor house, the mystery centers on the strangling death of a woman who mistreated the foster children in her care.  The principal suspect is one of those children, now grown and motivated by revenge.

Factual Basis

Because their parents were deemed unfit, England’s Newport Juvenile Court in May 1944 placed the three O’Neill brothers on whom the play is based under the jurisdiction of the Newport County Council [3].

In July 1944 the Council assigned custody of the two older boys — 12 y.o. Dennis and 9 y.o. Terence — to Reginald Gough and his wife Esther at Bank Farm in Hope Valley, Shropshire.  The youngest boy — 7 y.o. Freddie — was placed nearby.

When a short time later Terence was asked to write a school essay about his homelife, he said his foster mother was good and kind to him.  He said she bought him new clothes and gave him “lots to eat”.

But the name Hope Valley would prove haunting.  Terence later revealed that his essay was written under duress.  He knew instinctively that he would be in “huge trouble” if he told the truth.

Fatal Abuse

On January 9, 1945 Esther Gough phoned a local doctor to say that Dennis was having a seizure.  The doctor arrived to find the boy dead, a victim of severe abuse.  An inquest revealed that he had suffered cardiac arrest, as the result of a brutal beating.  The child was, also, badly undernourished, with painful septic ulcers on his feet. Continue reading →

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December 17, 2023 · 1:00 am

Radicalization

File:US Secretary of Health and Human Services flag.svg

Flag of US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Author Dept. of Health and Human Services (PD)

A proposed regulation by the US Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) would prohibit foster families from any attempt to “undermine, suppress, or change” the gender identification of children in their care [1].

Biblical Values Mischaracterized

Couched as “protection” for children suffering from gender dysphoria, i.e. gender identification at variance with their biological sex, the proposed regulation effectively equates the expression of biblical values vis a vis sexuality with child abuse [2].

It should be emphasized that there is no evidence to suggest that foster children in Christian homes have in any way been harmed.

Foster Parents Disqualified

Apart from interfering with religious freedom, the new regulation is likely to deprive the foster care system of thousands of willing foster parents who do not believe children should be chemically or surgically mutilated before they are old enough to purchase alcohol or vote. Continue reading →

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July 24, 2022 · 1:00 am

The Turpin Children – The 9th Circle of Hell

Four years ago, the plaintiffs were among a dozen siblings removed from their home in Perris, about 70 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, where they had been tortured, starved and neglected.

Turpin Family – Image courtesy of NBC News

WARNING:  Graphic Images

Most of us remember the Turpin children because of the extreme abuse they endured.

The 13 children suffered years of torture, starvation, and neglect at the hands of their parents before being rescued in 2018 from the house of horrors in which they were raised. 

Now it appears that rescue was illusory.

Further Abuse

The 6 youngest children have filed suit against Riverside County, CA; ChildNet Youth and Family Services; and the Foster Family Network, alleging they were placed with a foster family who emotionally, physically, and sexually abused them [1A][2]. Continue reading →

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February 16, 2020 · 1:00 am

Foster Care – A Failed System

Changes in Congregate Care in 8 States (9/30/04-9/30/13), Author US Govt. Accountability Office (GAO), Source https://www.gao.gov, (PD as work product of federal govt.)

Reporting by the Washington Post confirms what the public has long known.  Our foster care system is failing, nationwide.

One major flaw involves the use of detention centers and similar facilities to house children who have committed no infraction whatsoever [1A].

Warehousing

“…in an era when a surging number of biological parents are falling into the grips of drug addiction, and child welfare systems are struggling with a shortage of foster parents…case workers and courts have been funneling children into crowded emergency shelters, hotels, out-of-state institutions and youth prisons — cold, isolating and often dangerous facilities not built to house innocent children for years [1B].”

Both literally and figuratively, children taken into foster care for their own protection are instead being warehoused with rapists and murderers.  Some are forced to sleep on cement floors with harsh fluorescent lights on during lockdowns.

Scope of the Failure

Because foster care is decentralized, accurate figures are difficult to come by.

As of 2013, approximately 56,000 of the 400,000 children in foster care across the country (14% of the foster care population) were living in what is known as “congregate” care – group homes, detention centers, residential drug treatment facilities, and the like [2].  In West Virginia, fully 71% of 6800 foster children between the ages of 12 and 17 have been relegated to such institutions [1C].

The Opioid Crisis is greatly increasing those numbers. Continue reading →

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December 10, 2017 · 1:00 am

“Why I Am Leaving” by blackbirds2015

Social worker, Grace Abbott, a tireless advocate for child welfare, Library of Congress, Div. of Prints and Photographs (Digital ID cph.3c11723) (PD-US, No Known Restrictions on Publication)

“I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land.  I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall…” (Ezek. 22: 30 NLT).

Social workers are among the most dedicated and selfless people on earth. They stand in the gap when parenting and other institutions that should serve our children fail.

The tragedy is that we have our priorities skewed, as a society.  We shower sports figures and others with countless millions, but expect those charged with protecting our children to subsist on a pittance, and carry impossible workloads.

This is a heartrending post by a dedicated social worker dealing with burn-out.  It speaks volumes about the broken foster care system.

“I love my job.  Really, I do.  I love some of the foster parents and some of the kids and some of the bio parents.  I love working with the courts and knowing that I have a good reputation with them.  I love the flexibility and the ability to work from home.  I love returning kids home or helping them gain independence.  There are some biological families that I still talk to and I love them as well.

What I don’t love: turning kids into numbers, meeting dashboards instead of needs, looking out for the best interest of DCF instead of the child.  I can’t keep up with the changing policies and new requirements; the updated trainings, changes to our computer system, and the daily threat that I could really get hurt by someone.”

TO READ MORE, go to Social Work(er)ing at: https://threecatsandababy.wordpress.com/2017/11/15/why-i-am-leaving/

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT: https://alawyersprayers.com

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