Reports of the abuse of two Wichita girls keep getting worse, as news last week revealed more sickening details. Doctors who examined the 6- and 7-year-olds found bruises across their bodies, and the girls were in a “chronic, extended state of malnutrition,” according to a court affidavit. And what the Wichita school district reported in September was that the girls foraged for food in school trash cans, looked unkempt and smelled of urine.
It was good to learn last week that the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services did respond to the school report, and ordered intervention services for the family. But it is still difficult to comprehend how the situation got so inhumane before the girls were finally rescued.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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12 Comments
Let me make something clear before I make some of you very angry: There is very little a Governor can do to prevent child abuse.Now here is what you will get mad about: Kathleen Sebelius, until the most recent tragedy, hasen’t done ANYTHING.Cool off a second, I just want to make a comparison: Response to natural disasters is primarily a state and local concern, yet the press and liberals held the President responsible for Katrina, even when the only area that didn’t seem to have its act together was Democrat dominated New Orleans and Louisiana.Remember the FALSE stories about rapes and murders in the Arena? That did NOT happen.Remember all the unused buses under water? That DID happen.Local government failed badly in Katrina, but the media also failed badly. The media did little to correct their false reporting after the facts were in.If Republicans were as cold blooded, calculating and unfair as the Democrats, Barnett would hold Sebelius responsible for the abuse of these children.I think Barnett is a fair man and he won’t do that. The fault here rests firmly on the shoulders of the parents or step parents involved. (Just like much of the blame in New Orleans was on the people involved who refused to leave or refused to help people leave.)However, Sebelius is Governor. Has she been an advocate for reducing the case load at SRS? She appointed the SRS director, didn’t she?Bush appointed the FEMA director, yet FEMA teaches local governments that it takes Several Days for FEMA to arrive at ANY disaster.Guess what? FEMA has nothing to do with SRS! No federal agency runs SRS!SRS is clearly the Governor’s responsibility.Part of the case load problem is caused by bogus, viscious and vindictive complaints that SRS workers still have to chase down. Has Sebelius ever challenged the absolutely anonymous nature of SRS “informants”??State law in Kansas protects anyone who makes an allegation of child abuse in this state.I am not sure that I want that law overturned, but it does trouble me when I think about the “constitutional right to confront accusers.”Perhaps we keep the informant confidential, but we make the criminal penalty for a completely bogus and malicious report a little stiffer, and allow for each District Attorney to revoke anonymity upon a finding by a judge that the information was malicious and false? Perhaps a test similar to slander of libel where public figures are concerned, where a finding of “actual malice” would revoke the confidentiality? Of course, how could the “victim” of that malice prove anything if he or she didnt know who made the false report?Divorces are notorious for false reports, and this stuff bogs down the SRS case load.This is a difficult issue, I am not sure how to resolve it. But if case loads are part of the problem, cutting down on vindictive complaints is one way to reduce the work load.People have been prosecuted for making deliberately false 911 calls in the past, due to the obvious fact that fire, ambulance and police resources can’t respond to real emergencies when pranks and cranks bog down the system.Has Sebelius ever been an advocate for SRS reform, reducing case loads or giving the school districts a bit more feedback in SRS cases?Has Sebelius been an advocate for increasing SRS staff or reducing SRS turnover?I speak only for myself here, but I know many teachers and my impression is that the SRS is not very good at follow up, or even letting the schools know they have addressed an issue.In fairness to the SRS, I am not sure that they can be more open, in that juvinile records and SRS records are private. Current law probably does not allow for better communication.It is a very closed system because it is supposed to be run for the benefit of the children. Where the SRS is concerned, there doesn’t seem to be a “public right to know” much of anything.Is there any doubt that the privacy concerns for juvenile and SRS issues might have gotten in the way of public safety in this case? Would it be too much to ask that SRS provide a written report BACK to the shool district after each investigation or inquiry?I dont have the answers on this one. I don’t even have all the questions.However, I am not the Governor.Sebelius is to be commended for asking the right questions NOW.However, shouldn’t someone have been asking these questions a little sooner?
How could this happen in Kansas, where our state is lead by one of our nations’s five best governors?
Very typical Paulie……….blame Seblius.
If you go back and look you will find that reform of SRS and the system for removing children from their homes have been led by Republicans. Sebelius has not wanted to bother herself with this system because it does not have the political gain for her that she so badly wants. The children do not vote so they are of little benefit for her rise to the top.
She is in charge of SRS and should be responsible for their actions. She knew before she became Governor that SRS had problems but she has done nothing to fix it. Her attention was on herself.
She was quick to jump in 2003 for a large tax increase for education to the tune of over $350 million dollars but where has she been since then? That right MIA. She has done nothing to promote or make changes in the SRS system. Social workers are underpaid and overworked but does anyone care? No! Because they do not have a large lobby group to spend money on candidates and see that they are wined and dined like the education lobby, utilities lobby, labor union lobby, aircraft lobby, county or city lobby etc. Just ask what the starting salary is for a social worker that has gotten his or her degree (yes just like teachers) and how long it takes them to pay off their school loans. Ask them what it cost for their continuing education (most teachers are paid for).
You will find they are paid very little but yet you want them to make some of the most important decisions like removing children from their homes?
Think about it for a moment. This is a case of you get what you pay for.
Also it is time to open up the records of these cases!
Improving the srs takes money.In order to get money we would have to raise taxes. I’m sure these girls are cute and cuddly but…Profits are more important and excessive taxes affect profit. Isn’t there a faith based imitative out there? What about operation rescue couldn’t they have rescued them?
I am reminded of a quote from a Journal I have published in “While it is often difficult to assess blame in this case there is plenty to go around”
The system failed – plain and simple.
That said, SRS is all too often caught between a rock and a hard place – they are routinely slammed for removing children; in this case they are slammed for NOT doing so.
A SPAM I received:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Last year over two million American families were falsely accused of child abuse!!!Imagine if you were suddenly accused of being a child molester…..Imagine if nobody believed you when you cried out that you were innocent….Imagine if you were separated from your children and sent to prison for life….
Some people don’t have to imagine. It really happened to them !1. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/4521548132. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/470628250?ltl=11529423353. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/512966888?ltl=11547597594. http://www.geocities.com/ahousedivided1998/began.html5. http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/wireStory?id=2201265&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds03126. http://www.slh.wisc.edu/genetics/family_story_1.htmlI don’t mean to disturb you but I really want people to be aware about that subject, because today, tomorrow, in the next half hour, it could happen to us too!Do you remember movie “Just Ask My Children”, based on a True Story?”Scott and Brenda Kniffen were arrested without warning one morning in April, 1982, at their home in Bakersfield, Calif. Scott Kniffen had offered to act as a character witness for a friend who had been accused of molesting children by a mentally ill relative. For standing up for their friend, the Kniffens also fell under suspicion. While awaiting trial, Brenda was attacked in jail by the other prisoners, who beat her up and threw feces at her. Their two sons, 6-year-old Brian and 8-year-old Brandon, were questioned by a zealous prosecutor who promised them that they would see their parents if only they would answer the questions. So after hundreds of denials, the Kniffen boys finally agreed that they had been hung from hooks, made to pose for child pornography, and raped. (No photographs, let alone hooks, were ever found.) But the Kniffen boys were not reunited with their parents. Once the state had”saved” them, they were tossed into the foster-care system and forgotten. Brian lived in 16 different homes before he and his brother were old enough to seek legal help and recant their testimony. Their parents served 14 years of a 240-year sentence before an appeals court judge set them free in 1996. “Their lives were destroyed because false accusation . We don’t need that kind of movies based on a True Story ! What do we need ,STOP before it’s too late.”It’s time we started to recognize the self-serving nature of the various abuse crusades that get launched with ever-increasing regularity by that coalition of groups in our society: social workers, therapists,doctors, the media, the courts, the shelters, etc., which make their livings by exploiting, and oftentimes creating, family pathology.” Something needs to change with the way they handle Families,they remove childen without full investigation.Immediate reforms to child welfare practices are needed.Child Protective Services – Guilty Until Proven Innocent!Please don’t just say no, give it a chance,please. True inof, some local media avenues are already shedding light on this, but we need a bigger voice or it won’t change. Someone the PEOPLE will listen to, give innocent Children a voice.SincerelySuncana Sesic Alvarado
If Republicans were as cold blooded, calculating and unfair as the Democrats, Barnett would hold Sebelius responsible for the abuse of these children.I think Barnett is a fair man and he won’t do that.
heheh. Barnett isnt even going to MENTION the subject. Why?
Because it is the republican controlled LEGISLATURE that hands out the money. The republican neocons in the kansas house and senate will NOT spend any money on social services. They will NOT spend money on education. They will NOT spend money on anything not approved by the Kochs and their lapdog taxwatch groups.
Nope. Big jim and susan the saint will NOT be brining this up as a campaign issue. Too much for the republicans and their “we dont spend” legislatures.
Hehe. but do continue to blame sebelius. It gives us a great platform to tell the truth when you try to manufacture blame and put it where it doesnt belong.
Be careful paul and sts (is this a ksgop talking point today?).
When you raise the question, you might not like the answer. And all polls show kansans are more unhappy with the LEGISLATORS than the governor.
And where do part time jim and susan the saint come from?
heheh. You guessed it. The legislature. Be careful what you ask for guys. You just might get it and unfortunately for YOU, the voters might just get it too.
heheh. four.more.years.
…and you might search the archives to find out that sebelius DID advocate for more money and staff for srs.
Pau, you can do research, correct? Why dont you do some and post it here smart boy? Or do you just make your living with empty rhetoric? Or are FACTS just something that you gop types are allergic too?
Heheheheheheheh
(farmgrrl hides to see if he takes the bait)
Oh and sts, you are welcome to post the research on srs budget and who advocated what. I.e. what did sebelius want and what did part time jim and saint susan want?
heheh. We know facts are not your long suite, but maybe just this once you could post some TRUTH?
The SRS is minipulating the child abuse publicity for their own budget enhancement.
Forget the governor’s investigation. The goal of all the hype about child abuse and the SRS is more money, a new building, more government workers, and more government noses in family lives.
A few children are abused and it does need to be stopped. These are the cases that usually make the headlines.
The ones that don’t make the headlines are the hundreds of innocent families and children sucked into the system by anonymous accusations by ex-spouses, neighbors who don’t like kids, feuding relatives, etc.
Prosecutors normally do not charge parents accused of child abuse in criminal court. The reason is in criminal court prosecutors have to PROVE that child abuse happened in a public trial before a jury.
It’s much easier for the SRS to rip families apart in secret juvenile courts without proof, without the right to a jury trial, without the right to face the accusor, without due process, without public scrutinty.
The SRS collects thousands of dollars from the feds, from the state, and from the parents for each and every child they can slam into foster care. There is a lot of money, dirty money, involved. It’s our tax dollars funding this system.
SRS family preservation is a farce. SRS takes the kids then immediately process them for adoption. It’s easier for the social workers to just lie in court about the parents than it is to conduct an investigation.
Our juvenile judges not only allow this, they encourage it.
No matter how many hoops the innocent parents jump through, their kids never come home and the family is destroyed.
Guilty parents walk away scot free with no punishment.
The SRS excels at kidnapping, intimidation, child abuse, extortion, ransom, perjury, conspiracy, and public relations.
Dorothy ain’t coming home folks. Your children could be next.
It doesn’t matter how much money is allocated to SRS or how heavy or lite the caseload. The current system DOES NOT WORK. I’m the grandparent of an abused child-and am currently trying to fight the system. I’m tired of hearing them whine about how much they’re paid or how overworked they are-soooo join the crowd.Social workers need to be held accountable-and not just a slap on the wrist. Judges need to be held accountable, DA’s need to be held accountable. These children have no voice-We need a better system for helping children in need-and we better get to it because abuse is happening more and more frequentlyKansas could step up to the plate and be a role model for other statesI’m sick of the whining – lets just FIX IT!!!!Because of their inept investigation-I go to bed every night worrying about whether this child is alright-whether she had enough to eat, whether they hurt her today..and thats just not good enough.