I received a call a few days ago from a wonderful young man: former Marine, dual languages, UW grad this summer, and my '08 session intern. I have always been so proud of him and excited for his future. He was going into military intelligence to live the CIA, "I'll take the risk for my country," type of life.
After clearing the significant security checks and while getting ready to pack, he and his wife got the word that there was a reversal. He had been declined. The reason? He married a Russian woman (now a US citizen) and a background check of her relatives still in Russia found someone in a high governmental position.
I used this story today when I was trying to make a point to high ranking DSHS officials and two attorneys from the attorney general's office. There needs to be a "fail safe" point where they admit that they have made a mistake. In this case they have a foster adopt woman who was not vetted, not disqualified, and is now being shielded by state bureaucrats each making more than $100,000 a year for their "work."
"The government must have standards," I said, "especially when lives are concerned."
And, there needs to be "deal breaker" triggers when we place a child in a bad foster adopt home.
YOU BE THE JUDGE. ASSUME ALL OF THE FOLLOWING LISTED TRAITS OF THE FOSTER ADOPT MOTHER ARE TRUE (THEY WERE UNDISPUTED IN THE MEETING) AND YOU DECIDE IF THIS IS WHERE YOU WOULD PLACE A CHILD FOR ADOPTION:
Foster Adopt Single (Divorced) 44 year old Woman...
NO JOB....The law states that you can NOT be a foster parent if you do not have a job. DSHS has refused to even answer the question. Why? Why won't they say she has a job? Because....they know she does not have a job.
Keeps the 3 year old in back-to-back daycare (Childhaven is not open long enough so the little girl is bussed to yet another facility.) The child is picked up by a bus in the morning and 12 hours later is deposited back to the house to eat and sleep.
Tiny girl goes to daycare with "significant black eye" which goes unreported by the foster adopt woman...(she is "mandated by law" to report)
Tells DSHS there is no man in the home...but there is...and...when a process server went to her door a man answered and told the server that she didn't live there (lies?)
Has a current restraining order ('08) out for a former lover with a gun...a man she had while still married
Failure to "parent"...child is educationally impaired...does not know the alphabet nor can she count to 20
Already has an adopted infant from DSHS (Attention Taxpayers...you are paying for all this daycare while she eats Bon Bons)
IS THIS THE PROFILE FOR AN ADOPTIVE PARENT? In Washington State...Yes. It is.
DSHS has no standards for where they place children. They have no conscience when leaving a child in harms way (black eyes and guns). They are completely out of touch with the thinking of "normal" people and they really are not accountable to anyone so make no one accountable to them. The ones at the top do not discipline poor performance of DSHS employees or contracted agencies and pass off decision making to those lower on the totem pole.
Our meeting took place in the downstairs conference room in my senate office building. The #2 people in both DSHS and the attorney general's offices were there. A representative of the governor was there. A couple high level AG and DSHS staffers were there. A couple of senate staffers, a private investigator and I were there.
DSHS refuses to release the study on the black eye. They have had it for a month and say they are still redacting names. Now... Think Mike Meyers and Dr. Evil...."REALLY!?"
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4 comments:
This is not the first or last story like this that I have heard of. How can these people play God with a child, much less families lives? It's hard to believe that the Agencies policy or mission is "Best interest of the Child." And who holds them accountable? Sounds like noone. People everywhere need to understand this could happen to anyone. Kids will be stolen and sold to the highest bidder because of the Federal funding. Thank God someone in Olympia has the balls to address the kidjacking happening in Washington State, much less the United States. Rock On Pam!!!
Update? How is little Lisa? Did you know the the Audit performed on DSHS and released June 2, 2008 shows that DSHS did NOT perform adequate monitoring for background checks of Foster care providers? Did you also knoe this was a REPEAT FINDING? Someone needs to dig deeper? Are any children safe in DSHS care?
Update Please!!!!! What is happening with little Lisa? How is she? What is being done to change the corrupt system?
68 out of 100 of the children in state custody should not even be there in the first place. An 80% failure rate of 32 children would only leave 25.6 children lost a much better statistic than 80 lost out of a 100. So lets send the 68 out of a 100 home and immediatly have a 300% improvement in children saved with a huge savings in budget expenditures. Tela's Daddy morrisonterry@rocketmail.com (206)225-7777
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