Florida Child Protective Services - Again????
I am absolutely shocked and outraged at what little Child Protective Services in almost all counties does to protect children. I'm usually most shocked by the parents they hassle the most - but outraged at the children who are blatantly abused that they never bother to check on or take from the parents.
In Tampa, nine days ago a judge took a child who was "bruised from head to toe" from her mother and her mother's boyfriend.(St. Pete Times 5/20/11) The judge order CPI to investigate that status of the 13 month old boy also living in the home. If they did, and found no problems, it's worse than I can imagine. If they never bother to go out and check, it's sheer laziness and stupidiity. Now the 13 month old is dead. What the heck is going on with this system and why does it keep happening?
As a Guardian ad Litem, I've had several cases where the parents are clearly physically abusing the children and CPI DOES NOTHING. In one case, a 10 year girl had ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. She was home schooled so no one ever saw it. CPI went to the home three times and found nothing wrong - it wasn't until the neighbor called because the girl had run to her home crying - that they did anything. BUT CPI LEFT THE OTHER CHILDREN IN THE HOME! It's unbelievable to me.
In other cases I've represented parents who have no criminal history and actually have custody through the Department of Children and Families of other realitive's children. If there is any domestic violence in the house, regardless of the facts and whether or not it was a one time event - they pester the people and especially the mother and threaten to take the children away if she drops charges.
It has been my experience that the majority of CPI investigators have NO CLUE what they are doing and no clue how to spot a danger to a child. Interestingly, they are required to have college degrees.
If you are as outraged as I am, call your state legislators, become a Guardian ad Litem, volunteer, give money - but do something. Clearly the State can't protect the children - someone else needs to.
