"The Complaints Came in; Abuse Went On"
The State of Alaska will pay a $2.4 million settlement on a civil lawsuit that claimed it failed two boys who were abused and neglected in and out of state foster care. The worst abuse involving these teens and another child occurred in 1999 when they witessed their foster mother kill the other child, then were forced to lie about it. At least 40 Reports of Harm were made concerning these boys by a mix of mandated reporters, non-related citizens and anonymous callers, yet many were mishandled or never investigated.
The state Office of Children's Services, continues to be under-funded and under-staffed, which contributes to these significant lapses in child protection. Turnover is high and case workers are overloaded, which results in a poorly trained, burned-out, stressed and over worked staff. State Senator Les Gara, D-Anchorage said, overloaded workers make "rash and uninformed decisions. That's an understatement.
OCS routinely dismisses complaints out of hand from separated or divorced parents as positioning for custody without taking reports or doing a proper investigation as would be accorded any other complainant.
Inadequate, unsafe or filthy living conditions for children are minimized with the off-the-cuff dismissal of "we don't penalize parents for being poor". Again no investigation or reports taken.
Sexual molestation cases are particularly poorly investigated. The assumption seems to be made at OCS that if there is no physical evidence then there is no harm/no foul on the alleged male perps part. All the perp has to do is march in with an attorney, throw some accusations of "alienation" or some other junk science muck at the mom trying to protect her child and he's off the hook. Its far easier to pathologize the mothers behavior as crazy or vindictive then to really handle a child sexual abuse allegation well. But anyone with half a brain knows that there is rarely physical evidence in molestation cases. The child's disclosures, the child's behaviors, the protective parents first hand reports and the perpetrators risk factors (male, domestic violence perpetrator, sexually deviant behavior, boundary issues) all have to be given consideration. If I recall correctly, the Anchorage Daily News carried an interview with a former DFYS worker expressing his opinion that reunification with the perpetrator was what was best for victims of incest. This seems to still be the prevailing attitude. Ask the protective mother to hold hands with the alleged incest perpetrator, sing "Kumbaya" and ignore her child's outcries, all so the case can be closed quickly. After all, mom usually doesn't have a whole lot of money for attorneys to threaten OCS with.
Oh my yes, and let's not forget about the Superior Courts fondness for forcing abused women and children into joint custody arrangements so the perp can "share" the child. "Oh dear", says the judge (pat, pat), "I can't believe you can say such awful things about this child's father. He seems like such a nice man..." Yeah, all batterers wear labels stamped on their foreheads. NOT.
Let's let these judges send their children to live with these violent men and see how long that lasts. I think you'd see the Pollyanna viewpoints about shared physical custody vanish overnight.
In 2002, the state Office of Public Advocacy tried to get a special guardian appointed to investigate Alaska's child protection system, using one of these boy's stories to advance that cause. But a judge dismissed its effort on procedural grounds.
It is time now for our legislature of the governor's office to launch a full scale investigation of OCS practices, as well as Alaska Superior Court child custody proceedings, particularly in their treatment and handling of domestic violence victims trying to protect their children. Mothers should not be threatened with "failure to protect" on one hand and then told to send their child off unsupervised to perpetrating fathers via custody court coercion and force when they do get the courage to leave.
Related Anchorage Daily News Articles
http://www.adn.com/crime/story/262445.html
http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/265170.html
