Friday, June 26, 2009
It’s possible to concede that one of Rick Perry’s most controversial vetoes this session is not a blow against child welfare, as some claim.
But if Perry’s action means that Texas does nothing more to hasten the removal of children from abusive homes and victims die unnecessarily, he will have explaining to do.
Perry vetoed a bill to set up a uniform procedure by which judges could order a child into the state’s custody based on the concerns of Child Protective Services.
In issuing the veto, Perry was responding to concerns that the bill would violate parental rights. Some groups brought up the removal of more than 470 children from a polygamist ranch near Eldorado last year. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that CPS overreached its authority.
That’s all the more reason for the state to come up with a constitutional method of addressing concerns about abusive situations.
For every overreach, one can be confident — or lose sleep over the fact — that hundreds of abuse cases are going unreported, that children are cowering in fear or being neglected to the point of starvation.
Waco has some grim history regarding this. Local and state authorities were reluctant to act on concerns about the sexual abuse of children in the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco in 1993.
Concerns led to a federal weapons case, a raid, a siege and a death-by-fire conclusion.
Later, DNA tests brought the circle around to the original matter: child abuse. Cult leader David Koresh had bedded and impregnated minors.
What started as a child abuse investigation ended up a tragedy beyond anyone’s reckoning.
We hear often about young victims of abuse and neglect, but too often only after the purchase of a small coffin.
We cannot know if the beating death this week of 5-year-old Mexia resident Sinsear Jaywon Kirvin could have been prevented through intervention. After all, he and his brothers were not harmed at their home but at another residence. Their uncle and his girlfriend face criminal charges.
All we know is that somehow these children ended up in the care of a man convicted of child endangerment.
Parental rights aside, often the home is the very worst place for a child to be. As with warrants for searches, judges should be empowered to act on reasonable suspicion to remove children from danger. Perry says a study will be conducted to figure out a way to address the joint concerns of child safety and parental rights.
Good luck. In the meantime, a child is in life-threatening straits simply by staying at arm’s length of an adult he trusts.
Comments
By Aaron Robb
Jul 1, 2009 1:34 AM | Link to this
Mr. Horton if you can provide us the name of a single textbook in use at a college social work program that calls families "a disease" I'll eat my hat. There are more than enough real problems with the CPS system (let's start with being near the bottom in the nation in terms of per-child funding), you making up this kind of garbage only makes it easier to lump all the CPS detractors into the "crackpot" category.
Mr. Morrow, are the police "out of control" because they can arrest people without a warrant, before going to a judge? Of course not, even if there are bad cops out there, because we have judicial protections in place. The police can get ex parte search warrants to aid in their investigations as well, but there are procedures in place for what their affidavits must cover when they approach the court. That's essentially what SB 1440 was about (although instead of searching a location it was interviewing a child who may have been abused or reviewing records regarding the child - everyone should go read the bill).
SB 1440 was at least an attempt to move toward protections in civil law enforcement (which is really how we should be treating CPS, rather than being stuck in the 1970s "social services" mindset) similar to what exists in criminal law enforcement. CPS would have had to swear out an affidavit (something that an appeals court can review, and that CPS workers who lie can be prosecuted for) to get a judge to order access to a child or the child's records for an investigation. Instead we're stuck with the patchwork system of some courts requiring affidavits while others grant orders on the unverified and unsworn say-so of CPS.
SB 1440 passed 148 to 0 in the House, 31-0 in the Senate. Liberal and conservative alike apparently this looked like a good bill to our lawmakers.
By Bill Horton
Jun 27, 2009 9:15 PM | Link to this
CPS is an out-of-control, abusive agency. Many of its workers have been convicted of sexually abusing children, including a CPS supervisor in Texas, who was sentenced to prison last month for sexually assaulting little girls, but only got 10 years. Some of the textbooks these social workers study in college refer to the family as a "disease" and they are taught that the state can raise a child better than can a family. The truth seems to be that this bill was an attempt to implement elements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children. This convention wants to transfer the responsibility of raising children from parents to the state.
CPS will use any excuse to seize a child. Some of the reasons they have used have been: dirty dishes in the sink, a bruise that was unquestionably gotten on a playground, a father giving his son a Mike's Hard Cider at a ballgame, not realizing it contained alcohol, and a parent raising her voice to a child; in fact, they hand out brochures to parents saying that they will take their children if they raise their voice to them (no law, just policy).
By Robert Morrow
Jun 26, 2009 5:05 PM | Link to this
I really disagree with this editorial. The bottom line is CPS is an out of control organization and the LAST thing that outfit needs is the ability to go to court EX PARTE, without the parents or lawyers present, and give a judge their "evidence" which is often based on false, exaggerated or even malicious complaints from neighbors trying to "get even." What the editorial board does not seem to understand is that a CPS investigation by its nature is invasive and TRAUMATIC to both parents and CHILDREN. Not to mention the dysfunctional hellhole that is the Texas foster care system, where a lot of the kids get ABUSED in foster care. Or the fact the your child might get repeatedly raped by his/her CASA advocate such as Billy Dan Carroll. Just look at all the damage that CPS did in the FLDS fiasco, which was based on a CRANK phone call! They ripped away 439 kids from their parents. CPS and CASA abused more kids on one week than the FLDS has in 10 years. The veto of SB 1440 is a backlash against CPS and groups like TexProtects and CPPP which are doing more damage to children than good for children. Parents MUST be allowed a court hearing before before a judge allows CPS to run roughshod through your life, potentially scarring your kids for life and traumatizing your family. Kirk Watson, Patrick Rose and TexProtects did some real dirty dealing in the Legislature, LYING that no one opposed this stupid bill, an attack on parental rights and a THREAT to the well being of Texas Children. Folks really need to disabuse themselves of the notion that CPS, CASA and TexProtects are their to "help" kids. Oftentimes they do incredible damage to children.
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