Children Need Grandparents NOT Foster Care

Jan 3, 2012, Family and Advocates Spoke Before the South Central Legislative Delegation

2012-01-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Marlene Jones, Penn State Sandusky Scandal Has Nothing On Sedgwick County

Jan. 3, 2012, Marlene Jones spoke before the South Central Legislative Delegation. Marlene has been coming to the legislative forums for several years and speaking on the wrongful removal and failure to reunify the children with the parent.Last year the citizens were told there was going to be a new committee to address these issues and that didn't happen. Marlene requested that the legislators support and cosponser the protective parent act that will be reintroduced this year as protective parents are losing custody of their children after reporting abuse.

Donna Roberts, The Shameful Secret In Our Own Backyard, Sexual Abuse Of Children In Sedgwick

Jan. 3, 2012, Donna Roberts, ACRA, A Childs Rights Association, spoke before the South Central Legislative Delegation. Donna Roberts' concern is regarding the sexual abuse of children in Sedgwick County and the coverup by professionals, law enforcement, SRS, therapists, and how the Judges are failing these children. Donna said that Kansas needs a major investigation by the feds and the people who have covered up the abuse of these children need to be prosecuted. The bottom line is that sexual abuse is a crime and it is being covered up in Sedgwick County.

Glen Burdue, "Even one child needlessly traumatized or abused while in the SRS system is too many"

Jan. 3, 2012, Glen Burdue spoke before the South Central Legislative Delegation. Glen asked the legislators for their support to provide new legislation to provide statistics and identify problems with child protective services. Glen Burdue, "Even one child needlessly traumatized or abused while in the SRS system is too many".

Grandfather Wendell Turner had to make a lot of noise with Youthville to protect his grandchildren from Pendland

Jan 3, 2012, Grandfather Wendell Turner spoke before the South Central Legislative Delegation. Rick Pendland who worked for Youthville was also a sponsored foster parent, former school teacher and he worked at the Wichita Children's Home. Pendland, who now sits in the Cowley County Jail for allegedly raping multiple children, wanted to be the foster placement for Wendell Turner's grandchildren.

Kansas Child poverty meetings scheduled this week

2011-11-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

"The meetings are titled “Rising to the Challenge: Reducing Childhood Poverty and Improving Childhood Outcomes in Kansas” and will feature national and state experts on childhood poverty, including the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector and Ron Haskins..."

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/11/10/2097958/child-poverty-meetings-scheduled.html#ixzz1dP4xBSFD

This is a public meeting and even though anyone can attend, the State is requiring citizens to register for this event.

Here is the link: http://www.srs.ks.gov/Pages/TownHallMeetings.aspx

The meetings will be:
1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Jack Reardon Convention Center, 500 Minnesota Ave., KC, KS
1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at the Drury Plaza Broadview Hotel, 400 W. Douglas, Wichita
1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex at.Garden City Community College

From The Heritage Foundation, Foster Care: Safety Net or Trap Door? by Thomas Atwood,
March 25, 2011.
"States tend to overuse foster care because they receive federal matching funds
for every qualifying child in care. "

"Abstract: For tens of thousands of endangered children, foster care has become a trap door rather than the safety net they need to help them succeed. In particular, federal financing policies have favored foster care over other child welfare approaches, leading states to overuse foster care to the detriment of children who could be adopted or whose families could be rehabilitated."
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/03/foster-care-safety-net-or-trap-door

According to the New Secretary of SRS, Rob Siedlecki, Regarding Adoptions, IT'S ALL FREE MONEY!!!

2011-11-13T14:16:00.000-08:00

According to the new Secretary of SRS, it's all FREE MONEY!
Free money to adopt Kansas children.
Free money to have medical coverage for those children.
Free money to send adopted children to college.
What about all the FREE MONTHLY SUBSIDIES AND TAX BREAKS those adopters receive?

And then there is the FREE $300,000 to Promote Adoptions of Kansas children.

It's NOT FREE MONEY, it is tax payers dollars funded by the private sector.
That would include, Secretary of SRS Rob Siedlecki's income. The private sector pays for his home, his life style and income.

Here's the story: http://cjonline.com/news/2011-11-07/srs-offers-300000-spur-adoption#comment-462415

By Tim Carpenter November 7, 2011 - 06:11pm
SRS offers $300,000 to spur adoption
THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Jonathan and Allison Schumm's family is big enough to conduct a regulation basketball game.That wouldn't be possible without five siblings adopted by the Topeka couple to complement their three biological children.The team was present at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center for the announcement Monday of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services' offer of $300,000 from a federal grant to the company proposing the most imaginative one-year marketing campaign to recruit adoptive families."This is a heartfelt cause," said SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki. "This campaign is directed towards our children who are typically hardest to place in adoptive families — the kids of sibling groups, with mental or physical disabilities or teenagers."He said the state had 5,200 children in foster care. Five hundred of 900 in the adoption queue are awaiting completion of the adoption process, but 420 haven’t yet been linked with a prospective adoptive family."Those 400 children really are alone," Siedlecki said.Jonathan Schumm said he could attest to the compelling force for good generated by adoption of children. His roster: Nicole, 16, Alisa, 13, Emmanuel, 11, Jaquale, 6, Angel, 5, Mercy, 5, Isaiah, 3, and Kyrsten, 1."I'm not here to tell you foster care and adoption are easy," he said while the children played in the center's kid-friendly facility. "It's been worth every smile and every tear."He said information on children available for adoption in Kansas could be found at www.adoptkskids.org. Some children still on the list were there six years ago when Schumm and his wife initially became involved in foster care and adoption."So many kids are still waiting," he said.Gov. Sam Brownback decreed November as Kansas Adoption Month. On Nov. 19, several court jurisdictions in Kansas will finalize at least 100 adoptions to mark the declaration.Brownback and his wife, Mary, adopted two children from overseas. A son, Mark, celebrated his 14th birthday Monday."Adoption is fabulous," the governor said at the Statehouse. "It just brings a smile to my face every time I think about it. My hope is more families will step up."He said his family's decision to not adopt in Kansas reflected his trips while in Congress to orphanages in other countries, many of which didn't have a strong cultural tradition of adoption.In addition, the governor said he was aware of a U.S. family that struggled for six years to complete an adoption.Siedlecki, the top administrator at SRS, said adoptions through the state of Kansas were completed at little or no cost and were legally secure because parental rights had been severed.Kansas families who adopt children may be eligible for state or federal financial subsidies, he said. Funding is available for health care of adopted children through Medicaid and for college tuition for children adopted from state care after age 16.Siedlecki said the goal of SRS was to complete more than 800 adoptions in the current fiscal year ending in July. In the last fiscal year, the state finalized 761 adoptions. In the first three months of the year, 178 children have been adopted from state care in Kansas.Tim Carpenter can be reached at (785) 295-1158 or timothy.carpenter@cjonline.com.

100,277 Kansas Children "Served" In Out Of Home Placement Since 1997

2011-11-13T14:14:00.000-08:00

The Kansas SRS website shows that there has been a total of 100,277 Kansas Children "Served" in Out Of Home Placement since 1997
The State Labels these seizures as "Foster Care Service Frequency"
Here is the link to that information:
http://www.srs.ks.gov/agency/cfs/Pages/ProgramData.aspx#Federal%20Fiscal%20Year%20Adoptions%20Finalized

FY2011 shows that the Kansas Child Population under the age of 18 years old is 695,712
http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/statefactsheets/2011/kansas.pdf

2011-10-09T16:30:00.000-07:00

KEYWORDS:

See the keywords people are writing that looked at this blog

"Childrens EMCU Unit in Wichita KS is Corrupt Who Do I Tell"

"Death in Foster Care Kansas"

"Grandparents Rights in Kansas"

"Kansas Families Torn Apart by Foster Care"

Kansas Grandmother Fighting For Ella Jo

2011-10-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

3 year old, Ella Jo is in the Kansas Foster Care System

While in the care of the State, on Oct 4th, Ella Jo went into respitory failure and the family was called to be at her side. Ella Jo is still fighting but she needs to go back to her home to be with her family.

""Ella Jo’s history of accidental & pathological fractures started when she was one year old. Ella is not able to assimilate the nutrients in her food, therefore has a weaken bone structure. The seizure medicine that Ella Jo had been on for half her life also deteriorates bone mass! The doctors failed to suggest Ella Jo needing Vitamin D & Calcium supplements to prevent this! One of many tragic complications that comes with Retts Syndrome. At one year of age her Paternal Grandmother slipped and fell with her and that broke Ella’s femur. A sibling at home, jumped over Ella lying in bed and accidentally landed on her shoulder, breaking the shoulder, and collar-bone. On another unfortunate occasion, a Home Physical Therapist was doing weight-bearing on her arm and accidentally broke the upper part of the arm. Yet another accident that took place at Ella Jo’s school that possibly injured her neck. During a bath, Ella Jo slipped out of loving hands and that placed her in the hospital with a Halo …… as a result of that….. into the hands of the State and a foster home.""

Read more here: http://ellajoandgrandmapattibear.wordpress.com/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

Kansas Lt Gov Colyer Said The State Will Cut Medicaid $720 Million Over The Next Several Years

2011-09-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

KANSAS NEEDS TO STOP DRUGGING LITTLE CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE AND THAT WILL NOT ONLY SAVE CHILDREN'S LIVES BUT SAVE THE STATE
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!

Colyer: State must reform Medicaid

Posted on Mon, Sep. 19, 2011

TOPEKA — Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer today described a bleak future for the state's Medicaid program — unless reforms drive down costs and people begin making healthier lifestyle choices.
Without changes, rapidly growing costs will overwhelm the state and affect funding for things such as K-12 education.
Colyer said Medicaid, the health program for low-income residents, should do what some insurance companies do and reward patients who quit smoking, work their way out of obesity and take their medicine. And the 40-year-old program should work to transition users to private health insurance, he added.
"This (Medicaid) is the most complex thing I've seen in government," he said. "And we aren't going to fix it in one year."
Colyer's call for reform and improved services comes when federal funding is expected to decrease. Some say Colyer's descriptions of cutting costs and improving services are too rosy.
"I don't see how it can possibly work in any way, shape or form," said Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan.
He said he works with patients who need a lot of care. If they don't have adequate finances for proper care, they'll be in emergency rooms, which is part of the disaster the state is trying to avoid.
"You're never going to cut medical costs down, you know that," Reitz, who is a doctor, said to Colyer, who is also a doctor.
Colyer said that federal cuts to Medicaid announced today translate to roughly $720 million in reductions to Kansas over several years.
He said ideas gathered from more than 1,200 people in four public forums on Medicaid reform this summer — plus concepts used in other states — show Kansas needs to create a safety net for its neediest, a system that links outcomes to price, provides employers with incentives to hire people with disabilities and provides people to coordinate patients' care.
Reitz said there's no way the state can improve while drastically cutting funds without embellishing services.
"It won't happen; it can't happen," he said. "If it does, you're going to have people marching on the Statehouse, tearing the place apart, saying, 'We can't go on this way. Try something else.' "
Colyer disagreed.
"I believe economic forces do work and do force us into better patient care," he said. He cited laptop computers as an example, saying they were once thousands of dollars and now are cheaper and have better technology.
Colyer said the state can save money by having someone coordinate health care for patients with serious problems.
"If we can navigate them through, you can save money on not institutionalizing them," he said.
Reitz said he and other doctors already help their patients manage their care.

Reach Brent D. Wistrom at 785-296-3006 or bwistrom@wichitaeagle.com

Nola Foulston to retire as district attorney

2011-09-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2011

District Attorney Nola Foulston, who prosecuted Sedgwick County's most notorious criminals for nearly a quarter-century, has decided to retire."At some point in time, you have to say it's time to give someone else a chance," she told the Eagle in explaining her decision to leave office.In a letter she plans to share today with her staff, friends and colleagues, Foulston said she will enter private practice when her current term expires."After over 30 years in public service, I have made the decision to 'retire' at the end of my term as district attorney in January of 2013 and plan to return to the private practice of law at that time," she said in the letter. "I have had a wonderful experience as district attorney, and feel that it's time now for me to step down from this position and become a private citizen."Foulston said in an interview at her home that she had been thinking for some time about returning to private life. "It's kind of like being a football player," she said. "I don't want to play until my legs are broken or I can't work any more."Foulston, 60, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, but she said the disease is in remission and her health had nothing to do with her decision. She said she had no specific plans other than to resume the practice of law as a private citizen.She was first elected in 1988, and was never seriously challenged in her five bids for re-election.Foulston said she seriously considered not entering the 2008 race, but decided she had to run after Republican Mark Schoenhofer entered the contest. She said she was concerned about changes Schoenhofer might make in the office, which now has an $8 million annual budget and 130 employees, 55 of whom are lawyers. "I felt an obligation to keep the staff intact," she said.She won the election with about 55 percent of the vote.Foulston said a half-dozen of her top assistants were qualified to run the office, but to date only Deputy District Attorney Marc Bennett has expressed an interest in the job. Bennett, a Republican, is the only announced candidate in the race."Any of them could handle the reins of that office without a hitch, and that includes Marc," she said.Foulston said she has no plans to endorse any candidate, and said voters should have the only say in deciding who occupies the office during the upcoming term."You and I both know that hand-picked successors never go anywhere," she said.Before her first race in 1988, Foulston switched parties to become a Democrat, then criticized incumbent Republican District Attorney Clark Owens for his handling of two high-profile murder cases.The cases — the Dec. 30, 1987, slayings of Wichita accountant Phillip Fager and his two daughters, and the New Year's night murder that same week of Wichita State University student Alice Mayfield — both ended in not-guilty jury verdicts. Foulston campaigned on a promise to take high-profile cases into the courtroom herself. She won the election with 60 percent of the vote.In the 1992 election, Foulston defeated Republican challenger Clarence Holeman — a member of Owens' staff who had been fired by Foulston — by a ratio of more than 2-1. She ran unopposed in 1996, 2000 and 2004.Foulston said she has been approached by Democratic Party officials several times over the years about running for another office. She said she was asked often about running for the 4th District seat in Congress, which has been in Republican hands since 1994. She said she never had an interest in that job."I'm not a politician; I'm a prosecutor," she said.During her six terms in office, Foulston has twice appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases ended with the Court upholding 1994 Kansas laws by 5-4 votes. In June 2006, the Court upheld the state's death penalty. A year later, the Court upheld the state's Sexual Predator law, which allows for the indefinite confinement of some sex offenders for mental health treatment after they have served their criminal sentences.Both cases originated in Sedgwick County District Court.Foulston gained national attention in 2005 for her role in the prosecution of Dennis Rader, who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder as he confessed to being the BTK serial killer. She also was in the national spotlight in the fall of 2002 as she prosecuted Reginald and Jonathan Carr, who were convicted and sentenced to death after a crime spree that left five dead.Nearly a decade earlier, in 1994, Foulston was the prosecutor in an equally troubling murder case — the July 30, 1990, abduction, rape and strangulation of 9-year-old Nancy Shoemaker.In those pre-capital punishment days, Doil Lane was convicted of Nancy's murder and given a Hard 40 prison sentence — a sentence of a minimum of 40 years without parole — which at the time was the maximum allowed under Kansas law.Foulston and her husband, Wichita lawyer Steve Foulston, have been married for about 29 years and have a son, Andrew, who is a senior at the University of Kansas. He is majoring in finance with a minor in Chinese, Foulston said, and has expressed no interest in becoming a lawyer.

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/09/16/2018836/foulston-to-retire-as-da.html#ixzz1YKpyey9O

Kansas is placing toddlers in foster care for "truancy"

2011-07-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

FY2011 Child between the age of 1 and 3 in foster care for "truancy"

FY2010 Child between the age of 1 and 3 in foster care for "truancy"

FY2011, Sedgwick County remained a leader for removing children from their families
Sedgwick County 479 children
Shawnee County 390 children
Johnson County 386 children
Wyandotte County 243 children
http://www.srs.ks.gov/agency/cfs/Documents/FY2011DataReports/ServedinSRScustody/RemovalReasonByCountyFY2011.pdf

FY2011 Average Length of Stay and Number of Children Reunified
Kansas reunified 1,874 children, and the average length of stay in care for all children is 19.6 months
Sedgwick County, Region 5/Wichita reunified 247 children and the average length of stay in care for all children is 27.4 months
http://www.srs.ks.gov/agency/cfs/Documents/FY2011DataReports/ServedinSRScustody/LengthofstayFY2011.pdf

FY2011 Percent Reunified
Kansas served 8,264 children, reunified 1,874 children, 22% were reunified
Sedgwick County served 1,453 children, reunified 247, 16% were reunified
http://www.srs.ks.gov/agency/cfs/Documents/FY2011DataReports/ServedinSRScustody/OOHPChildrenServedSFY2011.pdf
http://www.srs.ks.gov/agency/cfs/Documents/FY2011DataReports/ServedinSRScustody/LengthofstayFY2011.pdf

Program has foster teens, sex offenders in same spot

2011-07-31T07:36:00.000-07:00

Posted on Sun, Jul. 31, 2011

BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

A state-funded residential program designed to teach young adults how to live safe, productive lives mixes 16-year old-girls in foster care with sex offenders in their 20s.
The program groups juvenile offenders — including registered sex offenders — with foster teens. Each person in the program lives alone in one of 15 apartments in a building on West University, near Kellogg and Seneca.
Dorothy Loyd, vice president for transitional living services at Ozanam Pathways, the nonprofit provider that operates the program, said Ozanam isn't the only provider that commingles offenders and foster teens. It occurs at programs across the state, Loyd said. Ozanam is following state policies, she said.
"If the program is guilty of anything," Loyd said, "it's for taking kids that nobody wants to work with."
The state says it is beginning to move to a system that separates juvenile offenders and foster teens at facilities.
Wichita police Deputy Chief Tom Stolz said he is concerned about the practice of grouping young people who have committed serious crimes with "extremely impressionable" young people in the state's care.
Stolz said that considering some of the youths face a "myriad of social problems" from being victims of child abuse and neglect, putting them into an environment with convicted "gang members, sex offenders and drug dealers" doesn't make sense.
"I just don't think that's good policy," he said.
Investigation
The Ozanam program came under scrutiny earlier this month after a former employee raised allegations that sex offenders living at the apartments have too much contact with foster teens at the property, that clients sometimes lack food and that some incidents aren't properly reported.
The allegations led to investigations by Wichita police and the state's Juvenile Justice Authority and Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.
No crimes or serious violations were found.
Loyd, the Ozanam vice president, said that "everybody and their brother has been down investigating... and we come back as clean as a whistle."
There have been reports of trouble at the property.
Police records show that from January 2008 to July 21 of this year, Wichita police recorded 142 incidents at the West University apartments — including reports of battery, assault, runaways, drug crimes and three alleged incidents of rape.
Between December 2009 and October 2010, police investigated three reports of rape there.
In the most recent rape case, in October 2010, the alleged victim was a 17-year-old girl, and the suspect was a 17-year-old boy. In a July 2010 case, the alleged victim was a 17-year-old foster girl, and the suspect was an 18-year-old male offender. And in a December 2009 case, the alleged victim was a 16-year-old foster girl, and the suspect was a 19-year-old man.
Charges weren't filed in the three cases, partly because the alleged victims weren't cooperative, police said.
Change will separate groups
The Juvenile Justice Authority, which has custody of offenders placed at the apartments, is moving toward a system where offenders and nonoffenders won't be grouped together.
In a July 1 e-mail, a JJA official told other officials that the new direction is "based on sound, evidence-based practices and research that supports the separation of juvenile offenders from the non-offending population."
In a statement to The Eagle on Thursday, JJA Commissioner Curtis Whitten said: "There has been an ongoing concern about the mingling of these populations, but the impetus of the new administration is enabling the Juvenile Justice Authority to move at a quicker pace toward resolving the situation."
SRS, which has custody of foster teens, says it supports the change.
For now, the change does not encompass the Wichita program on West University.
SRS says Ozanam Pathways, which is based in Kansas City, Mo., has served 98 youths in SRS custody at three Wichita locations since 2008.
Ozanam takes clients 16 to 23 years old.
JJA and SRS pay the nonprofit program $100 per day, per client to cover expenses including staffing, rent, food, clothing, furniture and linens, said Loyd, the Ozanam vice president.
Based on the former employee's complaints, a joint investigation by Wichita police and SRS began July 22. Police found no crimes that could be prosecuted and no lack of food at the University apartments, said Stolz, the deputy police chief.
Another investigation, conducted earlier this month by JJA, found that although registered sex offenders were living at the apartments, "there was no evidence... that these offenders were harming other youth placed there," a JJA report says.
The former employee asked The Eagle not to use his name, saying he fears being blacklisted within the social-service industry. He was recently laid off from his job as a life-skills coach and said it was because he raised concerns.
His allegations were echoed by a second former Ozanam employee who spoke to The Eagle. The second employee also asked that her name not be used, saying she feared being blacklisted.
Loyd, the Ozanam vice president, said she investigated the former employee's complaints and found them to be unfounded and found that policies were being followed.
She reiterated that Ozanam works with young people who have a variety of problems and who are difficult to place.
"For many of the foster care kids, our program is really their last option. There is really no other placement opportunity for them."
Some of the foster teens have been in more than 50 placements before they arrive at the Ozanam apartments, she said.
"It's hard for them to attach."
Loyd said it's up to the state agencies — JJA and SRS — to decide who gets referred to a transitional living program, which teaches youths how to live independently.
Juvenile sex offenders who receive proper treatment have a lower chance of committing a new sex crime than adult offenders, she said.
Concerns
In December 2009, while still working for Ozanam, the former employee sent an e-mail to a supervisor expressing concern that vulnerable teens were being housed around sex offenders.
"Here we have multiple S.O.' s (sex offenders) living in close proximity to underage girls, some of whom are not even in the system but are here because they come from a troubled background."
The supervisor responded with this e-mail: "Right now, the only plan is that they are not to be in each other's apartments or signing out together. Beyond that, I'm not sure what we can do. I too am definitely concerned and just try to be extra attentive to what is going on over there."
At the time, Ozanam was operating two transitional housing programs — the one on West University and one near First and Ridge Road. It was about to launch a third program at apartments on South Mission.
Since then, Ozanam has closed two of the three programs, leaving the University property as the only remaining transitional living facility it operates in Wichita.
The other two were closed because government finances led to fewer referrals, Loyd said.
According to the state offender registry, three sex offenders — all in their early 20s — are listed as living at the University apartments. The three were in their teens when they committed their crimes.
Ozanam doesn't tell foster teens living at the apartments that some of the people living in the other units are sex offenders, the former employee said.
Although each client lives alone in an apartment, they share a common lounge and hang out together outside, he said.
The clients have curfews as early as 6 p.m. Staff are supposed to monitor them around the clock with the help of video cameras. Rules forbid physical contact between clients.
"They're not supposed to be in each other's apartments, but it's a daily occurrence," the former employee said.
He said that "in theory, we can watch them, but in reality... they get past us all the time."
SRS said that it has "no evidence to support the allegations (of) widespread sex between youth."
Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/07/31/1955545/program-has-foster-teens-sex-offenders.html#ixzz1Th4iylRc

SRS/CPS Lacks Integrity, Shut Them All Down

2011-07-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

About 150 attend meeting on SRS closure
By Scott Rothschild — Lawrence Journal-World
July 9, 2011
If Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to shut down the Lawrence office of the
Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services goes into effect, it will harm many vulnerable Kansans, social workers and law enforcement officials said Saturday.
For example, Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said police must have a social worker accompany them if they go into a school to interview an alleged victim of sexual abuse.
The decision by SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki Jr. to shut down the Lawrence office will make it more difficult to get a social worker in these instances, Branson said.
"I'm just very fearful that we are going to miss a lot of people who are in need of care," Branson said. "We have children going through horrific instances in their lives, and we have small windows to go in and make a difference, and the governor and secretary have closed that window on us," he said.
He said without the timely availability of an SRS social worker, the child could face having to return to his or her abuser at the end of the school day before police could intervene.
Branson's comments were made during a meeting at the Lawrence Public Library that was attended by a packed crowd of about 150 people, many of whom had to stand or sit in adjacent rooms.
Those in attendance expressed anger and shock at the Brownback administration's decision announced July 1 to close nine SRS offices, with Lawrence being the largest one by far. The closures would take effect within three months. Siedlecki has said the 87 employees will be able to get jobs at other SRS offices.
Brownback and Siedlecki have said the closures are needed to save money during tight budget times, and that those receiving SRS services in Lawrence can continue to get assistance by accessing them online or traveling to offices in Topeka, Overland Park or Ottawa. Brownback has noted that Lawrence is served by several four-lane roads.
Many at the meeting said that was unrealistic.
Gayle Sigurdson of Lawrence said she thought the closure of SRS offices was intended to cut state spending by making it more difficult for people to get help.
She also said the way Siedlecki announced the closures without any public meetings to gain input was a "suspension of the Democratic process."
"These closures were made without public comment, or participation of our local legislators and without any formal appeals process," she said.
She said she feared Brownback's statement on Friday when he said he may consider options to the closures was "lip service."
The meeting was held by the Douglas County Democratic Party. Former SRS Secretary Robert Harder had been scheduled to speak several weeks ago prior to the announced closures.
Harder, who has held the position of SRS secretary the longest in state history, said the prevailing political climate at the Statehouse represented a departure from decades of bi-partisan support for social services.
Of the past legislative session, which produced massive cuts to social services, he said, "I would have to say, without question, it was absolutely the meanest, toughest session that I have observed in my 50 years," of being around Kansas politics.
He said the assertion that people could receive SRS services online was not plausible. Applications for medical assistance are not available online, and the application for cash assistance is 16 pages long, he said.
Harder added that social service advocates are not opposed to change but they want change in a careful, thought out way.
Steve Ruttinger of Lawrence said he was dismayed by the Brownback administration's layoffs of experienced staff at SRS and replacing them with those lacking experienced. "They profess this connection to God but there is nothing Christian about it," he said.
The Democratic members of the Douglas County legislative delegation urged the crowd to continue to contact Brownback's office to voice their disapproval and attend Monday's meeting at 7 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church to discuss ways to try to reverse the closure decision.
"People in government make mistakes from time to time and they need to be called on it, and this is a classic example," said House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jul/09/about-150-attend-meeting-srs-closure/

Kansas Foster Child, Girl was staying at shelter before she died

2011-07-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

Mother reports that her daughter, of Garden City, ran away from girls
home.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

By Darcy Gray -
The Hutchinson News - dgray@hutchnews.com
GREAT BEND - A 15-year-old girl whose body
was found Monday at a Great Bend home had recently been reported missing from a
local shelter for girls, police have confirmed.

The Barton County Youth
Care Home, 2212 Forest Ave. in Great Bend, reported the girl missing July 1,
Great Bend Police Chief Dean Akings said Thursday.
http://www.hutchnews.com/Localregional/Great-Bend-death-follow--2
Although
Akings declined to release the girl's name, citing an ongoing investigation into
the suspicious death, The Garden City Telegram identified the girl as Jessica
Cheyanne Shearer of Garden City.

Shearer's mother, Alida Potter of
Garden City, told The Telegram her daughter had been staying at the girls home
for a couple of months before running away.
Joseph J. Rykiel, 30, was
arrested Tuesday on suspicion of second-degree murder and aggravated indecent
liberties with a child. Akings said investigators are focusing on the suspected
aggravated indecent liberties, and formal charges against Rykiel were being
prepared late Thursday.
Jackie McHolland, 39, and his fiancee, Mary Coker,
27, told The News on Wednesday they have been renting a room in their basement
at 2509 Walnut to Rykiel since Feb. 23. They came home from out of town on the
Fourth of July to find police at their house and learn the girl had been found
dead in their basement.
Police were called to the home at 5:10 p.m. Monday on
the report of a female with respiratory problems, but when officers arrived,
they found the 15-year-old girl had died from "unknown medical causes,"
according to Akings.
McHolland said his prescription medication was found on
Rykiel, and the locked box he kept his prescription medications in, including
morphine, had been "pried open."
"She ran away, and somehow she met up with
this guy," Alida Potter, Shearer's mother, told The Telegram.
When contacted
by phone Thursday, an employee at Barton County Youth Care Inc. in Great Bend
declined to comment. The shelter offers level IV care to girls for the state of
Kansas, according to a 2009 annual report filed by the nonprofit organization.
Barton County Youth Care is licensed for in-home foster care, said Gary Brooks,
a former board member.
Kansas Department of Corrections records show Rykiel,
30, previously served time in prison for multiple convictions, including
aggravated robbery in 2002 in Labette County. He was previously paroled to Reno
County in 2007, violated parole and then was paroled out of state to Tennessee
in 2009 before his sentence expired Feb. 13.
Rykiel had been working for a
Great Bend concrete company.

http://www.hutchnews.com/Localregional/Great-Bend-death-follow--2

Wichita, Kansas Judge rules for social worker in child's death

2011-07-09T05:04:00.000-07:00

>

Judge rules for social worker in child's death

The Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. - A federal judge in Wichita has ruled in favor of a Kansas social worker accused of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's girlfriend.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled Thursday that the civil lawsuit filed by the child's grandparents, Larry and Mary Crosetto, failed to show that social worker Linda Gillen was negligent in not protecting the child despite complaints about abuse.
The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argued that Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of the 23-month-old Coffeyville girl, who died in 2008. The civil lawsuit did not name SRS as a defendant.
The child's father's girlfriend, Melissa Wells, has been sentenced to life in prison in the child's death.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/07/08/1925678/judge-rules-for-social-worker.html#ixzz1Rbn7bBsa

PBS The Watch List: The medication of foster children

2011-07-07T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Watch List: The medication of foster children
By Shoshana Guy January 7, 2011

Nearly one in every 10 American children is diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Often the treatment prescribed is medication, and often the medication is heavy-duty — so-called antipsychotic drugs.
In this report, you’ll see that foster care children are prescribed drugs at a rate much greater than that of other kids. Concern over their well-being — not to mention the amount it costs to treat them — has prompted the Government Accountability Office to investigate potentially abusive prescribing practices in America’s state foster care systems. The GAO findings are expected to come out later this year.
Need to Know correspondent Shoshana Guy went to Texas to investigate overuse of psychotropic drugs in foster children, as well as that state’s efforts at reform

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/video-the-watch-list-the-medication-of-foster-children/6232/

What happened to Adam Herrman the unresolved question

2011-06-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 19, 2011

http://www.kansas.com/2011/06/17/1896760/adoptive-parents-of-missing-boy.html http://www.kansas.com/2011/06/17/1896562/adoptive-parents-of-missing-boy.html
Posted on Fri, Jun. 17, 2011

What happened to Adam Herrman the unresolved question
BY TIM POTTER

The Wichita Eagle

Anyone with information about Adam Herrman's disappearance can provide tips to Butler County sheriff's investigators by e-mailing crimetips@bucoks.com or calling 316-322-8817 or 866-484-5924.

EL DORADO — When Doug and Valerie Herrman pleaded guilty Friday to felony theft — for continuing to accept a state subsidy to help them care for their adoptive son after he vanished — it resolved part of the case surrounding the missing boy.Unresolved is the question of what happened to Adam Herrman, the 11-year-old who disappeared without a trace from the Herrmans' Towanda mobile home in May 1999.Butler County Sheriff Kelly Herzet said Friday, after the Herrmans pleaded guilty to the theft charge, that he has concluded one thing about the disappearance: "Did he (Adam) walk away? No, he didn't walk away. Something happened to that boy in that trailer in Towanda, Kansas, and Doug and Valerie Herrman know."Herzet, who was the lead investigator on the disappearance case before becoming sheriff earlier this year, said, "I'm still focused on working this case as a homicide. The Herrmans still are, in my eyes, suspects, and we're going to continue to work the case as the leads come in, and I hope we can resolve the case in the very near future and arrests are made."The way he views it, Herzet said, is "any homicide case is life-touching," and more so when it involves a child."In your heart, you know something's happened to this boy," he said.It has now been more than two years since Butler County sheriff's detectives learned of Adam's disappearance and began investigating it. They've searched for his remains along riverbanks, dug up the Herrmans' former mobile home lot, interviewed person after person, chased leads, amassed boxes of documents, and still found no trace of Adam. The Herrmans have not been charged with harming Adam, and Valerie Herrman has denied allegations from some of her close relatives that she abused the boy.Mike Brown, Doug Herrman's attorney in the theft case, said when told of the sheriff's comments, "I'm not in position to comment." Chris Pate, Valerie Herrman's attorney in the theft case, declined to comment.In Butler County District Court on Friday, Doug Herrman, 56, and Valerie Herrman, 54, each pleaded guilty to a felony charge that they collected an adoption subsidy for their son's care after he vanished.The couple had been scheduled to face a three-day trial on the theft charge next week.The charge alleged a scheme by which they continued to collect a monthly adoption subsidy for Adam, who the county attorney has said is the subject of an open missing person's investigation.Authorities didn't learn that he was missing until late 2008, when his older, adoptive sister came forward to share concerns about him.Under a plea agreement, the Herrmans pleaded guilty to the same amended charge they had been facing.The agreement recommends 12 months of probation, but it will be up to the judge to determine the sentence.Judge David Ricke said that depending on the extent of any criminal history the Herrmans might have, they could face from five to 17 months in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 when they are sentenced on Aug. 1.The agreement also calls for the Herrmans to pay $15,488 in restitution, the amount they pleaded guilty to wrongly accepting.Also under the agreement, they would each pay a $2,500 fine.The charge alleged that the Herrmans accepted the subsidy from November 2003 until July 8, 2005, a month after Adam would have turned 18.When Ricke asked Doug Herrman what he did to be guilty of the charge, Herrman responded: "I kept money that I was not entitled to."Herrman said he and his wife adopted Adam in 1993 and that he lived with them until May 1999, when he disappeared. He had been in home school.The Herrmans have previously said that Adam ran away from their Towanda home after Valerie Herrman spanked him and that they didn't report him missing because they feared it would cause them to lose custody of him and their other children.Doug Herrman told the judge that the adoption subsidy from the state was to help him and his wife care for Adam. He described the boy as a "special needs" child who had "mental problems."Doug Herrman admitted that the couple was receiving the subsidy although Adam was no longer living with them or in their care. Herrman also admitted that the couple didn't report to the state that Adam was missing.When Ricke asked Doug Herrman where Adam could have been in the years after he disappeared, Herrman said he didn't know.The couple initially received a $304 monthly subsidy for Adam, which grew to $704 monthly by the period from 2003 to 2005 for which the couple were charged, Doug Herrman said.Under the original theft charges, the couple had been accused of wrongly collecting $52,800 between May 1, 1999, and July 8, 2005. But the charges were amended to accuse them of taking $15,488 from November 2003 until July 8, 2005, when the couple was living in Rose Hill. The evidence for the smaller amount and the shorter time frame was stronger than the evidence for the higher amount and the longer time frame, said the prosecutor, Butler County Attorney Darrin Devinney.The Herrmans told Ricke they are living in Grove, Okla., and working for a Tyson chicken plant. Doug Herrman said he works in production; Valerie Herrman said she works as a wing packer.After the hearing, the Herrmans and their attorneys offered no comment. The couple held hands as they walked to their car, followed by news crews.Outside the courthouse, Devinney told reporters that he couldn't comment much on Adam's disappearance but said he considers the Herrmans to be suspects in their son's disappearance. Devinney was appointed county attorney and sworn in earlier this year after his predecessor, Jan Satterfield, was elected to a judgeship. Satterfield also has said she considered the couple suspects in the missing person's case.Devinney said he considers the disappearance case to be a priority as much as Satterfield did, "if not more."

Sedgwick County DA, Nola Foulston, calls parents "whiny" and said they need to quit "bitc#(&@"

2011-06-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Leroy Stockemer, Kansas Judicial System Is Corrupt

2011-06-04T08:27:00.000-07:00

Joan Jordan talks about parental rights at Blue Ribbon Commission meeting

2011-06-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

“I’m here to tell the State of Kansas that if the masses only knew how corrupt SRS is, we would see a revolution"

2011-06-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

Bambi Hazen, CPS Fraud Upon The Court

2011-05-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

Bambi Hazen spoke before the Blue Ribbon Commission May 26th, 2011, CPS Wrongful Removal, Fraud Upon The Court

Marlene Jones Says CPS Wrongful Removal Costs Tax Payers

2011-05-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

Marlene Jones spoke before the Blue Ribbon Commission,
Thur May 26th, 2011, CPS Wrongful Removal Costs Tax Payers

Kansas Tax Payers Fund Child Trafficking

2011-04-01T14:37:00.001-07:00

KS Asst Dir CFS Sue McKenna Misleads Public

2011-03-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Kansas Assistant Director of Children and Family Services, Roberta Sue McKenna, participated in a panel discussion which included Kansas Attorney/Guardian Ad Litems, and Judges. This was titled "KTWU's Abused, Neglected, Protected: When Children Go to Court" which was produced by nonprofit Washburn University.
The discussion aired on KPTS Channel 8 on Tuesday Feb 22, 2011

Roberta Sue McKenna works directly under Tanya Keys who is the Director of Children and Family Services.
Why is McKenna misleading the public on time spent in care and making foster care look like a walk in the park?

McKenna said, "64% go home within 12 months.. another substantial percentage go home in less than two years. So most of the children who are removed from their parents custody return to their parents custody.....
(Regarding time spent in care)...less than 12 months.. Just think, if we could all remember how long it took to get to Christmas. How much time there was between birthdays..."

FACTS: The number of Kansas children served in Out of Home Placement in FY2010 was 8,275
The number of Kansas children reunified in FY2010 was 1,720
The total percentage of children reunified in FY2010 was 20%...NOT 64% as McKenna said.

FACTS: Kansas children average length of time in care FY2010 was 19.4 months
Sedgwick County children average length of time in care FY2010 was 30.7 months

A.G. inquiry: 'ill will' led SRS worker to ignore abuse

2011-02-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

Posted on Sun, Feb. 13, 2011
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
A Kansas attorney general's investigation found that a state social worker disliked a Coffeyville couple and chose to do "nothing to protect" their 23-month-old granddaughter before she was murdered in 2008.
The investigation concluded that veteran SRS social worker Linda Gillen treated abuse reports involving the couple's grandchildren very differently from others and failed to take steps that her agency required in child abuse cases.
The investigation is coming to light now as part of a lawsuit brought by the couple, Larry and Mary Crosetto.
Last year the Crosettos filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming that Gillen held a decades-old grudge against them and that it cost them their granddaughter's life.
They say Gillen refused to act on repeated reports of abuse in the months before their granddaughter, Brooklyn Coons, died.
The lawsuit — which offers a rare look at inner workings of the child protection system — says Gillen had a "personal animus, bordering on hatred" toward the couple.
The Crosettos say that the "animus led to the tragic and totally preventable death" of the toddler.
In January 2008 — more than two months after the Crosettos began pressing Gillen to have the children removed from their home — Brooklyn died.
Authorities said the toddler suffered brain injuries after being beaten or violently shaken. Her father's meth-addicted girlfriend, Melissa Wells, was later convicted of first-degree murder.
Last month, an SRS attorney filed a legal argument denying that Gillen is liable. Bill Miskell, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS), said he can't comment on the investigation but that the agency will be filing a response in court. No one from SRS, including Gillen, can comment on pending litigation, Miskell said.
Gillen has been with SRS since 1974. At the time of Brooklyn's death, she was the only licensed social worker in the Coffeyville SRS office investigating child abuse and neglect cases, documents say.
Gillen remains in that role, Miskell said.
Another tragedy
The Crosettos had been the main caregivers for Brooklyn and her 5-year-old brother when their mother, Angela Coons, the Crosettos' daughter, was attending college. She became separated from the children's father, Randy Coons.
In June 2007, the children and their mother moved to Wichita after she got a job. About two months later, Angela Coons suddenly became ill and died.
Around September 2007, the children went to the Coffeyville home of their father and Wells, his girlfriend.
As a child, Wells had been in SRS custody, and Gillen was a social worker assigned to her case, the lawsuit says.
The Crosettos' lawyer is Randy Rathbun, a former U.S. attorney.
A striking difference
In an affidavit signed Jan. 24, Camie Russell, former director of the attorney general's Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Unit, said that as director she reviewed about a dozen child abuse cases handled by Gillen in Montgomery County. Russell said she found a clear difference in the way Gillen treated Brooklyn's case.
In the other cases, Gillen was "very hands on," Russell said. "She undertook actions without court order based upon suggestions made by the county attorney or the district judge."
But, Russell said, "As to the Coons children she was very hands off."
Russell's investigation concluded that Gillen held "some animus or ill will toward the Crosettos," according to her affidavit.
The affidavit, based on a 2009 investigative report by Russell, said Gillen denied "that anyone blocked her from taking action."
The investigation found that Gillen "elected to do nothing to protect" the Crosettos' grandchildren.
The Crosettos say Gillen became unhappy with them in 1982 when they adopted their daughter — Brooklyn's mother — when she was an infant.
The Crosettos said they excluded Gillen, the social worker, from their efforts to adopt their daughter. They said they reported Gillen's failure to complete a home study, which led a judge to rebuke her. As a result, the Crosettos said, she became angry at them.
The couple "totally circumvented" Gillen from another adoption in 1985, "which further angered Gillen," court documents say.
"This hatred was so immense that Gillen could not hide it — so much so that a Coffeyville police officer noted it while the Crosettos' granddaughter lay in a Tulsa hospital bed fighting for her life," the Crosettos' attorney said in the recent filings.
Russell's affidavit says that when Gillen met with police and the Crosettos the day after Brooklyn went to the hospital, "Gillen's animosity toward Larry Crosetto was so obvious that Detective George indicated that she wishes that she would have recorded the interaction."
Repeated concerns
The lawsuit claims that before Brooklyn's death, "Gillen stonewalled the Crosettos' attempts to protect their grandchildren, arguing that it was her duty to do whatever she could to 'keep the family together.' The 'family' in this case consisted of Brook, her brother .. , their natural father, Randy Coons, who at the time was living in squalor with his meth-addicted girlfriend, Melissa Wells, and her two children," one of whom had been the subject of a call to the SRS reporting center.
The Crosettos argue that Gillen had a number of reasons to have Brooklyn and her brother removed from Wells' home:
* An August 2006 report to the SRS Protection Report Center or hotline alleging Wells abused her own son.
That boy's grandfather reported that the child had two nickel-size, black-and-blue bruises above the diaper line and a fading bruise under his right eye. Wells said the bruises came from falls, but her son's grandfather said he didn't believe her. He also reported that she smoked marijuana a lot, possibly with the child present.
* A September 2007 report from Brooklyn's day care provider to the SRS report center that Brooklyn was being abused.
In an affidavit, the former day care provider, Allison Horner, said that when she saw Brooklyn that September, "I was shocked by her condition. She had a black eye, a busted lip with stitches and random bruising all over her body. She was not the same little girl I had cared for just a few months earlier. ... It was very plain to me she was being abused."
Horner called the SRS reporting center and gave details about Brooklyn's injuries and other information that would allow SRS to follow up.
The report to the SRS hotline should have gone to Gillen "but is now nowhere to be found," the lawsuit says.
* A November 2007 report from a school to the SRS center that Wells was suspected of abusing Brooklyn's brother.
Gillen noted in a report that the boy came to school with a 2-inch-by-2-inch red mark on his face.
"Wells confessed to Gillen that she had struck CSC (Brooklyn's brother) in anger leaving bruising that required icing at school later that day. Predictably, Gillen found the complaint 'unsubstantiated,' " the lawsuit says.
* Repeated calls from Larry Crosetto to Gillen "detailing the abuse of his grandchildren."
* "Deplorable living conditions in Wells' home that Gillen refused to investigate. She then lied to Crosetto about having visited there to get him to stop bothering her about it," the lawsuit says.
* Evidence of drug use by Wells from two sources.
* A Dec. 24, 2007, letter from a doctor to the local SRS office — which Gillen says she didn't get — reporting that Brooklyn had bruises that should be investigated.
* On Dec. 28, 2007, Crosetto offered photos of bruises on the children.
That same day, Crosetto told Gillen "that her refusal to do her job was going to end up causing the death of one of his grandchildren. ... Three weeks later, Brook was dead," the lawsuit says.
SRS worker defended
In a document filed early last month, SRS staff attorney Maureen Redeker defended Gillen, saying:
* "There is no evidence of Ms. Gillen's intent towards Crosettos."
* Gillen "is not liable for private violence."
* There is no evidence that Gillen's conduct "created or increased the danger" to Brooklyn.
* The risk to Brooklyn "was not obvious and known" to Gillen.
* Gillen "did not act in conscious disregard of a known risk" to Brooklyn.
* Gillen's "conduct was not conscience shocking."
A list of 'failures'
Regardless of whether Gillen is liable, she failed on the Coons case in multiple ways, court documents say.
Russell, the former attorney general's official, said in an affidavit that Gillen failed to take actions required by her agency. Russell cited five areas:
* "Failure to note prior SRS involvement with Wells ... ."
* "Failure to take photos of the child to document the injury."
* "Failure to complete a home visit; the site where the maltreatment occurred."
* "Failure to report Wells' confession of intentionally hitting CSC (Brooklyn's brother, in the face) to law enforcement."
* "Failure to interview additional significant caretakers of the children."
Russell's investigation noted a lingering question: What happened to the letter the doctor wrote addressing bruises and other marks on Brooklyn about three weeks before she died?
The doctor sent the letter to the Coffeyville SRS office. The doctor's letter "noted concern of abuse, listed marks and bruising, referenced records of past injury... and requested SRS look into child's environment and provide a report back to him," Russell's review said.
Gillen should have received it, but there is no record of it being received, Russell's affidavit says.
Gillen's role crucial
Russell found that the role of SRS and Gillen was crucial.
"Law enforcement, the school, the doctor, a daycare provider, and others interviewed indicated that they were under the impression that SRS/Gillen was investigating and addressing the Coons abuse and neglect concerns."
Larry Crosetto tried other routes besides Gillen and the doctor.
On Nov. 5, 2007, he called Fire Chief Greg Allen to voice concerns about living conditions at Wells' home. Allen inspected the home's exterior and left a note asking permission to check inside but never heard back from Wells or Randy Coons.
On Dec. 12, 2007, when Crosetto sought help from school district officials, he was told "that the school could do no more as the matter was in the hands of the SRS."
Crosetto feared that if his grandchildren were removed from their father, he probably would not see them again. But after his grandson was struck in the face, he decided his "fears were insignificant compared to the welfare of the children," and from then on "he really started to push Gillen to protect the children," the lawsuit says.
Crosetto called Gillen on Nov. 6, 14, 15 and 16. "She refused to return my calls," his recently filed affidavit says.
On Nov. 20, Gillen "finally accepted a call from me. ... I tried to discuss my concerns about bruising on Brooklyn and the suspected drug use of Melissa Wells. Gillen said those were police matters and refused to discuss them."
Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/02/13/1718592/ag-inquiry-ill-will-led-srs-worker.html#ixzz1Dr1lWUsj

5/29/10

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Judge-wont-dismiss-grandparents-lawsuit/ID6KIbvztU-OzgVy28DcKA.cspx

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by grandparents accusing a social worker of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's girlfriend.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled Friday that maternal grandparents Larry and Mary Crosetto had enough facts to overcome the state's claim of qualified immunity for social worker Linda Gillen.
The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argued that Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of the 23-month-old Coffeyville girl, who died in 2008 as a result of head injuries.
The Crosettos sued Gillen in January, accusing her of gross negligence for not protecting their granddaughter despite repeated complaints alleging abuse. The suit does not name the agency as a defendant.

SRS: Social worker had no duty to protect child who later died

Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2010

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle

An attorney for SRS also contends that because the girl was not in the agency's custody, the state owed no duty to protect her.
The arguments revolve around the case of 23-month-old Brooklyn Coons. Her father's meth-addicted girlfriend was convicted of murder after the girl died from brain injuries caused by her being violently shaken. Melissa Wells Coons is serving a life sentence.
Brooklyn's grandparents, Larry and Mary Crosetto, say they met with Linda Gillen, a veteran SRS social worker based in Coffeyville, and told her they thought Brooklyn was being abused and could be killed if she wasn't removed from the home of her father and his girlfriend. The Crosettos say they offered Gillen evidence but that she refused to act because of a grudge against them.
The legal argument that the social worker had no duty to protect Brooklyn doesn't sit well with her grandfather.
"I thought this was her job," said Larry Crosetto, who is suing Gillen in federal court.
The SRS arguments are in response to the lawsuit the grandparents filed in January. The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in damages.
"What we hope to do is get SRS to act in these situations ... and prevent it from happening to another family," Crosetto said.
Brooklyn's death is one of several across the state where families have accused the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) of failing to protect children who were killed.
Child abuse or neglect has taken a heavy toll in Wichita, where police investigated eight child homicides in 2008. Seven of the eight deaths occurred from abuse or neglect by caregivers, police said.
In the past six months, several more suspicious child deaths have occurred in the Wichita area, raising more questions about the SRS role in protecting children.
SRS answers suit
In federal court documents defending Gillen, the social worker, SRS staff attorney Danny Baumgartner cites a U.S. Supreme Court case finding no constitutional duty of government to protect a child from violence committed by an individual.
Baumgartner also argues that Brooklyn was not in SRS custody, so SRS owed no duty to protect her.
The SRS defense is based partly on the idea that while government has a duty to the public at large, it can't be held liable for protecting one person from another individual unless special circumstances exist.
The situation limits government's exposure to liability.
But Larry Crosetto said the argument that government has no duty to the individual doesn't seem right to him.
"If it is the responsibility of government to protect the public, who protects the individual?"
The Crosettos' attorney, Randy Rathbun, argues in court documents that Gillen held a years-old grudge against the Crosettos that caused her to ignore reports of abuse from them and not follow her duty to protect the girl from her father's meth-addicted girlfriend, Melissa Wells Coons.
Brooklyn's mother, Angela Coons, died at age 24 in 2007 after a sudden illness. Brooklyn's death was the Crosettos' second loss.
The grandparents' lawsuit says that Gillen refused to accept photographs showing bruises on the girl a month before her death, which Gillen denies in court documents.
Court documents say, without elaboration, that the Crosettos believe Gillen held a grudge over their adoption of their daughter Angela years earlier.
SRS says Gillen has been employed with the agency since 1974.
The SRS response says Gillen denies having a grudge.
The SRS defense
In a court filing responding to the lawsuit, SRS attorney Baumgartner said (referring to the child, Brooklyn, as "B.I.C."):
* "Even assuming the imminence of danger, and even assuming Ms. Gillen knew about this danger (which Defendant denies), Ms. Gillen was under no duty to protect B.I.C. from a danger Ms. Gillen did not create."
* "Even assuming the 'animus' (which Defendant denies) Plaintiffs claim Ms. Gillen had against them, Ms. Gillen was under no duty to protect B.I.C. from third parties."
The SRS response says that the Crosettos seem to contend that once they met with Gillen about their concerns over Brooklyn, "their hands (and the Police's hands) were tied. This is far from the situation."
The document adds: "Ms. Gillen feels for Plaintiffs' loss, but with all due respect to Plaintiffs there is no Constitutional remedy for them here."
As a state employee, Gillen is entitled to "qualified immunity," SRS says.
Grandparents' case
In the court papers representing the Crosettos, their attorney Rathbun says, "This is not just another case of ... an overworked SRS employee and a report that fell through the cracks. Linda Gillen knew and hated Mr. Crosetto."
Rathbun also said that Gillen "carried a powerful animus that resulted in her refusal to follow her duty and protect" the girl from her father's girlfriend.
The Crosettos' filings provide this timeline:
* On Jan. 17, 2008, Coffeyville police responding to a 911 call found Brooklyn unresponsive and in the care of the girlfriend. Police saw head injuries and bruises on the girl.
* The next day, police placed three other children from the home of Melissa Wells Coons and Randy Coons, Brooklyn's father, into protective custody because of "deplorable" living conditions and the injuries to Brooklyn.
* Three days after the 911 call, Brooklyn died in a hospital.
Before the 911 call, Coffeyville police did not take steps to protect Brooklyn because they "reasonably believed that the defendant (Gillen) was undertaking her statutory obligations to safeguard" Brooklyn and her brother, a court document says.
The Crosettos contend that Gillen took it upon herself to monitor Brooklyn's situation — causing other agencies that could have protected the girl to defer to SRS.
Recently, Brooklyn's father pleaded no contest to aggravated endangerment of a child. He faces sentencing July 1.
Gillen remains a social worker with SRS, the agency says.
Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/05/16/1315895/srs-social-worker-had-no-duty.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0o6qG4W3M

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More on this story to be found on the following links:
Coffeyville couple sues SRS worker after granddaughter's beating death
January 24, 2010
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/01/24/1150653/coffeyville-couple-sues-srs-worker.html#ixzz0o6qcPbzV

SRS seeks dismissal of lawsuit filed by grandparents
March 11, 2010
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/03/11/1219764/srs-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit.html#ixzz0o6qs79ez

KS Grandparents Senate Bill 52 Inadequate

2011-02-13T08:31:00.003-08:00

Does Senator Tim Owens Sound Like A Person That's Interested In Family Rights?

2011-02-08T07:50:00.000-08:00

As the hearing became more emotional and time-constrained, committee Chairman Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, repeatedly warned the grandparents to keep their comments short and confined to the bill at hand.
“I’m not interested in retrying cases that went before the courts,” he said

“There’s always two sides to every story,” he said.

Senator and seniors seeking expansion of grandparent rights

TOPEKA – A Wichita state senator and family members of abused and displaced children went before the Senate Judiciary Committee today to try to enhance the status of grandparents in child-custody courts.
Senate Bill 52 would automatically establish grandparents as interested parties in cases when their grandchildren are removed from their homes. At present, grandparents only receive notice of and status to be heard in such proceedings when they request it.
Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, who is sponsoring the bill, told the committee the legislation “is pretty simple, allowing grandparents to be notified without a lot of additional hassle.”
“We as a state want to keep families together and keep kids out of foster care,” Faust-Goudeau said.
She said the bill was the top priority of the “Silver Haired Legislature,” a group elected by seniors across the state to recommend bills and help guide state policies on the elderly.
Two members, including Silver Haired Legislature Speaker Jim Snyder, testified in favor of the bill. He said a study of 2006 data showed more than 17,000 grandparents were acting as primary caregivers, a number he said has undoubtedly grown during the current economic slump.
“It’s important that grandparents who are taking care of the children have the notification and the automatic status as interested parties,” he said.
Most of today’s testimony was from about a dozen grandparents, complaining of what they contend was abuse and dislocation of their grandchildren, who were placed in foster care or permanently adopted out in cases where the parents’ rights were terminated.
One woman testified that her grandchildren, 7 and 10, had lived with her for four months after being removed from her daughter’s home. She said she thought that was going well but state agents came and took the children from her, “forcefully, dramatically, hysterically.”
Her granddaughter “was screaming, hanging onto me for dear life,” the woman testified. “After they were taken from me, they put them in foster home, foster home, foster home … They’ve had a lot of psychological problems from the way they were taken.”
She said the granddaughter was later molested and got pregnant while in foster care after repeated complaints to the foster mother were ignored.
A grandfather testified that his two grandsons were healthy and doing well in school until they were returned to their father, a drug addict. Now, he said, their grades have fallen off and they are overweight from spending their days watching TV, playing video games and eating fast food.
The Eagle is withholding the names of the grandparents to protect the identity of the children.
As the hearing became more emotional and time-constrained, committee Chairman Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, repeatedly warned the grandparents to keep their comments short and confined to the bill at hand.
“I’m not interested in retrying cases that went before the courts,” he said.
Owens also urged his colleagues to carefully weigh the hearing testimony. As a lawyer specializing in family law, Owens said he had represented more than 1,000 children in court cases and served as a judge pro-tem in some parental-rights cases.
“There’s always two sides to every story,” he said.
Later, he said he can understand why the grandparents who testified are emotional about their experiences and that family law cases are very difficult to deal with.
He said he thinks SB 52 is “overall, OK,” although he felt most of today’s testimony was “derived from some kind of lawsuit they didn’t like and they didn’t understand.”
He said one of the biggest misunderstandings about state law is that when parents’ rights are severed, that applies to the entire family. The reason is to prevent situations in which relatives agree to take in the children primarily so they can reintegrate them with the parents who are already proven unfit, he said.
Owens said he wants those kinds of decisions to be made by judges who have all the facts in hand. “I don’t think we (legislators) should intervene in that,” he said.
Owens said he plans to have the committee work on the bill and vote on sending it to the Senate floor later this week.
“I think it’s going to pass here in the Senate,” Faust-Goudeau said. We’ll see how it goes in the House.”
By Dion Lefler
Read more: http://blogs.kansas.com/gov/2011/02/07/senator-and-seniors-seeking-expansion-of-grandparent-rights/#ixzz1DNlt67Vx

Parents, Family Members, Advocates Spoke Before Sedgwick County South Central Delegation Regarding CPS Issues Jan. 2011

2011-01-29T20:33:00.000-08:00

Mother Of Child That Committed Suicide While In Custody Of The State Spoke Before Kansas Legislators

Marlene Jones Spoke Before Legislators Regarding Wrongful Removal Of Children

Donna Roberts Spoke Before Legislators Regarding The Protective Parent Reform Act

Cynthia Rader Spoke Regarding Judges Denying Rights To Pro Se Parents

Youthville Does RECRUITMENT Efforts For Their Employees To Adopt Kansas Children

2011-01-20T05:49:00.000-08:00

Kansas Children Drugged In Foster Care Medicaid Fraud

2011-01-20T05:34:00.000-08:00

Burning Issues in Kansas~CPS Most Talked About

2011-01-05T20:24:00.001-08:00

Legislators get an earful - KSN TV, Many Spoke About CPS

2011-01-05T20:21:00.001-08:00

HOW THE STATE OF KANSAS CPS STOLE CHRISTMAS

2010-12-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

2010-11-24T18:43:00.001-08:00

Has your family been victimized by CPS?

Contact Dr Phil and be on the show

http://www.drphil.com/plugger/respond/?plugID=14442

2010-11-22T15:49:00.000-08:00

GAO investigating drugging of children

At the request of Congress, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) is seeking information regarding cases in which state foster children have been prescribed psychotropic medication outside of federal regulations or accepted medical standards of practice.
Scott Clayton, Analyst of the Forensic Audits and Special Investigations of the GAO stated Sunday:

"These cases may include very young foster children prescribed certain kinds of psychotropic drugs, children prescribed psychotropic drugs in dosages that exceed accepted standards, children prescribed psychotropic drugs for purposes other than a medically accepted indication, or children taking numerous psychotropic drugs concurrently."

If you have information about state foster children being prescribed psychotropic medication outside of regulatory and/or medical guidance and are willing to provide details, please e-mail GAO at FosterKids@gao.gov

2010-10-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

2010-07-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

Adam Herrman's Biological Father Speaks Out

Charges relate to acceptance of adoption subsidies

2010-07-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Missing boy's parents face charges of theft

Aged enhanced photo.

http://www.kansas.com/2010/07/08/1394893/charges-relate-to-acceptance-of.html#ixzz0t9OPgzko

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Posted on Thu, Jul. 08, 2010

Doug and Valerie Herrman walk out of the Butler County Jail on Wednesday afternoon after they were booked on charges of felony theft. The couple is charged with claiming their adopted son, Adam Herrman, as a dependent for years after he disappeared in 1999.

Fourth-grade photo of Adam Herrman released by the Butler County Sheriff's Department 01/05/2009. Herrman was last seen in 1999 when he was 11 or 12 years old. An investigation is proceeding in the case.
· Read previous coverage of the Adam Herrman case at our special section
· Herrmans booked on theft charges
· Read the charging complaint against Douglas Herrman
· Read the charging complaint against Valerie Herrman
· Doug and Valerie Herrman charged with felony theft

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Herrmans booked on theft charges

Click here to see the video in full screen or to e-mail to a friend.

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Doug and Valerie Herrman charged with felony theft

Click here to see the video in full screen or to e-mail to a friend.

EL DORADO — The Adam Herrman mystery entered a new chapter Wednesday when a prosecutor charged Herrman's adoptive parents with a crime related to his disappearance more than a decade ago.
In announcing that she was charging Doug and Valerie Herrman with felony theft over adoption subsidies they allegedly accepted for years after he disappeared, Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield continued to call the Herrmans suspects in something more serious — the disappearance and presumed death of the boy.
Authorities didn't learn of the 11-year-old's disappearance from his Towanda home until December 2008 — more than nine years afterward. There still is no trace of him.
"The Adam Herrman homicide investigation continues," Satterfield said in a statement she read during a news conference at the county courthouse. "A prosecution for murder may be commenced at any time."
Speaking of the felony theft charge each of the parents face, she said, "This is not the beginning and end. This is just the beginning for the Herrmans."
The theft charges are related to the alleged fraudulent receipt of $52,800 in government assistance for Adam's care. The couple continued to submit subsidy forms saying the boy lived in their home and continued to claim him as a dependent on their income tax returns and in court documents for six years after his disappearance , the charges state.
Trevor Riddle, an attorney representing Doug Herrman, said in a brief statement that the theft accusation is a "technical financial charge" and that the Herrmans will plead not guilty and "vigorously seek dismissal" of the charges.
Riddle declined to respond to Satterfield's comments about the homicide investigation.
The Herrmans, in their 50s, each posted a $50,000 bond on the theft charges late Wednesday afternoon after voluntarily reporting to the Butler County Jail in response to warrants issued against them. As they left the jail, they walked, holding hands, to a car with an Oklahoma license tag and a bumper sticker reading "Real men pray."
They face a first appearance on the charges in Butler County District Court at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Authorities don't think the Herrmans are a flight risk, Satterfield said. She said they no longer live in Kansas but declined to say where they reside.
Authorities have been aware of the Herrmans' location and "have kept an eye on them," Satterfield said.
The charges were filed Wednesday to avoid questions of whether the five-year statute of limitations on the charges has expired. According to Satterfield, the Herrmans allegedly cashed the last state adoption subsidy check on July 8, 2005 — six years after Adam's disappearance.
There is no statute of limitations for homicide, Satterfield noted.
Regarding the homicide investigation, Satterfield said, "There has been a lot of things going on in the case behind the scenes. We are proceeding cautiously."
She announced that she has appointed Kevin O'Connor, a former Sedgwick County deputy district attorney, as a special prosecutor on the Adam Herrman case.
She and O'Connor stressed that the investigation has not been forgotten.
"We're talking about a little boy," O'Connor said.
Satterfield has previously said that a grand jury could be convened to review the case and decide whether to issue indictments. On Wednesday, she said a grand jury could take up the case anytime within the next several months.
There continues to be no credible information that Adam is alive, Satterfield said.
He would be 23.
Satterfield, who is running for a judgeship, said that she has no doubt that whoever ends up being the county attorney will continue to pursue the case.
As it stands, she said, "Our burden will be how he died" and who did it.
No trace of Adam has been found despite intensive searches of the Towanda mobile home park where the family lived and an area around the Whitewater River.
The couple adopted Adam when he was about 2.
In an interview with The Eagle early last year, Valerie Herrman said that in early May 1999, when Adam was 11, he ran away from their mobile home and didn't return after she spanked him with a belt. She said she didn't report him missing because she feared it would cause her and her husband to lose custody of Adam and their other children.
Relatives said that Valerie Herrman told them that Adam, who was being home-schooled, had been returned to state custody.
His disappearance came to light in late 2008 after an adoptive sister said she tried to find him to apologize for the way he had been treated growing up.
After she expressed concerns about him to authorities, Butler County investigators began digging in the mobile home park, searching for human remains. Using search dogs, they also probed in woods along the Whitewater River.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/07/08/1394893/charges-relate-to-acceptance-of.html#ixzz0t9OZjErJ

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Adoptive Parents of Adam Herrman post bond.

The DA in Butler County, Satterfield, said she is still pursuing a homicide investigation and considers the Herrmans as suspects in the death of Adam Herrman.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kwch.com%2Fvideobeta%2Fwatch%2F%3Fwatch%3D718e3b6e-cfae-444b-9cdd-1adf048b0799%26cat%3Dempty%26src%3Dfront&h=a787e0n_4ot420YCH3Pl9kh2jQA

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Adam's family happy with charges; wants more answers

http://www.kwch.com/news/kwch-news-cej-herrman-grand-jury-basics,0,5207704.story

BUTLER COUNTY, Kansas – Adam Herrman’s biological family is reacting to news that fraud charges have been filed against his adoptive parents. "I would have liked for this to have happened a long time ago,” said Tiffany Broadfoot, Adam’s biological sister. Charges were filed Wednesday against Doug and Valerie Herrman, Adam’s adoptive parents. But they weren’t charges Adam’s biological family had been hoping for. It’s been two-and-a-half years since Adam’s biological family discovered that the boy they believed was living a normal life in Butler County had been missing for nearly a decade. "That's our biggest concern -- where is he, what happened, why didn't we find out about it sooner?” said Tiffany. They are questions that still remain unanswered despite the fact that Adam’s adoptive parents have been charged in the case. Prosecutors charged them Wednesday with fraud for accepting more than $50,000 in government money for Adam’s care for six years after he disappeared. "I'm glad there's finally going to be some movement on the case,” said Irvin Groeninger, Adam’s biological father. Prosecutors maintain this is just the beginning. The Herrman’s are still suspects in the disappearance and possible murder of the boy. And a grand jury on more serious charges could convene at any time. "That part makes me really excited that they're not just going to give up on it, they're not just going to bring them up on fraud charges and push them under the table,” Tiffany said. “It's a constant reminder that we're still out here and we're still looking and you’re still busted.” Still, both Tiffany and Irvin say they are getting impatient as they wait for answers. "I'm hoping this will lead to what happened, what led to his disappearance, where he went, what happened to him,” said Irvin. “I want him to come home alive or dead. I would like him to come to Indiana and be with me."The attorneys for Doug and Valerie Herrman maintain the couple had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Adam. They are scheduled to be back in court later this month.

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How murder charges could be filed against Herrmans

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Adams-family-happy-with-charges-wants-more-answers/9uBdJXtg-UOwRE36O49kxA.cspx

5:07 p.m. CDT, July 8, 2010
BUTLER COUNTY, Kan. —
Fraud charges have been filed, but prosecutors want more. Doug and Valerie Herrman turned themselves in Wednesday to the Butler County Jail and bonded out later in the afternoon. They're charged with welfare fraud for allegedly accepting state payments even though their adopted son, Adam Herrman, had disappeared years earlier.
Adam Herrman, 11, was last seen in 1999. Two family members contacted SRS in 2008 after trying to locate him.
Though searches by the Butler County Sheriff didn't turn up Adam's body, prosecutors believe the boy was killed. Butler County Attorney Jan Satterfield plans to pursue homicide charges.
For now, Satterfield says she hopes to present her case to a grand jury sometime this fall.
By law, prosecutors need a majority of judges in their district to agree to convene a grand jury. In Butler County, that would mean three out of four judges. Then, Satterfield would present evidence to 15 jurors, all members of the public. Prosecutors need 12 to agree to indict the Herrmans on some type of homicide charge.
Jack Focht, a Wichita attorney and former prosecutor, has convened grand juries before and prosecuted the nation's first bodiless murder case in 1976.
Focht says the old attorney saying goes that prosecutors could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich if they wanted to. However, he believes the Herrman case will be a difficult one for prosecutors, assuming it goes to trial.
"Sometimes, a grand jury is utilized as a sounding board saying this is all we've got," says Focht. "Do you think this points to it? Then you get a sense of the community perhaps."
Satterfield says the ability to see how members of the public react to her evidence will be important, and that's part of why she's looking into a grand jury. It would also give her an idea whether potential jurors would want more information or evidence at trial. Grand juries can act as investigative bodies, too, by subpoenaing more witnesses or evidence.
The Herrmans have previously told Eyewitness News that Adam ran away in 1999, and they didn't report him missing for fear they'd lose their other children to state custody. They're expected back in court Wednesday for a first appearance on the welfare fraud charges.

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Previous coverage from the Adam Herrman case:

http://www.kansas.com/adam/

Youthville Has A Preference For Military Families To Keep Foster Children

2010-06-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.wichita.gov/NR/rdonlyres/B6982FFB-5B24-45C9-ADEA-47729E3EA2B9/0/DABVFeb2008minutes.pdf

District V Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes
February 04, 2008
www.wichita.gov

The District V Advisory Board Meeting was held at 6:30 p.m. at the Auburn Hills Golf Course Clubhouse, 443 S. 135th St. W. In attendance were 8 District Advisory Board members, 5 staff and 2 citizens with 1 signing in.
Karen Lippoldt, Youthville, presented on Multi-Dimensional Treatment in Foster Care (MDTFC). The program started in the mid 1980’s. This is the only program of its kind in the Midwest. It is a 6-9 month program with a year of follow up care. She shared a packet of more detailed information on the program; how MTFC is different than other foster care programs; MTFC objectives; What MTFC can offer the community; a cost effective analysis; and contact information. She asked that if anyone is interested in becoming a foster family or knows of a child who may need this care to please contact her.
Ellzey asked where these foster children attend school. Lippoldt responded in neighborhood schools or day schools depending on their situation/ needs.
Brown questioned an earlier comment made by Lippoldt; " We especially like Military families willing to take teenagers". Lippoldt clarifies that they like ex Military families because they tend to be more stringent and less likely to form an emotional bond.
David Dennis asked about what happens at the end of the 9-month program when they re enter into their old environment. Lippoldt responded that they receive a year of follow up care. The children usually return to their birth parent home, long term foster care or become independent due to their age.
Ellzey asked about the ages of the children in this program. Lippoldt responded they have youth as young as 11 soon to turn 12 up to age 18.
Pat Ream asked whether there are female youth in the program. Lippoldt responded that about ½ of the children are females. The boys have an easier buy in to the "rules" of the program and the girls are more stubborn.

2010-06-05T08:26:00.001-07:00

School is "Nonexistent" for Youthville Foster Children
http://www.clearwaterks.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=66

Presentation on Youthville – Foster Homes

Karen Lippoldt Foster Care Recruiter/Trainer, representing Youthville addressed the Council. Lippoldt distributed to each Council Member a packet of information on Youthville. Lippoldt stated that Sedgwick County is in a crisis situation with foster kids. There are an abundance of children coming into care and not enough homes. Lippoldt continued to state that she has been going to Council meetings in all the out lying communities in Sedgwick, Sumner, Harper, Butler, and Cowley Counties trying to get more homes. The biggest concern is the teenagers that live day to day in a different facility. According to state regulations a child can only live in a residential facility for 90 days after that they have to leave and a place has to be found for them. These kids spend their days at Youthville waiting for a home and go from one emergency home to another. For most of the kids schooling is nonexistent. Lippoldt stated that most of the kids want to go to school, want to have friends, and want consistency in their lives. Lippoldt stated that there are approximately 1,400 kids in foster care right now and there are only about 250 homes available, and a home can only have four kids at a time. Lippoldt requested for everyone to think of people that might be willing to try foster care and she stated that she would speak to any group that might have an interest in the Foster Care Program.

2010-06-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

M. Jill Dykes GAL, Topeka, Kansas
"Court Appointed Child Abuser"
1243 SW Topeka Blvd.,Suite B, Topeka Kansas 66617 PH:(785)266-8664

http://www.jilldykes.blogspot.com:80/

If you do not like what is being exposed about you and your corrupt system then do the right thing and stop abusing your power and feeding your ego! We have the right to expose any government entity for fraud, abuse or neglect. You all cannot shut us all up, we have power in numbers.The wind always blows mightily over Kansas as it has for so long, just ask Dorothy. Now the winds of change are upon the dirty family court system in Shawnee County. Well over a decade a Mother in Kansas has fought the court system and its criminals to have visitation with her daughter. Claudine Dombrowski continues to ask the court to follow the custody guidelines for her visitation time. In February 2010 a miracle happened when the Judge actually adhered and allowed the now teenage daughter to have unsupervised visitation with her Mother with no interference from the father. But the continued problems this Mother and Child face is the Guardian Ad Litem for the child, Jill M. Dykes, who wishes nothing more than to keep Claudine from her child. Instead of trying to assistwith fostering a relationship with the Mother, Dykes wants to stay on this case, she wants more taxpayers money to keep her job.Within the transcript of a hearing held in 2009 Ms. Dykes ineptness and bias against Claudine Dombrowski is evident. In the below transcript Dykes continues to interrupt the judge and fervently tries to prevent the judge from allowing unsupervised visitation. Dykes other favorite thing is to submit overtime to the county for keeping a parent and child separated.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/24383015/2009-January-14-GAL-M-Jill-Dykes-Court-Appointed-Abuser-submits-for-OVERTIME-pay

http://ks-fcrc.com/Documents/Richardson%20v.%20Dombrowski%2096D417%204-6-09%20hearing.pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/32128057/2010-Jan-29-Transcript-Hearing-Richardson-v-Dombrowski

Much to the dismay of the court system and specifically Jill M. Dykes this Mother is demanding that the statutes be upheld…otherwise they should terminate her parental rights. It is not something that would be easy for any Mother but perhaps it is the right thing to do, in the best interest of the child and this mother. They have once again started their campaign to end the unsupervised visits. In fact what has been learned by this blogger is that :
“if there is any extended visitation time it would evaporate any progress that the mother and child have made.” That is right, you read that right, the court whores are going to make it very difficult for any mother and child relationship. Therefore until justice is given to Claudine and her child, this blog and others will continue to expose the injustices by Shawnee County and those that profit from it. The winds of change are coming Shawnee…and its a BIG one…
watch out for falling houses Jill

2010-06-04T19:27:00.000-07:00

KS) Daughter Behind Bars for an SRS 'MISTAKE' Bambi Hazen Fighting for her daughter's RIGHTS

News Story here: http://www.ksn.com/mostpopular/story/Teens-truancy-case-results-in-time-behind-bars/OXYe-548hEGOoTmuUv7ZCA.cspx

RUN TOTO RUN!!! SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS OFFICIALS STATED IT IS COMMON PRACTICE TO LOCK AND CHAIN UP CHILDREN FOR TRUANCY!

2010-06-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

Teen's truancy case results in time behind bars

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Teens-truancy-case-results-in-time-behind-bars/OXYe-548hEGOoTmuUv7ZCA.cspx

WICHITA, Kansas -- Ashton Baker was 11 years old when her family took its last portrait together. Now, 15, her life is a long way from picture perfect.
Late last Friday night, police took her from her mother's home and placed her in the Sedgwick County Juvenile Detention Facility. She didn't see her mother again until Tuesday morning at her first court appearance.
"It's hard for me because I see my daughter in handcuffs and shackles for something she never did when you can see all these other criminals walking the streets on parole and probation," said Bambi Baker-Hazen, Ashton's mother.
It all started back in 2008 when administrators at Wilbur Middle School reported Ashton truant -- even though her mother says the school had a faxed notification from the state that she was home-schooling her.
The family's problems escalated when her father reported that she ran away when she went to her mother's house. The state placed Ashton in the Wichita Children's home where she spent 47 days before running away from there.
The case got national attention after Hazen refused to tell a judge where he daughter was.
"I said, 'Okay, handcuff me,' and they did," she said.
Hazen spent seven days in jail. Now, a year-and-a-half later, court documents show Ashton is being held on those original truancy charges.
Baker says since her daughter has a history of running, she is remaining in custody.
"This is injustice at its best," Hazen said.
But victims' advocates question Ashton's treatment.
"We have a right to speak out and when our rights are taken away, because we speak justice and we're concerned about our family and then this level of retaliation is allowed," said Juanita Blackmon with Justice Keepers of Wichita.
A spokesperson for Sedgwick County says the restraints are standard procedure, and even though Ashton's mother has made the case public, they don't feel it's in the best interest of the child to comment.

Judge won't dismiss grandparent's lawsuit against Social Worker

2010-05-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Judge-wont-dismiss-grandparents-lawsuit/ID6KIbvztU-OzgVy28DcKA.cspx

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by grandparents accusing a social worker of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's girlfriend.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled Friday that maternal grandparents Larry and Mary Crosetto had enough facts to overcome the state's claim of qualified immunity for social worker Linda Gillen.
The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argued that Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of the 23-month-old Coffeyville girl, who died in 2008 as a result of head injuries.
The Crosettos sued Gillen in January, accusing her of gross negligence for not protecting their granddaughter despite repeated complaints alleging abuse. The suit does not name the agency as a defendant.

2010-05-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

May 29, 2010
Bambi Hazen
On "The CPS Chronicle"
Discusses How Her Daughter Was
Arrested Again

Listen to internet radio with The CPS Chronicles on Blog Talk Radio

It Just NEVER Ends In Sedgwick County!

2010-05-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

BAMBI HAZEN IS CIRCULATING AN EMAIL WHICH STATES THE FOLLOWING:

Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2010 12:25 PM
Subject: BAMBI HAZENS DAUGHTER ARRESTD AGAIN BY THE SAME OFFICER THAT TOOK HER FROM HOME

THIS IS BAMBI HAZEN,

OFFICER NAGY CAME TO MY HOUSE IN WICHITA KANSAS LAST NIGHT FRI MAY 28TH AND ARRESTED ASHTON AS A RUNAWAY (OF COURSE ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND) I AM ASKING FOR SUPPORT FOR THE COURT HEARING THAT WILL BE HELD I DO NOT HAVE AN EXACT TIME YET IM SURE IT WILL BE ON WED JUNE 2ND 2010 THEY HAVE PLACED HER IN SEDGWICK COUNTY JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER SHE IS NOT A CRIMINAL . I WILL BE FILING A HABEUS CORPUS IN FEDERAL COURT ON TUESDAY ANY SUGGESTIONS OR LAWS THAT WOULD BE USEFUL PLEASE LET ME KNOW THANK YOU !!!!!!! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST WHEREVER YOU WANT TO /NEED TO AND CONTACT WHOEVER YOU FEEL WOULD HELP THANK YOU !!!

PS I AM OUT OF TOWN FOR THE WEEKEND HE ARRESTED HER WHEN I WASNT HOME.

Bambi Hazen seeking Justice in Unjust Sedgwick County Kansas Case. No 08 JC 371
"In the Interest of Ashton"
http://www.countyinneedofchange.blogspot.com/www.myspace/mom_hazhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/states/kansas/2008-12-12-1120627356_x.htm www.myspace/mom_haz http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/states/kansas/2008-12-12-1120627356_x.htm

No rights

2010-05-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

Posted on Fri, May. 28, 2010
Letter from Wendell Turner to the Wichita Eagle Editor

Wendell Turner, Grandparent in Sedgwick County, Has No Rights To His Grandchildren

I was astounded to read the commentary by Shelley Duncan, president and CEO of Youthville, about the wonders of foster care ("Foster parents are the unsung heroes of kids," May 16 Opinion) and the article about the murder of little Brooklyn Coons ("SRS: Social worker not at fault," May 16 Local & State).

Like most states, Kansas doesn't recognize grandparents as having any rights to their grandchildren. When a child-in-need-of-care case comes up in court, grandparents have to register as interested parties to even be allowed to attend. If they register, they are allowed to attend but must not speak. At the first case-plan meeting, which is usually conducted by a Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services contractor, the first thing the grandparents are told is that they don't have rights. That is the law, but exceptions can be made if the grandparents have enough money for the best lawyers or know the right people. How do I know this? I was there.

WENDELL TURNER

Wichita

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/05/28/1333908/letters-to-the-editor-on-memorial.html#ixzz0pEaoLc6K

Abused Mom Wants Unsupervised Visits with Daughter

2010-05-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Kansas Attorney, Jean Ann Uvodich, Testified on CPS/SRS Abuse, Under Trained Social Workers "Say Whatever They Want" Too Much Authority & Power

2010-05-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

Kansas "The Best Interest Of The Child"

2010-05-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Sedgwick County, KS Families Torn Apart On Unfound Allegations

2010-05-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

"THEY'RE MAKING BILLIONS OFF THE BACKS OF OUR CHILDREN".

2010-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

Raynard Price "Ask A Foster Parent Anything- Destroying Kids

2010-05-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

Former SRS investigator claimed that a probe of possible day care fraud might have prevented Damion's death

2010-05-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Posted on Fri, May. 21, 2010

Bloody towel, gun at issue in hearing in case of slain 2-year-old

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle

Affidavit: Toddler's death was avoidable
Grandmother: How did SRS lose child?

As approaching sirens got louder, a neighbor saw DeWhite Cameron take two things from a rental house near 13th and Hillside one day in 2008.
Prosecutors said in court today that those two things turned out to be a bloody towel, later found with trash, and a gun, later found in a brush pile. The towel bore the blood of 2-year-old Damion Thomas, the son of Cameron's girlfriend. The sirens sounded as emergency crews responded to a report that Damion was not breathing.
No evidence indicated the gun was used to harm Damion, but as a convicted felon, Cameron was not supposed to have a gun.
The information came out in a Sedgwick County District Court hearing in preparation for Cameron's trial, which begins Monday with jury selection, and possibly opening arguments that afternoon.
Cameron, 28, is charged in Damion's death with first-degree murder done in the commission of child abuse, and two counts of aggravated battery against Damion and his twin brother.
Damion's mother, Shaneekwa Saunders, has pleaded guilty to aggravated child endangerment and been placed on probation. She admitted leaving her children with Cameron — her live-in boyfriend — while she worked, from April 1 to Sept. 18, 2008.
In a past interview, Cameron's defense attorney, Lee McMaster, has said that part of Cameron's defense "may well be that others, or another, were involved in the death."
Today's hearing also made clear that Damion's older brother, now 5, could be called to testify.
In previous articles about the case, the Eagle has reported:
* That SRS, the state child protection agency, had been involved in Damion's life after his birth because of concerns about his well-being and that SRS closed its case on the family because it couldn't locate them after they moved.
* That Damion suffered abuse for months before a fatal beating, and that he bore bruises and scars from head to toe and extensive internal injuries.
* That Damion's mother was receiving state-funded aid to take him to a day care home — but was not leaving him there — during the period when he was injured. And that a former SRS investigator claimed that a probe of possible day care fraud might have prevented Damion's death — if the investigation hadn't been blocked by SRS, a claim the agency denied.
In court today, after hearing arguments from the defense attorney and from prosecutors about what evidence can be presented, District Judge Greg Waller said he was inclined to allow testimony that as emergency crews approached Damion's home at Erie and 13th, the neighbor saw Cameron carry two things from the home.
Waller said evidence about the bloody towel was relevant but that he thought testimony about the gun would be prejudicial and that the gun was not tied to the boy's injuries.
Prosecutors Kim Parker and Shannon Wilson had contended that the gun also was relevant to Cameron's state of mind and showed that while the boy was in "acute distress" in the home, Cameron was busy taking objects from the house.
McMaster, the defense attorney, also argued with the prosecutors over whether Damion's older brother, who was 3 years and 11 months old at the time of the incident, really understands, at age 5 now, the meaning of telling the truth.
The boy was gently escorted to the witness stand, and a can of root beer was placed in front of him. He slowly twisted back and forth in the seat and smiled shyly. In a soft voice, he said he knew the difference between the truth and a lie.
McMaster told Waller that his client would be at a disadvantage having to face a "darling" child witness and a jury "outraged by the nature of this case."
"Judge, they're going to love this kid (the 5-year-old)... and they're going to love these ladies (Parker and Wilson)." But the jurors will "hate me," McMaster added.
Waller said that although his decision could change, "at this time, I believe he is a qualified witness."
The two sides also discussed how to handle autopsy photos that jurors will see.
Waller said the key is presenting photos if they are relevant evidence, but not if they are repetitive or gruesome.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/05/21/1324728/bloody-towel-gun-at-issue-in-hearing.html#ixzz0oitZJTtj

Bill Medvecky's Letter to the Wichita Eagle

2010-05-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: wjm2644@aol.com
To: newsletters@wichitaeagle.com
Sent: Sun, May 16, 2010 2:26 pm
Subject: STORY ON FOSTER PARENTS.

Sirs,

Since I cannot access my account which sends me newsletters each day, I write to you through this address,

The story you have up concerning the "Unsung heroes" of foster care, is a story that you seem to put out there about once a month concerning the Kansas foster care system.

I have to guess that you do not read the follow-up comments from your readers... This system is not only broken, it is corrupt and actually highly abusive to both the parents and children who come into contact with these businesses.

The CEO of Youthville, Shelley Duncan, earns over $200,000.00 a year. That's not a group interested in children, it's a business.

This group stops HUNDREDS of children who should, and could live with blood relatives, and yet they don't get that opportunity, because there's no money in placing children in relatives care. Federal Law DEMANDS they try to place the children with families FIRST. Yet they place these children in just 10% of the time with family? WHY?
The answer is quite simplke; If Youthville does that, who's going to pay Shelly's salary?

I don't know what the deal is between these vultures and the paper, but if you go back and do a poll of the responses from your readers, you will see that the sale is not being made. You cannot sell this turkey to the people who come into contact with them, and they keep trying to get you to understand that over and over again.

I have people ringing our phones off the hook BEGGING for help in their fight with Youthville and that corrupt D.A. you have, yet you seem to think these folks are as pure as the driven snow. Why?

Do the comments heap praise upon Youthville? Are they ALL just a pack of malcontents? Where are all the folks who think that everything in Kansas Foster care is just ducky?

THEY DON'T EXIST. If you come into contact with these people, your child is nothing more than a dollar sign. They are nothing more than job security for these ghouls.

I have a roll a dex full of people sitting in Kansas who are loosing their grandchildren, nieces and nephews and sons and daughters for nothing more than money. Want to speak to a few? How about ONE?

I ask you to go back into your own archives. Take a look at the comments on these stories and ask yourself how so many folks could be so wrong about this "Wonderful" group and the multi millions of dollars that put smiles on their faces while Kansas children pay the price, even unto death!

Thank you,

Bill Medvecky
wjm2644@aol.com
239-826-3831

2010-05-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

SRS: Social worker had no duty to protect child who later died

Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2010

BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle

An attorney for SRS also contends that because the girl was not in the agency's custody, the state owed no duty to protect her.

The arguments revolve around the case of 23-month-old Brooklyn Coons. Her father's meth-addicted girlfriend was convicted of murder after the girl died from brain injuries caused by her being violently shaken. Melissa Wells Coons is serving a life sentence.

Brooklyn's grandparents, Larry and Mary Crosetto, say they met with Linda Gillen, a veteran SRS social worker based in Coffeyville, and told her they thought Brooklyn was being abused and could be killed if she wasn't removed from the home of her father and his girlfriend. The Crosettos say they offered Gillen evidence but that she refused to act because of a grudge against them.

The legal argument that the social worker had no duty to protect Brooklyn doesn't sit well with her grandfather.

"I thought this was her job," said Larry Crosetto, who is suing Gillen in federal court.

The SRS arguments are in response to the lawsuit the grandparents filed in January. The lawsuit seeks more than $75,000 in damages.

"What we hope to do is get SRS to act in these situations ... and prevent it from happening to another family," Crosetto said.

Brooklyn's death is one of several across the state where families have accused the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) of failing to protect children who were killed.

Child abuse or neglect has taken a heavy toll in Wichita, where police investigated eight child homicides in 2008. Seven of the eight deaths occurred from abuse or neglect by caregivers, police said.

In the past six months, several more suspicious child deaths have occurred in the Wichita area, raising more questions about the SRS role in protecting children.

SRS answers suit

In federal court documents defending Gillen, the social worker, SRS staff attorney Danny Baumgartner cites a U.S. Supreme Court case finding no constitutional duty of government to protect a child from violence committed by an individual.

Baumgartner also argues that Brooklyn was not in SRS custody, so SRS owed no duty to protect her.

The SRS defense is based partly on the idea that while government has a duty to the public at large, it can't be held liable for protecting one person from another individual unless special circumstances exist.

The situation limits government's exposure to liability.

But Larry Crosetto said the argument that government has no duty to the individual doesn't seem right to him.

"If it is the responsibility of government to protect the public, who protects the individual?"

The Crosettos' attorney, Randy Rathbun, argues in court documents that Gillen held a years-old grudge against the Crosettos that caused her to ignore reports of abuse from them and not follow her duty to protect the girl from her father's meth-addicted girlfriend, Melissa Wells Coons.

Brooklyn's mother, Angela Coons, died at age 24 in 2007 after a sudden illness. Brooklyn's death was the Crosettos' second loss.

The grandparents' lawsuit says that Gillen refused to accept photographs showing bruises on the girl a month before her death, which Gillen denies in court documents.

Court documents say, without elaboration, that the Crosettos believe Gillen held a grudge over their adoption of their daughter Angela years earlier.

SRS says Gillen has been employed with the agency since 1974.

The SRS response says Gillen denies having a grudge.

The SRS defense

In a court filing responding to the lawsuit, SRS attorney Baumgartner said (referring to the child, Brooklyn, as "B.I.C."):

* "Even assuming the imminence of danger, and even assuming Ms. Gillen knew about this danger (which Defendant denies), Ms. Gillen was under no duty to protect B.I.C. from a danger Ms. Gillen did not create."

* "Even assuming the 'animus' (which Defendant denies) Plaintiffs claim Ms. Gillen had against them, Ms. Gillen was under no duty to protect B.I.C. from third parties."

The SRS response says that the Crosettos seem to contend that once they met with Gillen about their concerns over Brooklyn, "their hands (and the Police's hands) were tied. This is far from the situation."

The document adds: "Ms. Gillen feels for Plaintiffs' loss, but with all due respect to Plaintiffs there is no Constitutional remedy for them here."

As a state employee, Gillen is entitled to "qualified immunity," SRS says.

Grandparents' case

In the court papers representing the Crosettos, their attorney Rathbun says, "This is not just another case of ... an overworked SRS employee and a report that fell through the cracks. Linda Gillen knew and hated Mr. Crosetto."

Rathbun also said that Gillen "carried a powerful animus that resulted in her refusal to follow her duty and protect" the girl from her father's girlfriend.

The Crosettos' filings provide this timeline:

* On Jan. 17, 2008, Coffeyville police responding to a 911 call found Brooklyn unresponsive and in the care of the girlfriend. Police saw head injuries and bruises on the girl.

* The next day, police placed three other children from the home of Melissa Wells Coons and Randy Coons, Brooklyn's father, into protective custody because of "deplorable" living conditions and the injuries to Brooklyn.

* Three days after the 911 call, Brooklyn died in a hospital.

Before the 911 call, Coffeyville police did not take steps to protect Brooklyn because they "reasonably believed that the defendant (Gillen) was undertaking her statutory obligations to safeguard" Brooklyn and her brother, a court document says.

The Crosettos contend that Gillen took it upon herself to monitor Brooklyn's situation — causing other agencies that could have protected the girl to defer to SRS.

Recently, Brooklyn's father pleaded no contest to aggravated endangerment of a child. He faces sentencing July 1.

Gillen remains a social worker with SRS, the agency says.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/05/16/1315895/srs-social-worker-had-no-duty.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0o6qG4W3M

***********************************************

More on this story to be found on the following links:

Coffeyville couple sues SRS worker after granddaughter's beating death
January 24, 2010
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/01/24/1150653/coffeyville-couple-sues-srs-worker.html#ixzz0o6qcPbzV

SRS seeks dismissal of lawsuit filed by grandparents
March 11, 2010
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2010/03/11/1219764/srs-seeks-dismissal-of-lawsuit.html#ixzz0o6qs79ez

2010-05-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

KC foster parent, David Melton, accused of abusing teen boy

Posted on Thu, May. 13, 2010 12:23

Picture of David Melton
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/13/1943607/kc-foster-parent-accused-of-abusing.html#ixzz0nr1sG6dl

A south Kansas City foster parent was charged today with sexually assaulting a teenage boy in his care.
Jackson County prosecutors charged 49-year-old David Melton with two counts of second-degree statutory sodomy.
The 15-year-old boy told police that he was molested at Melton’s house in January. According to court documents, the boy was living in a residential care facility but spending time at Melton’s house because he was in the process of being adopted by Melton and a partner.
The boy did not initially report the incidents because he said he did not want to be returned to a residential care facility, according to court documents. Melton was questioned by police Wednesday and denied touching the boy inappropriately.

KATHY WINTERS IN THE NEWS

2010-05-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

KATHY WINTER PROTESTING ADOPTIONS
http://kansas.watchdog.org/3734/adoption-protest-at-joco-courthouse/

KATHY WINTERS AND OTHERS TESTIFY BEFORE JOINT COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN’S ISSUES
http://kansas.watchdog.org/2010/compelling-stories-about-problems-with-placement-and-removal-of-children/

SADIE CARPENTER AND KATHY WINTERS BEFORE LEGISLATORS
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=jr_3tsyG0gQ&playnext_from=TL&videos=XSWuCKtEKYc

KATHY WINTERS ON FOX4 NEWS
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=cSZ6wUMBDbc&playnext_from=TL&videos=Xo0w_Gxy_lw

EMAIL FROM KATHY WINTERS

2010-05-15T21:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.flds.ws/2010/05/13/just-follow-the-god-damned-money/

EVERYONE!!! I was just notified on Tuesday that KVC (private contractors) will be adopting my 6 year old (birthday yesterday) grandson, Caleb Winters, to a foster home that was turned in for physical abuse less than a month of receiving him. I have dates of about 20 times that I have seen him when he has had black eyes, swollen lips, pink eye without taking him to the doctor, bruises on his spine, bruising on his face, knots on forehead (I have picture of this when KVC said it wasn’t there) and KVC is allowing this foster family to adopt him. Foster family won’t even let Caleb eat with me when I bring him happy meals. The foster father has said to me that Caleb is their son now even before the adoption is final.

When KVC told me two years ago that they were going to adopt Caleb out, I asked to adopt him and they said no, because of my age and disability (I am 59 and have a disability through the Police Dept.). Caleb lived with me for 16 months and EVERY report to the court was positive regarding my care of Calelb. Then when they decided to adopt Caleb to a foster home, all of a sudden I was a "bad grandma!". Today, they won’t tell me why I cannot adopt my grandson, Caleb, and have stated to me that they (KVC) will not discuss it with me any further.

I am devastated to say the least. I’m still not going to give up. I have filed a federal lawsuit and plan to file an "injunction" to delay the adoption until my lawsuit is over. The adoption is not final and I won’t give up…..NEVER!

My last one hour a month visit with Caleb is Wednesday. Pray for me that I can bear it and don’t lose control. I want him so much to know that I want him but KVC won’t let me have him. I’ve worked for my government for almost 20 years and have no criminal record. This should be criminal….and it is but SOME Kansas legislators won’t do anything about it. Please check with your legislators before you vote this November and even look up how they voted regarding SRS/CPS and private contractors and then vote how your heart tells you to vote. God bless the many legislators that are supporting our cause for family preservation such as Mike Kiegerl, Lance Kinzer, and Jerry Moran here in Kansas.

I will keep fighting for all of us. Pray for my family….it is so hard to accept that me or his other biological family may never see him again. I have not had the nerve to tell some of my family about it yet. Caleb has grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles and aunts (I have 6 sisters), cousins who were like siblings, four brothers and sisters who will miss him terribly. It is like a death in the family but it is not and we cannot seem to get over the grieving of the loss and will NEVER have closure. Caleb is loved deeply by his biological family. God giveth and CPS/SRS and private contractors taketh away.

Please pray for me and my family that we can get through what comes ahead!!!

Stay strong…God is on our side.
Kathy Winters

THE NEXT TIME SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT CPS AND CASA "DO GOOD WORKS", THINK OF KATHY.

The CPS Chronicles

2010-05-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

2010-05-11T17:06:00.001-07:00

**** May 5, 2010 **** "In The Best Interest Of The Child"**** A Wichita, Kansas Mother Was Attacked By The Foster Placement And Suffered Injuries Requiring Surgery

2010-05-11T16:47:00.001-07:00

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS LEGISLATORS ~ RELEASE THESE CHILDREN NOW! ~

2010-05-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Kansas State Representatives and Senators,

I am writing to you today to ask of you to demand that the State of Kansas return 2 little boys back to their mother, the Non-Offending parent. Once again, children have been removed from the home of the non-offending parent and placed in the custody of the state, this is a pattern that continues to happen in sedgwick county and it is destroying the lives of children.

Here in Sedgwick County they think nothing of taking children from safe homes and placing them in foster care, they are NOT educated and they don't care about what it does to a child if removed from the care of a parent. The trauma they are causing, first they are abused by ONE parent and then they are removed from the loving and protective parent, the system is abusing these two boys just as they have with many other children. According to experts, removing children from homes causes SERIOUS TRAUMA http://www.jrplaw.org/Documents/xxharmandlreplacement.pdf

PREVENTING PTSD IN CHILDREN
Adapted from Goodman, 2002
Parental support influences how well children cope after a
traumatic event. Birth, foster, and adoptive parents, kin
caregivers, and professionals can help children by:
• Providing a strong supportive presence
• Modeling and managing their own expression of feelings
and coping
• Establishing routines with flexibility
• Accepting children’s regressed behaviors while encouraging
and supporting a return to age-appropriate activity
• Helping children use familiar coping strategies
• Helping children share in maintaining their safety
• Allowing children to tell their story in words, play, or pictures
to acknowledge and normalize their experience (Not cover-up the abuse as if it never happened, just like sedgwick county does)
• Discussing what to do or what has been done to prevent
the event from recurring
• Maintaining a stable, familiar environment (removing them from their own home where the abuse didn't happen causes secondary trauma)

The State of Kansas is destroying these two little boys, they are NOT getting the proper treatment they should be getting they are being abused while in foster care, they need to be returned to their Mother, they are being forced to visit with the abusive parent, the parent that the family court investigator said sexually and physically abused .

The mother just recently went to the foster care home to check on her children because one of them was really sick during their visit earlier in the day, the mother was told the child would go to the doctor, but that didn't happen, when she arrived at the foster home the foster dad welcomed the mother in the home, but when the foster mother seen her, she turned violent on Valarie the mother, she attacked Valarie, she pushed her out the front door backwards, and Valarie went down on her back. This foster mom is a dangerous person, she has no business taking care of children, she can't even maintain her violent behaviors. (Valarie, the mom has a broken elbow, she has to have surgery next week, her elbow will never be the same) If this foster mom can lose it with an adult imagine what she can do to a child.

The bottom line to this tragic story once again is that these children should of never been placed into foster care, and it's time that someone does something to save these boys from more trauma, the oldest boy isn't doing well, he needs to be home and he needs PROPER therapy, not YOUTHVILLE's therapy. These children have been sexually abused and physically by the dad and they have NOT received any treatment for the abuse, they are only being forced to go to classes with their ABUSER, how could anyone force a victim into classes with their abuser? That would be like forcing a RAPE victim into classes with their rapists, what is wrong with this system? That would be like forcing my daughter when she was a victim of rape, kidnapping, drugging, indecent liberities, and sexual exploitation with her offender. Come on something has to be done to save these boys, they must go home so they can begin to heal and the father must be held accountable for abusing his children. NOT get special treatment by Youthville. If you continue to allow the system abuse of these children then you are just as much responsible for their continued abuse, their not getting the proper treatment.

I and other citizens of Kansas are demanding that these two little boys be released from states custody and placed back in the home of their non-offending parent A.S.A.P and that they NOT be forced to live or visit their abuser without supervision if the boys choose to have supervised visits, they should be allowed to make that decision. It is their safety that is most important.

To all citizens who want to save these two little boys from further abuse please sign and forward this on to everyone you know, just click forward and then sign your name and pass this on to everyone in your email list.

Thank you,
Donna Roberts/Founder
ACRA-A Child's Rights Association
316-529-3179

1. Donna Roberts/Founder of ACRA-A Child's Rights Advocate 316-529-3179

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS LEGISLATORS

2010-05-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

Open Letter to Kansas
From: Shaylene Moore
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 10:31 PM

To: Steve.Abrams@senate.ks.gov
Cc: Pat.Apple@senate.ks.gov ; Jim.Barnett@senate.ks.gov ; Karin.Brownlee@senate.ks.gov ; Terry.Bruce@senate.ks.gov ; Pete.Brungardt@senate.ks.gov ; Jeff.Colyer@senate.ks.gov ; Les.Donovan@senate.ks.gov ; Jay.Emler@senate.ks.gov ; Oletha.Faust-Goudeau@senate.ks.gov ; Marci.Francisco@senate.ks.gov ; David.Haley@senate.ks.gov ; Anthony.Hensley@senate.ks.gov ; Tom.Holland@senate.ks.gov ; Laura.Kelly@senate.ks.gov ; Dick.Kelsey@senate.ks.gov ; Kelly.Kultala@senate.ks.gov ; Janis.Lee@senate.ks.gov ; Julia.Lynn@senate.ks.gov ; Bob.Marshall@senate.ks.gov ; Ty.Masterson@senate.ks.gov ; Carolyn.Mcginn@senate.ks.gov ; Steve.Morris@senate.ks.gov ; Ralph.Ostmeyer@senate.ks.gov ; Tim.Owens@senate.ks.gov ; Mike.Petersen@senate.ks.gov ; Mary.PilcherCook@senate.ks.gov ; Dennis.Pyle@senate.ks.gov ; Roger.Reitz@senate.ks.gov ; Derek.Schmidt@senate.ks.gov ; Vicki.Schmidt@senate.ks.gov ; Jean.Schodorf@senate.ks.gov ; Chris.Steineger@senate.ks.gov ; Mark.Taddiken@senate.ks.gov ; Ruth.Teichman@senate.ks.gov ; Dwayne.Umbarger@senate.ks.gov ; John.Vratil@senate.ks.gov ; Susan.Wagle@senate.ks.gov ; David.Wysong@senate.ks.gov

Subject: FW:FW:FW:FW:FW:RE:An Open Letter to Kansas

Mr. Abrams,

You are my Senator And I need help, please. I saw this e-mail and thought that I might as well ask for help. I cannot leave Kansas right now becuase my child is in foster care. Why? Because I forbid her to go to a party on Saturday night. She sent a text message to a friend. And that friend's mom that I was unfair. The party was filled with drugs, alcohol and sex. My daughter was only 14. Now she is 15 and has been in foster care for over a year. Why? Because social services came to my home unannounced. I let them in thinking that they would surely understand what was going on. The lady looked so nice. But then, she found me guilty of neglect because she said that my daughter's room was too small! Yes, too small. I am a mother of four children. And she had the small bedroom because she was the youngest. After my son turned 18 and went into the military, she would inherit a larger room. But it fit her nicely until that year. But then, they discovered that my ex-husband made a lot of money and went after both of us. I don't make as much money but I work very hard to take care of my children. And now that she is in foster care, I am required to pay them child support.I am taking money away from my other children to meet the state's demands. It would be easier on all of us if my daughter was at home. And she misses me so badly. And she has changed so much. She is so bitter now. So distrustful of everything. She doesn't believe anyone. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that she will be home with her family soon. I hate you Kansas. I hate you! I did not abuse or neglect my child because her bedroom was small. There is a perfectly nice size room waiting for her I am surprisd she didn't also write that my child was wearing hand me downs from her sister. I understand why this Mother cursed you. It is a curse to be involved with you. And it is not a good place to be. I thought Kansas was a much better place but it has so many bad problems that I can't say anything about this state any longer. So please listen to my cries, listen to my daughter's cries, and send my baby back home.

Please. Please. I want my daughter home with me. Her birthday is next week!
She will be 16 and will be in foster care.

-----------------------------------------------------

Dear Senators of Kansas:
Before reading this letter, please note that I make absolutely no apologies for speaking my mind. I am doing the housecleaning of my soul, my spirit, my heart. After all, a clean house is what you want....
One would think that after the big to-do with Brown vs. the Board of Education, the state of Kansas would be a bit more sensitive and concerned about violating parent's and children's rights. One would think...but clearly we are being led by the brainless....
I am a Mother, a Woman, and a Defender of My Home...and right now, I am ticked off that my children are now afraid of YOU, Kansas! They are afraid of your school officials, they are afraid of your police, they are afraid of your neighborhoods, they are afraid of their government. They look out the windows and are now suspicious of everyone. The emotional abuse that you did to my children outweighs any of the false allegations that you threw my way. The verbal abuse of them hearing that their Mother may be unfit, is the worse thing that you could have done.
You destroyed our relationships...completely....and to move to Overland Park and Olathe and feel like "I made it" is a crock of shit.
Okay Kansas Senators, I am writing you this one time (maybe), and to let you know that I am sick and tired of the crap going on in this state, particularly in Johnson County.
SRS social workers are doing their job. They have bills to pay just like the rest of us. But when you talk to them, they are manipulative and just downright liars. And God forbid if you tick one off as she will wield her pen and assassinate your character with a SUBSTANTIATION.
When I hear horror stories of Kansas SRS, the Blue Valley School District and Olathe School District and certain officers with the Overland Park and Olathe police department who collaborate to remove children from the homes of good parents, I am wondering why on earth very few of you Senators, you so-called representatives of the people are not saying anything about it!
Oh, I know why. It's because you know that SRS is the biggest profit center for the state of Kansas. But understand this. This e-mail is going to go viral and spread through Kansas (and the country) like a wild fire.
But I want to know what YOU are going to do to fix this system.
Here's some of my issues:
1. Social Services might contact you and they only have 45 days to close a case...so why do they keep it open for MONTHS? They are breaking their own policies/laws?
2. When they send you a letter that there is a "concern", they like to throw in their abuse and neglect pamphlet that tells you your constitutional RIGHTS. But then they tell you to call them. If you choose not to call them then you are not cooperating.
3. When you go to the Kansas SRS website there is a link for parents. But the freaking link doesn't work! So when you try to figure out how to complain against the Kansas SRS, the first website that shows in Google is the Attorney General's office (Steve Six) and the F.A.Q. all provides bullshit answers about SRS. To anyone reading this, it should be pretty obvious that if the KS Attorney General office devotes that much web page real estate to SRS, then "Houston, we have a problem!"
4. When you request to know what you are being accused of, which most people have a right to know this, you get a reply that they can't tell you because of the privacy of the child. WHAT? Most parents protect the privacy of the child. And most parents don't have time to let people play games with their children like the SRS does. HOW DARE SRS!
5. As far as the right to privacy, how private is SRS when they decide to go and ask neighbors or the school or the police, etc. questions about the child. Yet, have the nerve...the AUDACITY to tell the parent that they don't have the right to know about the child.
6. Kids are placed into foster care, ripped from their homes, and used to make money from the state
Now understand this Kansas. Never in the many years of raising my children have I ever gone through such ignorance in my life. NEVER! It's like you just want to put people in little boxes so that some of the people here can feel comfortable. You want to put people away or make life hard for them because they come with different ideas, different thoughts, and don't let their kids curse them out or disrespect the parental authority.
So understand this, I am leaving. But I will not forget. And thanks to the WORLD WIDE WEB, I and my family will never let you rest. Don Jordan, enjoy that paycheck. Social Workers, if you want to practice law, go to law school! Judges, you are not GOD!
It's on, Kansas....because you have finally pushed me to the point of really ticking me off!
So my advice to any of the SENATORS on this list who want to get back into office...you have heard from "one of the people" and I am adding your e-mails so that as this letter goes VIRAL, then you will hear from other parents. It doesn't matter where they live...we are all dealing with the same IGNORANCE.
Now my house is clean, so get the "F" out! Clean your own house!
We'll be watching you and you better represent your citizens this time, because me and my children and other parents and their children are all going to make sure that our rights are no longer trampled on.
Sincerely,
Mother, Woman, and Defender of the Home
P.S. I may not know all of the facts, but I hope there are others who will write and educate those of you who are collecting votes and paychecks and not addressing this issue.
P.S.S.
To anyone who wants to send a letter, here are the e-mail addresses.
Tell them how you really feel! It's time, Kansas citizens, to no longer allow this to take place.

MOST YOUTHVILLE FOSTER CARE TEENS NOT ALLOWED TO ATTEND SCHOOL

2010-04-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.clearwaterks.org/DocumentView.aspx?DID=66

G:/cheryl/wp60/files/minutes/2007/cmin/mar 27 1
CITY OF CLEARWATER, SEDGWICK COUNTY, KANSAS
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
MINUTES
March 27, 2007
The regular meeting of the City of Clearwater, Sedgwick County, Kansas, City Council was held on Tuesday, March 27, 2007, at 6:30 p.m., in the Clearwater City Council Chamber, City Hall, 129 E. Ross Avenue, Clearwater, Kansas.
The following members were present: J. L. Walker, Mayor, Mike Justice, Mike York, Lyle Berntsen, David FitzGerald, and Casey Carlson. The following staff members were present: Kent Brown, City Administrator; Cheryl Wright, City Clerk; and Janet Amerine, City Attorney. Others present at the meeting were Karen Lippoldt, Youthville; Bob Cumming, Jim Whitney, Rickey Baker, Les Langston, John Mishler, and Farol McMillan, citizens; C. J. Walker, Ronald Jamison, Matt Doffing, Eric Barker, John Westbrook, James Conrad, Cory Whitlock, Leslie Babb, Chris Parker, Aaron Cherney, Cody Struthers, Ronald Jamison, Carlene Stevenson, and Katie Gette, Clearwater High School students.
Mayor Walker called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Walker gave the invocation, which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. The Clerk called the roll to confirm the presence of a quorum.
1. Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 13, 2007
MOTION: Council Member Berntsen made a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting. The motion was seconded by Council Member York and passed unanimously.
2. Mayor’s Recommendations

Mayor Walker with Council consensus appointed Anthony Geissinger as firefighter and Ryan Shackelford for Planning Commission.
3. Public Forum

No one addressed the Council.
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4. Presentation on Youthville – Foster Homes
Karen Lippoldt Foster Care Recruiter/Trainer, representing Youthville addressed the Council. Lippoldt distributed to each Council Member a packet of information on Youthville. Lippoldt stated that Sedgwick County is in a crisis situation with foster kids. There are an abundance of children coming into care and not enough homes. Lippoldt continued to state that she has been going to Council meetings in all the out lying communities in Sedgwick, Sumner, Harper, Butler, and Cowley Counties trying to get more homes. The biggest concern is the teenagers that live day to day in a different facility. According to state regulations a child can only live in a residential facility for 90 days after that they have to leave and a place has to be found for them. These kids spend their days at Youthville waiting for a home and go from one emergency home to another. For most of the kids schooling is nonexistent. Lippoldt stated that most of the kids want to go to school, want to have friends, and want consistency in their lives. Lippoldt stated that there are approximately 1,400 kids in foster care right now and there are only about 250 homes available, and a home can only have four kids at a time. Lippoldt requested for everyone to think of people that might be willing to try foster care and she stated that she would speak to any group that might have an interest in the Foster Care Program.
5. Bids for Parking Lot at City Park
City Administrator Brown stated that the plans for the City Park parking lot is from plans developed by K-State students, reviewed by the Park Advisory Board and approved by the Council. Brown stated that according to the Engineer’s estimate the City does not have enough funds available to pay for the entire parking lot. Brown presented a spreadsheet detailing the bids from the 4 paving contractors. The base bid is for the main part of the parking lot with two separate entrances and exits, excavation, and curb and guttering. Alternate bid #1 is for the Ross Avenue 15 parking stalls to the south of the parking lot along with curb and guttering. Alternate bid #2 is for 22 parking stalls on Ross Avenue west of the current concession stand and on further to the Methodist Church parking on Ross Avenue. Brown reviewed the base bids and the alternate bids.
Contractor Base Bid Alt. 1 Alt. 2 Total
Engineers Estimate 142,244.00 38,194.00 57,786.00 238,224.00
APAC Shears 102,220.00 18,733.50 33,289.00 154,242.50
Cornejo 109,790.00 11,464.00 42,314.00 174,568.00
Kansas Paving 136,681.00 33,726.50 56,766.00 227,173.50
Lafarge 125,015.90 22,555.00 40,370.00 187,940.90
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Brown stated that APAC Shears is the overall total low bidder. Brown continued to state that in the 2007 budget there could be $60,000 available from the Park budget and the drainage budget. If the Council were still interested in doing the project the additional funds would have to be obtained by financing. Brown stated that he advised the bidders due to a couple of circumstances they may not be notified right away as to whether the bid was awarded. Council Member FitzGerald stated that he is in favor of doing the whole parking lot along with the drainage, curb and guttering and getting rid of the ditch on Ross Avenue. Mayor Walker stated that the bids came in less than the Council originally discussed and questioned how the City would obtain financing? Brown stated that he has not discussed financing with the local banks as he was not sure of the amount and if the Council would decide to continue with the parking lot. Council Member Carlson stated that if the total amount of $154,000 was financed then there would be additional funds in the park budget to perhaps do restrooms or some additional park improvements. Council Member Justice stated that he has stated his concerns before and is not sold on the 15 parking stalls on the east. Justice explained that there would be cars backing out at the intersection of Third Avenue and Ross Avenue and at the entrance to the park and that will create a traffic nightmare. The Council discussed at length various portions of the plans for the parking lot and parking stalls. Mayor Walker stated that the Council talked over the same things previously and agreed to send the plans out for bid. FitzGerald questioned if City Administrator Brown would check on various ways for financing? City Attorney Amerine stated that she attended a conference where the Department of Agriculture had a presentation on grants, low interest loans and loan guarantees. A Department of Agriculture project from a rural community with a population of fewer than 20,000 could qualify if it is for off street public parking. Brown stated that first staff needs to know if the Council is still interested in doing the project and direction on the possible amount to be financed. After a brief discussion, staff was directed to check into the Departments of Agriculture grants or low rate interest, and to check with the local banks and to provide various options.
6. Bids – City Equipment
City Administrator Brown stated that the1969 dump truck that is up for bid is for scrap only and not for street use, as a title would not be issued. Brown reported that 3 bids were received for the 1969 dump truck; Ron Lambert $51.00, Rick Baker $175.00 for the truck and $25.00 for the snow blade, and Gary Berger $305.00. Brown requested that if Council accepts a bid that he requests to be in the motion a time frame stipulated for removing the vehicle.
MOTION: Council Member FitzGerald made a motion to accept the bid from Gary Berger for $305.00 for a 1969 International dump truck for scrap with a stipulation that it is to be removed from the sewer ponds in 30 days. Council Member Justice seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
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7. Senior Community Center and Director Update

City Administrator Brown referenced a proposal for the Clearwater Senior/Community Center Advisory Board prepared by several individuals from the Senior Center using Haysville as a model. This is the formal way that allows the Mayor and Council to appoint members to the Advisory Board and a formal way for recommendations to the Council concerning the programs and operations at the building. The structure for the Senior/Community Center Advisory Board will be somewhat like the Library Board. Brown then referenced the Clearwater Senior Center Planning Committee, which is comprised of only seniors above the age of 55. The draft included the wording of membership and the Council discussed that would be changed. The Senior/Community Center is available for everyone in the community to use and there is absolutely no membership involved. Brown then referenced the job description for the Senior/Community Center Director and discussed the recommendations presented by the seniors. Brown explained that in Haysville the Events Planning Committee is in charge of decorations, and setting up the room for events. They are basically a volunteer group. Council Member Justice stated that the proposals presented by the seniors looks fairly good, but his concern is that nowhere does it show the involvement of the Director. Brown stated that in Haysville the Advisory Board is accountable for the funds from Sedgwick County and for the budget with advice from the Director. The Events Planning Committee will have limited funds for activities at the Center and can do fund raising for additional funds. After a brief discussion, the Council advised staff to make the discussed changes to the proposals.
8. Resolution Regarding Ambulance Lease/Purchase Agreement

City Attorney Amerine stated that she reviewed the Resolution provided by Home Bank & Trust for the purchase of an ambulance. Amerine stated that it directs her to review the agreement and negotiate appropriate modifications. Amerine continued to state that the agreement is not prepared and will not be prepared until Home Bank receives the approved and signed Resolution. Council Member FitzGerald questioned if staff was successful in requesting Home Bank & Trust to waive the $300.00 documentation fee. City Clerk Wright stated that the fee is being waived. Mayor Walker stated that the Resolution is Council approval to enter into an agreement for the lease/purchase of an ambulance. Amerine stated that she would review the agreement as soon as it is available. Wright stated that Home Bank is also requesting that the Council approve a Proposal Acceptance. City Clerk Wright assigned Resolution 2-2007.
MOTION: Council Member Justice made a motion to approve the Proposal to enter into lease/purchase financing as written, minus the $300.00 documentation fee, with Home Bank & Trust. Council Member Berntsen seconded the motion and it passed unanimously with Council Member Carlson abstaining.
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MOTION: Council Member FitzGerald made a motion to approve Resolution No. 2-2007 referencing financing an ambulance pending City Attorney Amerine’s review of the agreement before final signature. Council Member York seconded the motion and it passed 4 – 0 with Council Member Carlson abstaining.
9. Wire Transfer Authorization – Home Bank & Trust

City Clerk Wright stated that twice a month a wire transfer is required to send employees 457 Contribution funds to AllFirst Bank. Home Bank & Trust is requesting that all eligible check signers approve the Wire Transfer Authorization. By consensus, the Council approved signing the Wire Transfer Authorization.
10. Access Agreement with Owner of Clearwater Senior Residences

City Administrator Brown stated that the only access to the parking lot of the senior residence from Janet Avenue is thru the Senior/Community Center parking lot. In order to guarantee that the senior residences always have access, Mark Cox of South Crest L.L.C. is requesting an Access and Parking Easement Agreement to guarantee access to Janet Avenue. City Attorney Amerine stated that the agreement also states that if there is overflow parking at the Senior/Community Center they can park in the senior residences parking lot. Brown continued to state that on the construction of the senior residences staff has requested that a drainage outlet be installed in Reserve B and it has been requested several times. All of the drainage from the parking lot goes into Reserve B and there is no exit pipe. Brown stated that Mark Cox operates that he is accessible when he needs something and hard to find when staff requires information. Brown suggested that the Council approve the agreement tonight, but authorize staff to hold the agreement pending installation of the drainage pipe.
MOTION: Council Member York made a motion to approve the Access and Parking Easement Agreement between the City of Clearwater and South Crest L.L.C for access to the senior residences from Janet Avenue. Council authorizes staff to hold the signed agreement pending actual installation of the drainage pipe in Reserve Pond B. Council Member Carlson seconded the motion and it passed unanimously
11. Review Aquatic Center Rates

City Administrator Brown stated that Council requested that staff contact other Aquatic Centers to check on membership prices. Brown stated that he was able to get a copy of a survey that was done recently by another City. Brown reviewed various rates stating that Council Member Carlson had requested a proposal on a family pass to give a break on
G:/cheryl/wp60/files/minutes/2007/cmin/mar 27 6
cost to larger families. Brown stated that when the City had the old pool and family memberships were available, it was difficult to define a family and the pool was losing a lot of money. Since the construction of the new Aquatic Center there have only been single passes for $40.00 and it has been coming very close to breaking even. After reviewing the survey on pool rates and a lengthy discussion the Council suggested to try having family memberships again.
The City will offer a family membership for a family of 4 for $120.00 with each additional family member being $30.00. In order to determine the number of people in the household, it will be by the number of exemptions on the 2006 tax return. If there were any objection to showing the tax return as proof, then a family membership would not be offered. The family membership would be able to be purchased from City Hall and a specified time at the Aquatic Center to be determined at a later date after discussion with the pool manager. All other rates will remain the same for the 2007 season.
MOTION: Council Member FitzGerald made a motion to provide a family membership to the Aquatic Center of up to 4 people for $120.00 with each additional family membership at $30.00 each and available for a specified time period with the proof of amount of family members determined by the 2006 IRS dependents. Council Member Justice seconded the motion and passed unanimously.
At 8:30 p.m. Mayor Walker request a five-minute break.
At 8:35 p.m. the Council returned to regular session.
12. Reports
City Administrator Brown questioned if the Council had reviewed the job description for Fire Chief that was provided in the packet? By consensus, the Council approved the job description.
City Administrator Brown stated that last year at well #7 the chlorine had deteriorated the piping that goes under ground and it had to be replaced. Brown continued to state that a similar thing has happened at well #6 and well #8. The problem is due to the age of the wells and well #6 has the worst deterioration and the plan is to redo it in 2007 and well #8 in 2008. Ernie Misak has had a couple people look at the wells and is recommending that the Council approve the bid from Layne Western for well #6 in the amount of $3,966.00, plus $250.00 if only one well is done this year. By consensus, the Council approved the bid from Layne Western. Brown stated that well #6 is right on the corner of 103rd & Hoover.
City Administrator Brown reported that the old well house by the Aquatic Center has
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been demolished and the new well house has been started. The air stripper has been delivered and is setting on the slab of the new well house. Brown stated that the City has worked with KDHE to get all of the appropriate permits done and ended up forgetting the building permit. City staff had completed the permit for work on well #2 next to the water tower.
City Administrator Brown reported that a police officer has contacted the people at the corner of Hellar & Gorin concerning removing the old refrigerator in the back yard.
City Administrator reported that the new ambulance is due to be delivered on April 16th. EMS Director, Wayland Whitlow is in the process of obtaining the state license. Brown stated that there has been a situation come up that the Medical Society that sets up the protocols they had a problem that with Dr. Papish being the only medical advisor and there was not a backup. That has been worked out with Dr. Young, the medical advisor with Sedgwick County, to be the backup medical advisor. Brown reported that the Ambulance Director has to report to the State Board of EMS and the Medical Society for Sedgwick County in order to keep the Clearwater Ambulance service functional.
City Administrator Brown stated that on Friday a group of 15 senior citizens met and interviewed the three candidates for the Senior/Community Director.
City Administrator Brown reported that on March 17th the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a City Council candidate forum. A tape of the forum will be aired on Community Cable Channel 7.
Council Member Berntsen questioned if there is any word on the repairs for the tennis courts? City Administrator Brown stated that he talked to the contractor concerning the spots where there is a surfacing issue. Brown stated that he does not have a time that the work would be done.
Council Member Justice questioned why the fountains at Chisholm Ridge are not working? City Administrator Brown stated that because of the rain, the level of the ponds are so high that the fountains have been turned off.
Council Member FitzGerald stated that Joe Castor contacted him and he is interested in beginning an astronomy club. Castor requires a place where there is some avoidance from direct light for regular night-sky observing. Castor has checked around the City and a possible site is the firing-range near the sewer ponds. Castor told FitzGerald once he obtains a site for his telescopes. Castor will then be contacting school groups, Scout groups, and other youth in the area. After a lengthy discussion, the Council suggested that Castor check out the brush dump and see if it would be more suitable for his astronomy club.
G:/cheryl/wp60/files/minutes/2007/cmin/mar 27 8
Council Member FitzGerald requested that in the future the check that is received periodically from recycling should be sent to the Unity Lodge #273 at PO Box 304, instead of sending the check to the Lions Club. The Lions Club has not had any involvement in recycling for quite some time. The Masons will then distribute the funds to the organizations that help with the recycling.
13. Executive Session - Personnel
MOTION: At 9:15 p.m. Council Member Carlson made a motion to enter into executive session for personnel reasons for a period of fifteen minutes. Council Member FitzGerald seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
At 9:30 p.m. the Council returned to regular session with no action taken.
Mayor Walker requested a Special Council Meeting on April 3rd at 7:00 p.m.
City Administrator Brown stated that he has contacted Waste Management and the spring cleanup is scheduled for May 4th & 5th. Brown stated that the people with the hazardous waste are not available so it was suggested to have the hazardous waste cleanup on April 26th & 27th.
City Administrator Brown reported that there would be a Transportation Enhancement Grant opportunity in the fall for an 80/20 grant. The downtown plan could be an application in this program.
14. Adjournment
MOTION: Being no further discussion to come before the Council, Council Member Justice moved for adjournment. The motion was seconded by Council Member FitzGerald and passed unanimously.
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CERTIFICATE
State of Kansas }
County of Sedgwick }
City of Clearwater }
I, Cheryl S. Wright, City Clerk of the City of Clearwater, Sedgwick County, Kansas, hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the approved minutes of the March 27, City Council meeting.
Given under my hand and official seal of the City of Clearwater, this 13th day of April 2007.
Cheryl S. Wright, City Clerk

Bill Bowen Is The Guest On The CPS Chronicles

2010-04-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Kansas Representative Neufeld Shuts Down Kansas Grandmother From Testifying On Behalf Of Grandchild

2010-04-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Kansas Representative Melvin Neufeld advocates for foster care knowing that the system has failed children and families. When a grandmother spoke before his committee this year, he cut her off and ended the meeting.

What about Neufeld?
Melvin Neufeld is the same legislator that threatened another legislator to swing a vote or he would tell his wife he was having an affair. BLACKMAIL!
Here's the comments by Neufeld to the other legislator:
Neufeld again stated, "You're voting with us this time. We know you were caught up in the [fifth floor] lounge in a compromising position with two [female] lobbyists earlier this evening. You're voting green or we'll call your wife."
http://www.kscourts.org/Cases-and-Opinions/opinions/supct/1996/19961108/74412.htm

A National Advocate for families wrote a email, see below, to Neufeld on behalf of Summers and other families after reading the article on this link:
http://www.khi.org/news/2010/mar/04/judges-tie-prevention-foster-care-reform

From: Josie P [mailto:info@josieperez.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2010 1:07 AM
To: 'melvin.neufeld@house.ks.gov'
Subject: My Response to request for a respo
Dear Rep. Melvin Neufeld:

I am writing to you as I received an email that was very disheartening regarding your treatment of a constituent during a recent meeting, it is as follows…

During a recent meeting, a Frankie Summers was speaking to you and you walked out and stated that the meeting was over before she finished speaking. As far as families are concerned Mr. Neufeld, 2010 is the year of the family and the year of transparency. My million dollar question is, with you in office, will there be a future where children are raised with their biological families?

During this time, our families and country are suffering economic turmoil and this email is to inform you that we are committed to addressing issues such as yours to our coalition nationwide. With over 30,000 members, our largest group consisting of grandparents, (the largest population of voters) continuing to respond in this manner may affect your returning to office during the coming election. I may be wrong to state that perhaps you are either without children of your own (or without a conscious) to be able to walk away in such a manner (with a smile).

Today, Americans do not have time for individuals who think they are of such stature and entitlement, to respond with disrespect, lacking compassion and so detached from the American people, taking your constituents for granted. I assure you that by the time you read this email, this email has been bcc’d to over 5000 constituents, and by week’s end, a copy of this email will have reached over 100,000+ families and grandparents nationwide. Your actions will be noted by so many American Families, you will be able to Google your name and actually find this story posted on Facebook and every other social networking site available to Americans.

I would just like to reiterate, that although many Americans may not recall exactly what took place on that momentous day the constitution was signed by our forefathers; one thing Americans can declare with certainty is that, America still continues to remain, “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” God Bless America and to those who continue to stand up for the right to the pursuit of happiness, morals, their belief in God and justice for all. That when our government finalizes the stripping of our rights to the following listed will be the day you no longer have a population of souls to govern and serve. You should feel blessed that there are still human beings with good will and love still in their souls. For the way this country is going, with all the foster care, adoptions, institutionalized drugging and abuses being deployed at an alarming rate, violating the very human and constitutionals rights of these children of the future; your children and grandchildren will be left with the remains of animalistic behaviors, pedophiles, violent criminals and vegetables; a reality that is foreseeable in the near future by the way the circumstances present themselves today. For our country has reached a critical point now, and the only answer our government speaks of is of our being un-patriotic; yet, in being a patriot is the acquiring of another labeling; for intelligent is the individual who knows it’s about our treatment for one another, as humans beings, respecting others and acting with consciousness and remorse, knowing that there will be consequences for the ignoring of these injustices, whether it be now, or before God.

As per email received, it states the following:
Ms. Summers read a four-and-a-half page, single-spaced statement that found fault with every police officer, social worker, counselor, attorney and court worker who had dealt with her granddaughter and daughter.
After 15 minutes, the committee chairman, Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, asked Summers to finish. Summer said she wasn’t finished and continued reading.
After a few seconds, Neufeld said the hearing was over and got up to leave. Summers objected, saying it wasn't right that Neufeld had listened to Burgess and not to her.
Neufeld, a key player in the privatization initiative, smiled and left the room.
Sincerely,
Family Rights Advocator
J. Perez

2010-03-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

Kansas Representative Mike Kiegerl emails his constituents to let them know how hard he has worked for them. Mike is not shy about telling of his frustrations including the illegal activities by Kansas Child Welfare Services aka Social and Rehabilitation Foster Care Services.

Mike is the Chair for the Children's Issues Committee.

Below is Mike's latest email which includes this comment:

"""KID'S ISSUES I am frustrated that no meaningful legislation has been passed to correct the mismanagement, malfeasance, and waste of money by SRS. My committee has fully documented abuse and financial irregularities in this agency. The interest by the Governor and legislative leadership is not great enough to make the necessary changes this session. The idea seems to be that a new Governor and a new Secretary will be in office in January and then we will act. There are a couple of small measures in the pipeline still, but certainly not what needs to bedone. We’ll go to bat next session."""

((SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS OF MALFEASANCE AND HE SAYS HE HAS PROOF!!! AND THE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES HAVE TO SUFFER ANOTHER YEAR BECAUSE THE GOVERNOR AND OTHER LEGSILATORS DON'T CARE???))

Read below the entire email:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Rep. Mike Kiegerl
To:
Sent: Mon, March 29, 2010 12:33:31 PM
Subject: Legislative Week 11 - 2010

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS
We only met for three days this week, two of which were long, 12 and
14 hours respectively, to complete the bills on general order.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday are reserved for House/Senate Conference
Committee meetings to iron out differences between bills passed by
both Chambers but which differ in content or terminology. When these
differences are great, many meetings are necessary to arrive at a
compromise acceptable to both. Once the conference committee produces
the final version of a bill, both Chambers have another vote to concur
to finally send it to the Governor for signature. During the debate to
concur/non concur, no amendments or changes are possible; only an up
and down vote to accept or reject.

BILLS WORKED THIS WEEK (vote count in parentheses)

Passed with my support:

HB 2685 Personal and Family Protection Act (65-57)

H Sub for SB234 Civil procedure garnishment (120-2)

H Sub for SB 269 Compensation awards eminent domain procedures
(117-5)

H Sub for SB 305 Tort claims act (122-0)

H Sub for SB 306 The concealed carriage changes (107-15)

SB 359 School districts, special ed (107-15)

SB 362 School districts, teacher contracts (109-13)

H Sub for SB 377 Construction contracts, liens registry (84-38)

H Sub for SB 381 Criminal procedure, threat, or use of force (120-2)

SB 388 Insurance regulation (93-29)

SB 452 Alcoholic beverages, licensure (122-0)

H Sub for SB 514 The Community Defense Act (106-16)

SB 519 Courts, electronic payment (122-0)

SB 537 Claims against real property, liens (122-0)

HCR 1614 The rainy day fund amendment to the constitution (102-20)

SB 541 Court of Appeals, number of judges (122-0)

SB 262 Emergency medical service, attendants (122-0)

SB 387 Claims against the state (122-0)

SB 414 The Health Care Stabilization fund (122-0)

SB 415 Municipal bonds, investment (121-1)

SB 475 Funeral directors (118-4)

SB 491 Respiratory therapists (122-0)

SB 500 Healing arts excepting a prohibited act

SB 513 Building construction alternative project delivery (122-0)

HB 2415 Surplus property, educational institutions (121-1)

HB 2418 Carbon dioxide reduction, state liability (122-0)

HB 2468 Sex offender registration (122-0)

HB 2547 Vehicle dealers licensing act (114-8)

SB 464 Payment of taxes (120-0)

HB 2578 Property taxation, refunds loans to counties (120-0)

SB 326 Crime victim’s compensation (120-0)

SCR 1615 Claiming State Sovereignty under the 10th Amendment
(109-11)

HB 2166 Late term abortion (89- 33)

HB 2448 Water data depositary (92-30)

HB 2620 Firearms Freedom Act (95-27)

HB 2669 The Kansas Employment Initiative Act (121-1)

SB 67 Mistreatment of a dependent adult (22-0)

SB 83 Naturopathic doctors (109-13)

SB 146 KPERS furloughed employees (118-4)

SB 293 School buses length of service (116-6)

SB 300 Special license plates (116-6)

SB 368 DUI Interlock devices (122-0)

SB 372 Guardianship, conservatorship (122-0)

SB 410 Electronic payments (121-1)

SB 449 Medical gas installers (90-32)

SB 460 Concerning children permanency priority of certain orders
(119=3)

HB 2566 Agriculture (112-10)

HB 2643 Establishes a committee to simplify the state tax structure
(120-4)

HB 2520 Willful failure to collect tax (23-1)

HB 2521 Electronic filing of taxes (106-18)

HB 2689 Taxes Pottawatomie, Kingman counties (123-1)

SB 430 Income tax, credits, limitations (119-5)

HB 2671 Fire marshals reporting to insurance commissioner (67- 52)

HB 2107 Police, firemen retirement, pension (119-0)

SB 373 Municipal courts (113- 6)

SB 394 Pesticide education (119-0)

HB 2440 Criminal procedure (119-0)

HB 2581 Criminal procedure (118-1)

These bills I could not support:

SB 310 Marriage license fee waiver (64-58)

SB 463 Increasing bonded debt limits (105-18)

SB 382 Housing loan deposit, changing requirements for borrowers
(92-30)

SB 313 Limiting KS development finance bonding authority

SB 346 Cost of offenders in custody (92-30)

HB 2666 Animal health dept fee increase (93-29)

SB 461 Compensation of magistrate judges (86-34)

HCR 5032 THE HEALTH CARE FREEDOM CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

This required a 2/3 majorities in both House and Senate. It was
fairly certain that the Senate had enough votes, therefore the House
acted first. We voted three times but never reached the 84 we needed.
Not unexpectedly, the Democrats supported their party in charge in
Washington but it was the usual suspects of so-called
“Republicans” in Topeka who put them over the top.

This bill would have given Kansans the opportunity to vote on a
constitutional amendment to preserve the freedom to provide for the
health care of their choice. I co-sponsored the amendment and several
representatives spread the following remarks over the Journal of the
House indicating their strong support, but to no avail as we never got
more than 77 of the 84 votes needed. :

“Mr Speaker: We support Health Care Reform that lowers cost,
improves access, and portability of insurance. Shifting the high cost
of care today from the individual to the tax payer is no solution. If
the medical profession loses its humaneness and patients become lost
in a sea of bureaucracy and quotas, patients will be hurt and many
bright and talented people will not want to become doctors. We must
encourage competition. We believe Kansans want the right to choose
their own health care plan, hospital, and doctor.”

Also, “Mr Speaker: My constituents are dismayed that in the past
16 months they have become part owners of General Motors, numerous
large banks and other financial institutions and that, as tax payers,
they are co-signers of more than a trillion dollars worth of mortgages
and student loans.

We do not believe that the government should own or partially
nationalize these industries nor should it control 1/6th of our
economy which is what the Bill passed last Sunday does. Kansans should
have the choice to vote on this amendment.”

It will take four years before the new law will take full effect but
we will start paying for it now. While no one knows the details of
this 2,700 page act, certain conclusions can be drawn based on what
has been published. There will be fewer choices of providers and there
will be rationing of care based on some economic calculus. Decisions
on treatment will move from physician to a bureaucrat, and you will be
forced to buy insurance approved by the government. Coverage for
illegal aliens and for abortion is paid by the taxpayer. Nothing
desirable so far. Will we have a health care system which serves the
people? Undoubtedly, but certainly at lesser service and quality as
our current one, as flawed as it is.

THE 2010 VOTER SURVEY, RETURNS ARE COMING IN

….and I thank you for that. We mailed 4,700 and so far we have
about 900 returns. We will start tabulating April first and advise you
of the data collected. We’ll share the raw numbers with the other
Representatives who are doing the same survey in their district. This
will give us a sufficient sample of the views of the electorate.
Almost all have written commentary and I will read them all during the
April recess and report back to you.

I much appreciate the contributions we find in many of the
envelopes, thank you. This will help in the upcoming campaign. This is
not a moneymaker, nor do I expect it to be. The mailing was $2,900 and
I’ve received about $800. But I also got a couple of hundred new
subscribers to my newsletter and valuable information. Please send it
in and don’t worry about money.

EDUCATION PROPAGANDA – DON’T FALL FOR IT

The latest government bulletin by Kansas Association of School
Boards (KASB) has this headline: "Committee recommends $172 million
cut for school; districts.” Really? The recommendation was to fund
schools at the same level as last year. The $172 million are federal
stimulus funds which were given last year but not this year. The
school districts knew that would be the case for a year and had the
opportunity to adjust their spending.

Cost for non-instructional overhead is still too high. Years ago we
mandated that 65% of funds allocated must go into the classroom and we
let KASB define what that means. They included nurses, librarians,
teachers, and the necessary materials but we’re at less than 60% of
that mandate state wide.

We know that reducing the districts from 293 to 40 will save $300
million annually, but KASB is fighting that tooth and nail. Fixing the
costly funding formula will also save millions; same violent
opposition. Finally more flexibility with the unencumbered balances
would also be helpful.

Independent audits have been offered to districts to help find areas
of savings. These have been very successful, with one district saving
over $1 million alone. The audits are performed by legislative post
audit a non political, neutral agency. Only six of 293 districts have
participated so far (none in Johnson County.)

We can and must reduce cost in K-12 but not at the expense of the
teachers or what goes into the classroom. We ought to concern
ourselves with the question why a superintendent should get a raise
and make six times what a teacher gets while the board cuts the
Parents as Teachers program. Don’t blame the legislature.

LAST WEEK’S VISITORS

Thomas Foster, Chief Judge, Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning and
one of his officers, Captain Robert Keller, Johnson County Commission
Chairlady Anna Beth Surbaugh, Megan Woods of the Salvation Army (who
brought a half dozen donuts), Calvin Hayden, Johnson County
Commissioner.

It is always nice to see a constituent but please call for an
appointment so we can visit in leisure. 785-296-7682.

GUTTA CAVAT

…lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo. If your Latin is rusty, that
means, “The drop of water does not hollow the stone with force but
by constantly falling.” Determination matters. For three years I
have been trying to pass a bill which will provide insurance coverage
for hearing aids. The opposition is fierce; the insurance lobby hates
it, the insurance commissioner does not want it and many legislators
don’t want to vote for mandates.

But I’ve been persistent. Forgetting the lobbyists, I first worked
on the commissioner. Last year, she shifted from opposed to neutral
which helped. Next, I began working on colleagues from both sides of
the aisle. I befriended one of the Dem leaders and she worked on her
caucus and I was confident this time I had the votes. (First year the
bill received 13 votes, second 32, last year 53, but I needed 63.)

It is now too late to introduce a stand alone bill. I started
looking for a bill to amend it into. I thought I found one Tuesday but
my amendment was ruled “not germane,” so it is back to the drawing
board. I hope to find a Senate bill to tack my amendment on. If I
cannot find one, I pre file it as a freestanding bill for next
session. This will give me time to work on the Senate. God willing,
I’ll pass this soon.

KID'S ISSUES

I am frustrated that no meaningful legislation has been passed to
correct the mismanagement, malfeasance, and waste of money by SRS. My
committee has fully documented abuse and financial irregularities in
this agency. The interest by the Governor and legislative leadership
is not great enough to make the necessary changes this session. The
idea seems to be that a new Governor and a new Secretary will be in
office in January and then we will act. There are a couple of small
measures in the pipeline still, but certainly not what needs to be
done. We’ll go to bat next session.

I’M NUMBER 160

This will really upset the retromingent nasty old lady who keeps
accusing me of catering to fat cats and special interests—but never
naming who these people are. The latest HAWVER’S REPORT lists
gratuities from lobbyists to legislators. When lobbyists wine and dine
you they must fill out a report which includes how much they spent. Of
the 168 legislators on the list in Topeka, I rank 160. Only 8 got even
less than I did, and two of those have been absent because of major
illness.

I have a policy of not accepting after hour invitations because I
commute and I want to be with my saintly wife, who has been cancer
free for six years, thank GOD. Lobbyists are free to come to my office
and they frequently do to bring data, information, and their view of
bills. I appreciate their efforts.

THE KANSAS OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION

…asked me to tell you about the SEE TO LEARN program which is a
wonderful, free vision assessment for three year old children. These
fine folks have donated over $2 million in care through this program.
Good eyesight is a prerequisite for learning and you should take
advantage of this program for your child. For more information or an
appointment, call 800-960-EYES or go to www.seetolearn.com

.

SENIOR NOTES

The Federal Trade Commission has a new guide on health topics
important to seniors. These include generic drugs, hormone therapy,
hearing aids, and medical ID theft. Call 877-382-4357 or go to
http://www.ftc.gov/whocares
.

Aging related legal matters dealing with health care planning and
financial decisions can be obtained by calling 203-221-6580 and asking
for a copy of "Legal Matters."

Social Security has a service which will expedite disability claims
for applicants with severe medical conditions. Using it will get you a
decision in days. To see whether you qualify click on "Appeal Request
and Appeal Disability Repor

t."

THE HOUSE BUDGET PROPOSAL

The House Republican leadership proposed a budget which does NOT
include a tax increase and which will have a $302 million ending
balance. The key provisions are as follows:

Funding K-12 at the same level as last year but not replacing the
$172 million the Feds will not provide

A 5% pay cut for all state employees

Freeze KPERS employer contribution at the 2010 level in 2011

Delay $24 million in disaster assistance

Institute a state wide hiring freeze

An across the board 1% SGF reduction except for K-12

Pulling $450 million from KDOT

Recapturing Medicare/Medicaid liabilities

And some other provisions.

This is a first proposal and will need to be vetted, but should be a
basis for discussion. The democrats want to postpone all decisions
until May 3rd, the end of the session, at which time they’ll want to
advocate for a huge tax increase. I hope I’m wrong. Stay tuned.

THE LAST WORD

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked
like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.

Ronald Reagan

--
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No Surprise On This ONE! The Sedgwick County DA's Office Likes the Child Molesters!

2010-03-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

DA Declines to File Charges Against Camelot Nurse
Posted: Feb 26, 2010 11:37 AM CST
Updated: Mar 02, 2010 3:52 PM CST

http://www.kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=12051021

No charges related to reported sexual abuse will be filed against a Camelot nurse.Latest Update

The Sedgwick County District Attorney's office declined to file charges against a nurse at the Camelot Center. The nurse was suspected of having sex with a 17-year-old staying at the treatment center.

A spokesperson says there was "no evidence to prove anything criminal was committed."

Police don't plan to investigate the case further. The nurse will still be charged in municipal court for Batter of a Law Enforcement Officer.

------------------

Original Coverage (2/26)

By Megahn Snyder (WICHITA, Kan.)

A nurse at a treatment center for teens could face charges for having sex with a 17-year-old client.

Wichita police tell us someone saw the woman leave the Camelot Center in Riverside with the boy early Thursday morning. The witness called 911. Police later responded to the woman's southeast Wichita apartment where they found the teen and the woman.

She was booked on one count of unlawful sexual relations for allegedly having sex with the teen who was locked up at the facility. She could also face battery charges for fighting the officers who arrested her.

2010-03-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

9 former employees sue Topeka juvenile facility
http://www.kansas.com/2010/03/09/1216705/9-former-employees-sue-topeka.html

The Associated Press
· http://www.cjonline.com
TOPEKA, Kan. - A closed juvenile center in Topeka has been sued for discrimination by nine former employees.
In the federal lawsuit, the former employees of Forbes Juvenile Attention Center allege that they were subjected to racially insensitive jokes, intimidation and disparities in job evaluations.
The nine employees are seeking $500,000 in damages.
Scott Henricks, an official with center's parent company said the company wouldn't comment because it didn't know about the lawsuit.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported last year that a 12-year-old resident alleged he was repeatedly raped because of insufficient staffing and room checks at the center. The company settled that lawsuit out of court in late November.
The center closed a few weeks after the story was reported.
Information from: The Topeka Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com

*************************************************************************

Youth detention center in 'chaos'
http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-10-17/youth_detention_center_in_chaos

Created October 17, 2009 at 9:30pm
Updated October 18, 2009 at 1:15am
Insufficient staff numbers and inadequate room checks by a Topeka juvenile residential center opened the door for a 12-year-old boy to be repeatedly raped by his roommate over three days in January 2008, a civil lawsuit claims.
"The rape, sodomy, sexual assault and sexual battery could not have happened if the boys or men were properly supervised," reads the suit.
The suit, filed last year in Shawnee County District Court against the owners of Forbes Juvenile Attention Facility, isn't the only place to find concerns about the welfare of residents of the facility.
Other issues related to the treatment of residents have been raised in inspection reports, internal memos and the words of former FJAC workers. Allegations of racial discrimination and questions about how FJAC administrators notify authorities of alleged abuse also have been raised.
The problems, former staffers say, allowed sexual misconduct to go unnoticed.
"The last couple months before I left, it was chaos," said Clarence Tyson, a shift supervisor who resigned in late 2008 after seven years at FJAC.
The allegations are just that -- allegations, the FJAC administration said. Terry Campbell, executive vice president for Clarence M. Kelley Juvenile Justice Resources, which owns FJAC, said a handful of unhappy workers have already made similar claims to other governmental agencies.
"I'm sure SRS has received them, KDHE has received them, JJA has received them, the governor has probably received them," Campbell said. "It's because we've got disgruntled staff, former employees. They're not the majority of the professional staff that we have."
Campbell said there have been only six reports of sexual misconduct at FJAC since 2007, and only two were sexual assaults.
FJAC, located at Forbes Field at 6700 S.W. Topeka Blvd., is a privately run youth residential center, a nonsecure group home for male juvenile offenders that houses up to 56 youths ages 12 to 17. The offenders sent to FJAC aren't the most dangerous in the juvenile system, thus one reason why it isn't a locked facility.
Since a new administration took over at FJAC in late 2007, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has investigated 20 complaints there. That is more than any of the 29 similar facilities contracting with the state except for one -- Camelot Lakeside in Goddard, which has had 26 such complaints. Many of the complaints against FJAC allege insufficient staffing led to the incidents.
And at least six workers -- five former and one current -- have filed state or federal discrimination suits in 2009. In addition to alleging black workers were treated differently, some of the suits say employees feared retaliation for reporting alleged abuse to authorities as required by regulations and law.
Campbell points out most allegations by the former employees and allegations investigated by KDHE couldn't be substantiated.
Ward Loyd, chairman of the Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, said he hadn't heard of the allegations but said "where's there's smoke, there's usually fire."
"It's certainly unfortunate to hear that we've got these types of allegations with any Kansas facility," he said. "The whole issue with having them placed in these kinds of facilities is to provide for their needs, not to complicate them."
Civil suit
The 12-year-old plaintiff in the current civil suit against FJAC was referred to the facility in late 2007 or early 2008 by case manager Kenyetta Byrd. Soon after, an FJAC worker contacted Byrd concerned about the boy's small size. According to a February 2008 report by the Juvenile Justice Authority's inspector general on the incident, the caller told Byrd the boy would be "eaten alive."
"They didn't even have clothes small enough to fit him," said Toni Wash, a drug and alcohol counselor who worked at FJAC from late 2007 to late 2008. "Everyone was asking why he was there."
Campbell said he wouldn't comment on any incident under litigation. In addition to the civil case against Kelley Juvenile Detention Services, the roommate suspected of raping the 12-year-old is facing criminal sodomy charges in juvenile court.
Immediately after Byrd got the alarming call from the FJAC worker, another case coordinator called and told her to disregard the previous caller. The boy was then placed at FJAC.
The alleged rape and sodomy occurred from Jan. 22 to Jan. 24, 2008, and as soon as FJAC learned about it, officials there contacted authorities. The lawsuit claims FJAC workers didn't conduct room checks every 15 minutes as their policy mandated. The inspector general's report says room-check logs contained blanket statements about the whole floor without specific mention of individual room checks.
In an e-mail to Campbell on Feb. 14, 2008, Kelley administrator Scott Henricks conceded some fault.
"The cause of the alleged incident can partially be attributed to staff error," he wrote.
In its court response, however, FJAC flatly denied the allegations of improper staff work.
JJA commissioner Russ Jennings said:, "Is there a concern that staff aren't checking rooms regularly? Yes, there certainly is."
Mona Brown, a floor staffer for more than a year until she was fired in January, said she wasn't surprised something happened.
"The staff ratio just wasn't there," she said. "That is the thing that sets it up for things to happen."
Runaway
The alleged rape isn't the only incident in which inadequate supervision has been an issue at FJAC.
A KDHE investigatory report from March 19, 2009, chronicled how a resident stole a worker's cell phone and her car after FJAC staff members left him in a visitation room alone with instructions to stay put.
After meeting for 30 minutes and then going to their offices for another 20 minutes, staff members returned to the room to find the boy gone.
A security video would later show him walking up and down the halls on both floors. The report stated the boy roamed the halls for "approximately one hour and was able to steal a teacher's cell phone and car keys and then exit the building and steal a car without being noticed or missed."
"There was not adequate staff to supervise youth at all times," the report said.
The incident was reported to Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority police, but it wasn't immediately reported to KDHE, as required by FJAC's own policies. It was two weeks before KDHE was notified.
Campbell said it was important to remember residents aren't locked up at FJAC.
"One takes off, one steals a car, and the issue we have is why didn't we tell KDHE about that at the time?" he asked. "Well, we should have (notified KDHE), but I think our primary concern is getting the police notified, making sure the kid is all right and make sure no one gets hurt."
It wasn't the first time KDHE, which shares oversight responsibilities with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, heard of a such problem.
KDHE has received five complaints ranging from sexual activity between the boys to runaway youths, all of them blamed on a lack of staffing. Three of the complaints were unfounded, KDHE said.
But a Jan. 14, 2009, investigative report found evidence of inadequate staffing. The visit to FJAC was prompted by allegations another 12-year-old -- not the boy in the lawsuit -- was sodomized by his roommate. The KDHE report stated staff ratios were in compliance at the time of the incident, but a review of the previous year's records by the agency showed 14 shifts weren't staffed properly.
The report said FJAC administrator Jeff Sampson stated he had hired six to seven new employees and was at that time fully staffed.
KDHE's findings were conservative, said Sue Mayhan, who was the second-shift supervisor from October 2008 through May 2009.
"In the eight months I was there, we might have had adequate staffing three months," she said.
Clarence Tyson, a first-shift supervisor who left in late 2008 after seven years at FJAC, said employees were "always asking about staffing."
"Sometimes they'd have 14 or 15 kids on a unit and only one staff," he said.
KDHE requires facilities like FJAC to have at least one staff member for every seven residents during waking hours and one employee for every 10 at night.
In a Nov. 2, 2008, memo, floor staffer Alan Barr wrote to Sampson, "I continue to be on the wing constantly by myself, and I feel my safety is in question."
Campbell wouldn't comment on specific incidents but said KDHE's lack of findings on most of the claims was vindication. He said any problems with staffing were most likely the cause of employees calling in sick, and any issues were immediately addressed.
He said maintaining a consistent staff can be difficult in a facility with juvenile offenders. Since 2007, the facility, which ranges from 40 to 60 workers, has employed 111 people.
Jennings said in his experience running a juvenile detention center in western Kansas, "There's a multitude of issues in terms of recruitment, retention and trainability of employees."
How the facility responded when things did happen is the source of former employees' complaints to KDHE and the Kansas Human Rights Commission.
'Tom, Dick and Harry'
Former employees' statements, complaints to KDHE and claims in discrimination filings allege staff members were routinely discouraged by Sampson from reporting alleged abuse or misconduct to authorities.
Mayhan said Sampson questioned her in November 2008 when she heard an allegation of sodomy and called the MTAA police and other authorities.
"He said it was stuff like that that can get a facility closed down," she said. "He told me I call MTAA too much and that KDHE keeps getting the reports on us and that it's not good for us."
Mayhan said Sampson later told her and other staff members he was tired of having SRS and KDHE investigating "for every Tom, Dick and Harry thing."
Campbell said he wouldn't comment on any personnel matters. He said allegations of employees being discouraged from reporting incidents have appeared in at least some of the discrimination cases filed with KHRC.
Sexual misconduct
Wash said she experienced the same roadblock when she reported a possible case of sexual misconduct involving a resident in November 2008. After pushing the incident up the chain of command and getting nowhere for weeks, she said, she got a meeting with Sampson.
Wash said Sampson told her he hadn't heard anything about the incident. Soon after, she said, she began to get written up on a weekly basis.
She believed it was an effort to build a case for firing her, which happened in December 2008.
Campbell said he wouldn't go into specifics but said Wash wasn't fired for pushing to report the incident. He also said there was an investigation by SRS and MTAA police and that Wash was involved in it.
Wash said she was never contacted by anyone investigating the incident.
The Kansas Department of Labor, in determining whether Wash should get unemployment benefits, said there wasn't enough evidence to show her "alleged actions were a violation of a duty."
Months later, in an investigative document dated March 19, KDHE asked about allegations that staff members didn't do anything about an alleged sexual misconduct between two residents. Sampson told the agency: "He had checked into the incident and was not able to verify that the incident did occur. He did separate the boys at the time."
'That's my call'
In another incident in April 2008, Tyson heard allegations a floor staff member was crawling into bed with residents in the morning. He told the staff and residents to write memos.
"Resident (unnamed) said that Mr. K comes into their room and lays in the bed with them to wake them up," reads one of the memos dated April 9, 2008. "Resident said that he grabbed his toes while he was in the bed."
Tyson said he placed the documents in the mailboxes of the case worker, building supervisor and Sampson.
A few days later, Sampson came to the floor and asked the kids what happened, said floor staffer Brown. She said the residents told Sampson they didn't want the staffer fired. Brown said Sampson told the floor's staff and residents he wouldn't fire the employee and that no one was to call SRS.
"He said, 'That's my call,' " she said.
In addition to the requirement in JJA's provider handbook and in FJAC's own operations manual to report such incidents, it also says the administration should never "interfere or otherwise attempt to alter the report of an abuse/neglect claim made by an employee of the facility."
Interference in reporting such an incident is also a class B misdemeanor under Kansas statutes.
That is why Campbell said FJAC never discouraged reporting.
Tyson said a few weeks went by after the memos were sent to Sampson and the staffer was still on the floor.
"I thought something should happen, maybe a suspension with pay until the veracity was checked out," he said. "It struck everyone as odd that he was still around."
Tyson said the staffer eventually was made an intern case worker for a few weeks before he left the facility.
The policy
Campbell said FJAC takes very seriously its obligation to report abuse. He said he was sure any staff member who felt a youth was being harmed would report it to the authorities, "and if they don't, they're negligent." But he also laid out the company's multilayered policy for reporting incidents.
"Staff should be reporting it, first of all, to their supervisor and the administrator, and if they don't feel it's being addressed then they should report it to our corporate compliance officer," Campbell said. "If they're not satisfied then, then they can always go to outside agencies."
He said employees would only face possible reprimand for reporting out of turn.
Rep. Pat Colloton, R-Leawood, chairwoman of the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, said that isn't how the law reads.
"It sounds like they've got a horrible policy in place that goes against the SRS intent," she said.
JJA commissioner Jennings said it isn't unreasonable for a facility to have a policy that requires the staff to report alleged abuse to superiors first so they can try to address the problem immediately. But that policy shouldn't be used as "a process of screening of what is reported or not."
"Really an employer shouldn't do anything that dissuades an employee from doing their statutory requirement to report alleged abuse," he said.
That being said, Jenning said, FJAC and other contractors "are in a position that they are able to ensure the environment is healthy and safe."
Campbell reiterated that most of the allegations haven't been substantiated by any state agency.
"Allegations can be made by people that maybe aren't the happiest with their employers," he said. "We're very concerned by every allegation. That's why we want to look into them."
James Carlson can be reached at (785) 295-1186 or james.carlson@cjonline.com.

2010-03-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

Twitter posts from Kansas Watchdog "hearings" (if you want to call them that) on foster care issues. It is posted below:
"SRS Jordan saying not everything said at hearings last year was true"
Who is Jordan saying is the liar this time?

#ksleg Jordan: "Checks and balances are built into the system". Removal should be for serious harm. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg Jordan: When at all possible childeren should be placed with natural family. Removal harms child. Must save from worse harm. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Holmes: People in position of power have tremendous responsiblities. There are horror stories about removals? Safeguards? about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg Jordan: "Life is messy". We can always do better. Compare to other states. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Neufeld asking Jordan about ideas to improve the system. Jordan: Statutes are fine, but there are things to fix. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Neufeld: "Don't need details" but need to do what is best for kids. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Tietze asking "Where are you on confidentality"? Jordan: "Laws are to protect the child". Hurts us as an agency. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg Document about "Sunshine is good for children" from DC: http://tinyurl.com/yln7umr about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg No one at hearing talking about how "Sunshine is good for children" http://tinyurl.com/yzvsv4z about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg Jordan saying "their view of realty" isn't what is seen by SRS. State Rep Kiegerl: Actions by SRS looked like retaliation. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg SRS Jordan saying not everything said at hearings last year was true. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Kiegerl: Take some actions so this kind of thing can never happen again. Jordan: "Limited on what I can say" about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Kiegerl asking SRS Jordan about Carpenter case. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Kiegerl asking SRS Jordan to take a look at some cases one more time. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg SRS Secretary Jordan to field questions from Fed & State Committee. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Someone from Office of Judicial Administration is now talking about grants about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg: State Rep Brunk: Thanking three young adults for testifying. State Rep Loganbill asking about "aging out" age at 18. Better age? about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg: State Rep Neufeld: glad to hear about succsses of system. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Ritchie: SRS case worker has been very supportive. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg: 17 yr old "Ritchie": Been in foster care since 2004. Relatives did not have resources. about 4 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Perkins: Workers have too many kids on their case load. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Perkins: Was in foster care for 6 years. First few years went well, but "All the other kids went home". I ran away. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Rachel Perkins talking about her foster care experience. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg I only saw SRS worker twice while under their care. The 2nd time she didn't even recognize me. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg This person told about abuse "I am not a slave" and how she ran away at one point. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Person that grew up in foster care now speaking. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Spelling of last speaker's name was Janet Kado, LMSW about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Grant: You feel that when SRS was over foster care, it worked better? Cato: Yes about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Knox: Even though gov't, SRS worked as a team "the old way". about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Janet Cato: "Cannot say anything good about contracting" about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Janet Cato: "Why does this happen?" Crying about kids being left out. Their best interests are not being looked out for. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Janet Cato: Too much staff turn around. Too many new workers in various agencies. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Janet Cato: "This sounds negative but it's my personal experience" about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Janet Cato says private contracting not working. Too many agencies involved. Often parents don't know where to get help. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Neufeld asking Youthville about kinship care. Youthville says we're above nat'l average: Neufeld: not satisfied with that about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep asking Youthville about privatization vs. gov't-run system. State Rep Knox asking about "many" contractors instead of few. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Youthville: Telling committee about chart before and after privatization. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Youthville representative now speaking. DIdn't catch the name. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Kiegerl asked about $500,000 contribution by The Farm. TFI: My understanding was the figure was in wrong category. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Kiegerl to TFI: Why did you net worth increase so much in a few years? [TFI is a non-profit] KFI: We can provide more info. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Mike Kiegerl: In Nov. hearing there were the least number of complaints against the farm. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg TFI: Target oversight that is needed. Not all areas need more attention. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg: State Rep Brown: We're seeing more and more complaints, yet the state is not providing more oversight. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Brown to TFI: Accountability? How do you check yourself? about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Person from TFI (The Farm Inc) in Emporia is talking about their services. Serve about 4000 children and youth in Kansas. about 5 hours ago via web
#ksleg Live tweeting from House Fed & State Committee. Will continue today on children's issues. about 6 hours ago via web

Twitter Posts By Kansas Watchdog on 3/4/10

2010-03-05T18:43:00.000-08:00

3/4/10

#ksleg Fr Fellhauer: Our goal is not to make money, but to promote family integration. 1:24 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg "It is not always clear what is in best interest of children", Fr. Edward W Fellhauer from St. Francis Community Services 1:22 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Representative from St. Francis Community Services in Salina speaking but time is limited. 1:19 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg 398 cases and 15 removals were in Sedgwick County 1:15 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg DCCCA: Since new contract started, 398 cases resulted in 15 removals. Limits about what they can talk about. 1:11 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg New category of assistance needed: pregnant women on substance abuse. Requirements of DCCCA contracts are well defined. 1:07 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Tom Yule (sp?) from DECCCA talking about family preservation http://www.dccca.org/ 1:05 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Erin Stuckey, KVC: Talking about how they handle reunification. 12:59 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Kiegerl: Training of contractors is poor and inadquate. You (Jordan) are making progress. 12:53 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: Adults in cases disagree. We ultimately have to make decision. We are committed to children. 12:52 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: We will learn from our mistakes. 12:50 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: No system is perfect. There will be mistakes. "We have appeal mechanisms" with oversight of the court. 12:49 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg State Kiegerl to Jordan: Dilley case particularly bothers me. 12:47 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: Children in institutions went from 67% to 8%. Goal was more children in homes. 12:41 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg New contracts went into effect July 1, 2009. 12:36 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: Contracts rebid in 2005. Improved adoption contract. Children stayed with same contractor. 12:36 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Contractors had limited ability to control length of stay in foster care. Contracts changed in 2000 to improve financial stability. 12:35 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: Reviewing history that led up to privatization. State divided into 5 regions. Privatization started in 1996. 12:31 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: Contractors play no part in investigations. 12:27 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Jordan: People don't hear contingencies 12:25 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg SRS Secretary Jordan saying parents have been informed regardless of what they said in their testimony. 12:25 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Two people submitted written testimony: Kathy Winters, Annette Sneery (sp?) 12:24 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg 4th conferee Julie Thatcher talking about SRS' removal of son. 12:14 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Did not catch full name of 3rd conferee. Children were separated. Grandmother Linda needed financial assistance to care for children 12:13 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Dilley was removed as foster parent after testifying last year to the Joint Committee. 12:05 PM Mar 4th via web
Will publish Eric Rucker's motion later today. 12:02 PM Mar 4th via web
Eric Rucker filed motion for disqualification in his attorney ethics cases.Chair of his committee had worked for Dr. George Tiller. 12:01 PM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Marilyn Dilley addressing Fed & State Affairs committee about adoption issue. Tried to adopt foster child. Contractor change issue? 11:57 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Grandmother Sadie Carpenter describing health problems of foster mother chosen instead of her to adopt granddaughter. 11:52 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Grandmother Sadie Carpenter testifying about their attempts to adopt own granddaughter 11:50 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Conferees will be limited to 7 minutes today because of time limits. 11:48 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg 3 bills have been introduced in Fed and State. 1 introduced in appropriations. 11:47 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg 23 cases discussed in Exec session with SRS. 68 had asked to testify. Names were not mentioned in testimony. 11:46 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Joint Committee: SRS Secretary did not follow procedures but did not break law in dealing with extraordinary expenditure request 11:44 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Joint Committee suggests making reimbursements to grandparents discretionary. 11:43 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Joint Committee suggests legislature consider giving judges more latitude in their decision making 11:42 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Joint Committee recommends more training for case workers. 11:42 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg: Joint Committee recommendations: Request post audit review of foster care esp. regarding to placement of children 11:41 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Several weeks ago Joint Committee on Children issues had executive session to hear SRS' response to questions from past hearings. 11:37 AM Mar 4th via web
#ksleg Live tweeting from Kansas Fed & State Affairs Heaing: Reviewing recent hearings about foster care and other children issues. 11:36 AM Mar 4th via web

Hearings On Foster Care Privatization

2010-03-03T21:08:00.000-08:00

Twitter Posts from the KansasWatchdog on hearings today in Topeka, KS on Children's Issues, "Foster Care"

#ksleg Summers: refuses to stop a second time as she gives her summary about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Summers: refuses to stop when asked by State Rep Neufeld. says she has another page and a half of testimony. Neufeld yields (so far) about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Summers: Three witnesses were ignored by the court. Background checks delayed reunification. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Summers: child had been abused and was threatend "not to tell" about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Summers: "travesty of justice" is the title of a book she is writing about harm done to children in this state. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Summers does not understand why case was not prosecuted when abuse was obvious in her opinion. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Summers testifying about Judge Burgess not allowing evidence to be heard in court room. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Frankie Summers, a fFormer educator, talking now about personal experiences about what child experienced while in custody. about 8 hours ago via web
#kslefg Judge Burgess: I cannot hold parents accountable if contractors are also not held accountable. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Burgess wants to reply to Attorney's comments. Talking about relationship with contractors. Judge for closer communications about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Holmes: Where is problem? Attorney: multi-facted prolbem. Remove financial incentive. Some rules need to be changed. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Attorney: Reality is once there's a problem you're in court for month and months. Need to take money incentives out of system. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Live tweeting from Kansas Fed and State Affairs Committee Hearing about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Attorney: privatization creates financial incentives for contractors that are not in the best interest of the child. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Attorney: children can be removed. SRS doesn't investigate. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Attorney: Need fair judges. Judges being too close to workers, contractors can be a problem. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Attorney: Case worker's report was in error and court acted on it. Judge said "it didn't matter". Need checks and balances. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Attorney: Case worker had child removed. Worker had too much power. Best interest of child not served. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg JoCo attorney (can't spell the name) talking about removal of child for spanking that could not be substantiated. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg State rep talking about CASA: Court Appointed Special Advocates for children. There are not enough CASAs to meet the need. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Neufeld asking about GAL training. Hogan: Training is one way to help support attorneys about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Kiegerl: GAL paid $60/hr in JoCo; Hogan: In SG County $35K/year for half-time work but usually more than half-time. about 8 hours ago via web
#ksleg Hogan: many parents don't have money for legal representation. Guardian ad litems (GAL) are paid less than many attorneys. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Attorney Kelly Hogan, child legal services. Talking about a how a guardian ad litem represents the child's best interest. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge says grandparents always allowed to comment. "Call me" to state reps if you ever have a problem with a case. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Kiegerl asking judge why there seems to be more cases in Sedgwick county. Perhaps judges and contractors too close? about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Burgess: implementation of privatization was rough at first. "Perfectly fine with it now" about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Burgess: We have problems in Sedgwick County that western Kansas does not have. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Burgess: When "Kansas is rich" prevention would be a better approach. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Burgess: Transition to privatization was difficult. Now meet with contractors once a month. about 9 hours ago via web
ksleg Judge Burgess: Only 3% of children taken in are truants. Child has never been removed from home for truancy. Truancy is a huge issue about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Almost 60 people at Fed & State hearing to learn about child welfare issues. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Judge Burgess: Biggest problem is service delivery. Most families don’t ask for help until crisis hits. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg: Judge Burgess is next to testify. Introductions could be better to identify who is speaking. about 9 hours ago via web
#kslefg Judge asked about her concerns about privatization: Judge: Done quickly, more bureaucracy, service barriers. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Shepherd: "not a good thing" sometimes when transfers occur between contractors about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Rep Neufeld asking Judge Shepherd about privatization. She was not a supporter; hurt us initially. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge: We don't have cases where someone comes in and asks to give up their kids about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge: Child may be in police protective custody for up to 48 hours until judge signs order. Then in SRS custody. about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg State Rep Mike Kiegerl asking when contractors first see a child after a judge's order about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judge Shepherd (I think Jean F Shepherd from Lawrence) talking about legal steps for removing a child from the home about 9 hours ago via web
#ksleg Judges talking at Fed & State Committee hearing about child welfare. about 9 hours ago via web
JoCo Unofficial Final Election Results: Prairie Village Ward 4, Shawnee Ward 3, Gardner recalls http://tinyurl.com/yzf86wd about 24 hours ago via web
#ksleg Most of the ~50 in the audience at the Fed and State Affairs hearing cannot see speakers' slides -- need two screens. 1:01 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg NCSL: Two federal funding streams: title 4 b child welfare, and 4e foster care. 12:45 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg NCSL: State and local funds more than federal but federal rules drive the system. 12:43 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg Sheri Steisel(?) from NCSL DC talking about complexity of child welfare system. Now talking about federal funding. 12:42 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg Chair Neufeld: Remember history. ACLU law suit 15 years ago and other problems resulted in privitization. What are best practices? 12:36 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg State Rep Kiegerl: Any data that privitization doing what was expected? How is performance measured? How do other states compare? 12:32 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg State Rep Loganbill asking if any evidence whether privitization is better or worse. NCSL: Some data, but no conclusion. 12:31 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg Kieger: Removal in other states for non mal-treatment. NCSL rep willl get that data. 12:09 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg State Rep Mike Kiegerl: 53% removed in Kansas for reaons other than neglect. Asking for reason, comparison with other states. 12:08 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg NCSL Rep: Kansas is somewhat unique in number of children removed from home for reasons other than neglect. 12:07 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg Chair Melvin Neufeld asking about a particular statistic for Kansas that was about twice the national average. 12:03 PM Mar 2nd via web
#ksleg Representative from National Conference of State Legislature (NCSL) talking about child welfare system. http://www.ncsl.org/ 11:59 AM Mar 2nd via web

2010-02-24T20:22:00.000-08:00

Kansas Joint Committee on Childrens Issues Wrote New HB 2513 Which Can Lock Up Runaways Even When They Are In Their Parents Home

2010-02-24T19:55:00.001-08:00

JUST SAY NO! TO THIS OUTRAGEOUS BILL!!!

Just more government control over the children and more reasons to place children in custody of the state.New CINC HB 2513 would lock up ANY juvenile runaways even if they are in their own home..or if the child refuses to stay at the court ordered designated residence and wants to stay with their other parent they will be considered a runaway and locked up...Hey the child might want to go visit grandma and grandpa and this could be considered a runaway.

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2513.pdf

Social Worker Speaks For Children and Families

2010-02-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

Wichita, KS
Feb. 20, 2010
Below is the written text of a speech given on Saturday, Feb. 20th, 2010 at the Wichita Winter Rally Tea Party by a Kansas licensed therapist and Social Worker on behalf of children and families caught in the corrupt foster care system.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Tea Party!! My name is Deborah Wilson and I am a licensed therapist and school social worker here in Wichita. I am here today to speak on behalf of many children and families whose rights have been violated and continue to be violated.

I have been an advocate for a mother who lost custody of her 2 young boys one year ago because she reported suspected sexual, physical and emotional abuse of her boys. She is a protective parent; however, her rights and the rights of her children have been ignored and they remain in SRS custody on the basis of an illegal court order. I am learning of many more cases that are very similar to hers where the protective parent has lost their rights and their children were placed with their perpetrator or in SRS custody by a judge of the court through family or juvenile court.

Our work is for the purpose of giving those parents, grandparents and other caregivers a voice, and the avenue to have legal recourse so they can provide safety for their children.

Parents and children have lost their rights in this city, in this county and in this state. The organizations that have been put into place to protect our children are doing just the opposite. Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit, police officers, SRS, Youthville, Juvenile and Family court judges, case managers, District and assistant District Attorneys, and Guardian Ad Litems are misusing their power, even breaking laws all in the name of “THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILDREN”!!! I know of many cases where EMCU and SRS have done minimal investigations, where they have not interviewed all parties, considered all evidence, have tampered with evidence, have deleted information that was relevant to a case and have NOT made sound decisions that keep children safe!!

We have pedophiles walking our streets, who have custody of their own children at the hands of judges in Sedgwick County. We have many children in this county who have been placed in SRS custody and parents are told it is “IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD”!! Removing children from their home should be a LAST RESORT MEASURE and only done in extreme cases of abuse or neglect!! I also know there is a breakdown among the systems and that the District Attorney’s office DOES try to influence SRS social workers when they have a Child In Need of Care Case. I know this because I used to work for SRS in Wichita! The DA’s office brings up every legal action ever taken against the parents and their family members – traffic violations, DUI’s and etc. and enters that into the case information when they file their petition to remove children from the home!! They look for everything that will make the parent look like an unfit parent, and then in the courtroom bring up that information and influence the direction that the case will go. Parents are ENTITLED to a 72 hour hearing after their children are removed from their custody. This ensures that children are not out of the home too long if the problem can be easily resolved. This does not always occur. In fact, the mother who lost custody of her 2 boys did not get a “72 hour hearing” for 2 months after the fact!!!

Once your children are placed in SRS custody, it is VERY difficult to get them out. SRS and the foster care provider, usually Youthville, start a case plan that lines out months of “interventions” which are court orders required to be completed by parents and children before they can be placed back in the home. Yes, there are cases where this needs to occur, however, there are many cases where it harms children to be placed in foster care, and to continue in foster care. Research shows that children are more likely to be abused in foster care than in their own homes!! Research also shows that 80% of the prison inmate population had been in foster care as a child.

The Constitution of the United States of America:
Article XIV.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The Kansas Constitution states in article 15, item #6: Rights of women. The legislature shall provide for the protection of the rights of women, in acquiring and possessing property, real, personal and mixed, separate and apart from the husband; and shall also provide for their equal rights in the possession of their children.

Parent’s constitutional rights are being violated, and our children have NO RIGHTS!! It is up to us to protect our children and all children within our community.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill, Senate Bill 468, on Wednesday, February 17th that would make it more difficult for citizens to call for a grand jury investigation when they believe the law is not being followed. If the bill passes then it will go before the House Judiciary Committee, and if passed then it will go to the floor to be voted on.

Barbara Hollingsworth, reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal wrote on February 17th:
“Currently, a citizen petition signed by 100 voters plus 2 percent of county residents who voted in the previous election for governor will prompt a grand jury to be summoned. Once established, those grand juries can investigate multiple cases. Under an amended version of the bill, citizens would need the signatures of 100 voters plus 5 percent of people who voted in the previous election”.

Please let your voice be heard and sign the petition to vote AGAINST this bill that would further limit our constitutional rights as citizens.

Thank you and may God Bless you.

Child welfare summit scheduled

2010-02-20T22:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.khi.org/news/2010/feb/08/child-welfare-summit-works/

National experts expected to testify to House committee
The hearings are scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 and 25 and on March 1 and 2 in the Statehouse, Room 346-S.

By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
Feb. 8, 2010

TOPEKA — The chairman of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee is planning a four-days of hearings on child welfare issues.
“I’m trying to bring in some national experts to talk about best practices on foster care, adoption, family preservation and some other issues,” said Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls.
“We’ll spend a day with the courts – the judges – to see if there are any changes that can be made in the law to make things work better,” Neufeld said.
The hearings are scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 and 25 and on March 1 and 2 in the Statehouse, Room 346-S.

Bills in play
The hearings coincide with legislators considering at least five foster care reform bills:
• HB 2461 would block the state from renewing its foster care, adoption and family preservation contracts with private contractors.
• HB 2494 would prohibit judges from putting a child in foster care solely because his or her parent(s) are homeless.
• HB 2511 would allow SRS to pay grandparents to care for grandchildren who’ve been removed from their parents’ custody. Payment would be commensurate with what foster parents are paid.
• HB 2512 would order the courts to review Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services placement decisions affecting children in foster care. Without the court’s approval a child would not be moved.
• HB 2513 would direct law enforcement to hold a runaway child in a secure facility until a court decides if the child should be in foster care.

Privatization
Kansas privatized most of its child-welfare responsibilities in 1996. Today, SRS investigates reports of child abuse and neglect and monitors a child’s progress within the system. Direct services are provided by regional contractors.
Several legislators – conservative Republicans, mostly – have been critical of privatization, accusing SRS and the contractors of abusing the rights of parents and grandparents.

In December, Rep. Mike Kiegerl, R-Olathe, accused the contractors of wielding “Gestapo-like powers” in their dealings with parents accused of mistreating their children.
Kiegerl is vice chair of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.

Neufeld, a former speaker of the House and a key figure in the decision to privatize, said the hearings would focus on child welfare issues rather than specific legislation.
“What we’re looking for, really, is how do we make things better,” he said. “That’s really what this is about.”
SRS and the contractors have cited data showing that while there are exceptions, most children in foster care receive more services, remain closer to home and spend less time in the system than before privatization.
Neufeld said he’s sure there are shortfalls within the system.
“Any program that’s as diverse as this, there are going to be things that don’t happen right,” he said. “But the question to me is: How do we make the system work better and do a better job protecting chidlren in state custody.”
Neufeld is vice president of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2461.pdf

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2511.pdf

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2512.pdf

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2513.pdf

http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2010/2494.pdf

2010-02-15T18:53:00.001-08:00

SRS fails to tell police of abuse cases
Comments (33)
Recommended (6)
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle
Wichita grandparents say SRS failed to protect grandson
Coffeyville couple sues SRS worker after granddaughter's beating death
Grandmother: How did SRS lose child?
Former SRS investigator: Boy's death was preventable
Law enforcement agencies don't always receive child abuse reports so they can determine whether a crime has occurred, resulting in "many cases where the opportunity for criminal prosecution is missed," a state report says.
The report faults the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) for sometimes failing to forward abuse reports to law enforcement agencies.
The review, recently released by the Kansas Attorney General's Office, said another "systemic problem" involves "turf battles" that hurt communication between agencies that investigate child abuse.
And a third problem area: In some foster-care cases, SRS has failed to inform the Kansas Department of Health and Environment of abuse reports, as required by law. KDHE licenses day care homes and family foster homes.
The report urges dual reporting of suspected abuse by the public and by mandated reporters, such as school staff and health care personnel. It calls for reporting suspicions not only to appropriate state agencies but also to local law enforcement.
Attorney general spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said she couldn't comment on where turf battles have occurred because the cases are confidential.
Regarding how often reports don't get sent to law enforcement and where that has occurred, Anstaett wrote in an e-mail, "We have found this in numerous counties (certainly more than 1/2 a dozen)." She said she couldn't be more specific partly because of confidentiality issues.
The review covered 1,010 child cases and 446 cases involving vulnerable adults.
Still, she said, "It should first be noted that through our review it was found that information is shared and reported appropriately in the vast majority of cases."
The purpose of the review is "to point out possible challenges and recommend improvements," she said.
The findings come from an annual report published last month by the attorney general's Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Unit, covering the period from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. The unit's mission is to work with state and local agencies to raise awareness of abuse and exploitation of children and vulnerable adults and to bolster reporting and prosecution, Attorney General Steve Six says on the agency's Web site.
City, county policies
The Wichita school district usually reports suspected abuse to police and SRS, said district spokeswoman Susan Arensman.
However, police wouldn't be notified in situations that appear less serious: for example, where a child hasn't bathed in a few days or wears the same shirt to school three days in a row, Arensman said. SRS would still be notified in the less serious cases.
When the school contacts police in more serious cases, it usually does it by calling 911, she said.
The public also can play an important role, said Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred. His advice is: "If you see something, if you believe something's wrong, a crime's being committed, a child's being abused or neglected, you need to call the Police Department."
In 2008, eight Wichita children died from abuse or neglect. In some of those cases, Allred said, relatives or friends knew something was wrong but didn't report it.
In Sedgwick County, "It would be unusual... to have an abuse case investigated by SRS and not brought to the attention of law enforcement," said Deputy District Attorney Ron Paschal.
That is because of the Exploited and Missing Child Unit, a partnership between SRS and law enforcement.
"In all cases involving serious abuse or neglect or sexual abuse, a social worker is teamed with a law enforcement officer from the beginning of the investigation and therefore both agencies are involved very early on in the case," Paschal said in an e-mail.
SRS has a liaison who works out of a DA's office, he said.
"Our office has daily communication with the investigative agencies."
SRS's role
Still, across the state, there is room for improvement, the attorney general's report said.
Its review found "many cases where the opportunity for criminal prosecution is missed."
It also says that the state agencies receiving abuse concerns should report possible crimes to law enforcement in a timely manner.
In some cases, SRS — which investigates child abuse and neglect reports and recommends to the court whether children should be removed from their homes — failed to forward allegations to law enforcement, the report said.
SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce said the A.G.' s review included 921 SRS child cases. Of the 921 cases, a sampling found eight cases in which SRS "substantiated" that abuse or neglect occurred but SRS did not report it to law enforcement, she said. Under the regulatory definition, "substantiated" means that SRS found "clear and convincing evidence to conclude that abuse or neglect occurred."
Three of the eight substantiated cases were referred to county or district attorneys, who can bring criminal charges. The other five substantiated cases weren't reported to prosecutors even though SRS policy dictates reporting all substantiated cases to prosecutors, she said.
It is not a social worker's job to determine whether a crime occurred, Ponce said.
Still, even the less serious cases get forwarded to prosecutors, and in the most serious cases, SRS staff are already working with law enforcement, Ponce said.
None of the eight cases in the review's sampling occurred in Sedgwick, Butler or Harvey counties, Ponce said. According to her, three cases occurred in Johnson County, and one each in Barton, Geary, Leavenworth, Saline and Wyandotte counties.
Examples of concerns
The A.G.' s report cited these examples:
* SRS determined that a step-parent had committed physical abuse. The worker photographed visible physical injury to the child. The incident was not reported to law enforcement, nor was a "child-in-need-of-care" recommendation made to the county attorney. Instead, the family received services.
* SRS found that the husband of a home day care provider had been physically abusive. "The worker documented the injury in great detail and photographed it for the record. The perpetrator admitted threatening the child and the child admitted being afraid of the perpetrator."
After the A.G.' s abuse unit asked about the case, "an SRS supervisor indicated that because the child suffered a 'moderate injury' and because the child was safe and enough facts were able to be documented, 'it was determined law enforcement involvement was not required,' " the report said.
It said the case was forwarded to KDHE, which moved to revoke the day care license as long as the perpetrator stayed in the home.
* Acting on a report from school officials, SRS substantiated physical abuse of a child. The injuries were photographed. During an interview by the SRS worker, the "perpetrator (the child's father) displayed threatening behavior to the worker, blocked the worker's exit from the home and indicated his child deserved what happened and he would do it again under the same circumstances."
The review found no record of SRS reporting the situation to police, although SRS indicated it was forwarded to the county attorney. When the A.G.' s unit inquired about the case, the county attorney had no record of receiving such a case.
KDHE involvement
The report said another key concern is that some abuse reports provided to SRS weren't sent to KDHE as required by state law.
The report cited two cases:
• In one, a child who had been found to be sexually abusive was put in a foster home with other children. "The child subsequently perpetrated again," the report said. After being informed of the situation by the attorney general's unit, KDHE recommended that a civil penalty be imposed on the "child placing agency." Child placing agencies are usually independent contractors through SRS, Anstaett said.
• In another case, a foster home was found to be in neglect. But the review discovered that the SRS finding was not sent to KDHE. After the attorney general's unit informed KDHE, the agency recommended action against the foster parent.
Despite those cases, the report said, "there seems to be an overall improvement in notification to KDHE."
In a statement, KDHE said it has a "good working relationship with SRS."
One example is the development in recent years of a centralized complaint notification system involving the two agencies, KDHE said.
Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.Read more: http://www.kansas.com/news/story/1181958.html?pageNum=3&&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container#ixzz0ffCYuNwt

Wichita grandparents say SRS failed to protect grandson

2010-01-31T09:14:00.000-08:00

Posted on Sun, Jan. 31, 2010
BY TIM POTTER
The Wichita Eagle

On Dec. 28, the paternal grandfather of a 5-month-old boy took him to a Wichita police substation after seeing several bruises on the infant's face.
The baby stayed in police protective custody for a couple of days before being returned to his mother, police and the grandparents say. Then on Jan. 19 — about three weeks after the baby was back with his mother — he was admitted to a Wichita hospital with serious brain injuries. His grandparents don't expect him to survive.
On Thursday, prosecutors charged his mother, 19-year-old Courtney D. McGee, with aggravated battery and felony child abuse, alleging that she beat, shook or injured her baby in a severe and cruel way. She remained in jail under a $100,000 bond. Her attorney could not be reached for comment.
The Sedgwick County District Attorney's Office did not agree with an SRS plan for releasing the boy after he was in protective custody, and prosecutors called for a follow-up investigation that SRS did not pursue, a district attorney's official said Friday.
And now the grandparents fault the child-protection system for returning the baby to his mother.
After an initial investigation involving an SRS caseworker could not rule in abuse or rule it out, the system should have erred on the side of caution and kept the boy away from his mother until the situation could be investigated further, the grandparents say.
"It was so preventable," the grandfather said.
For privacy reasons, the grandparents asked that their names not be used. They said they were speaking for their 18-year-old son, the baby's father.
SRS is criticized
Their case is the latest of three ongoing cases across the state where families have publicly accused the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) of failing to protect children who were killed or severely injured.
At the same time, some of the loudest criticism of SRS continues to come from people who contend that the agency wrongly removes many children from their families — the opposite of the grandparents' concerns.
SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce said Friday that in each case, the agency "must weigh the emotional harm to the child from being removed from the home against the likelihood of harm if he were to remain in the home. It's always a difficult decision."
A timeline
The grandfather provided this timeline: On Dec. 23, the grandparents picked up their grandson and his mother and went to a mall to have pictures taken with Santa. When the grandparents dropped off the mother and child later at her Goddard home, "everything was fine," he said.
The next day, Dec. 24, the mother told the grandparents that her son had been slamming his face against his crib, the grandparents said.
On Christmas Day, when the grandparents picked up the boy, they saw bruises on his face and took pictures of the marks.
"It was bad enough that everyone that had seen it wanted to cry," the grandfather said. "It was obvious what had happened ... some type of blunt force to his face or squeezing or something."
After debating about the situation with family and close friends, on the night of Dec. 28, after the mother requested that her son be returned home, the grandfather took his grandson to the Patrol South station on South Broadway, the grandfather said. A sheriff's deputy came to pick up the child so he could be put in protective custody.
"That was absolutely the hardest thing I had ever done. Because I knew it would be a long time before I would ever get to see him again," the grandfather said. "But I knew it was the right thing. I had to do it for him."
That way, the boy would be safe, he says he thought at the time.
He said his grandson remained in protective custody until around Dec. 31, when the baby went back to his mother.
Capt. Russell Leeds, with the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit, confirmed that the 5-month-old boy went back to his mother after being in protective custody for up to 72 hours, and that services were being provided to her through SRS.
DA's perspective
Ron Paschal, deputy district attorney for the juvenile division, said the DA's Office had "ongoing concerns" about the safety of the child and the "nature and extent and location of injuries," and did not approve of the SRS plan for releasing the boy after he was in protective custody.
Instead, prosecutors requested additional investigation by SRS, including an evaluation by a nationally recognized local pediatrician, Paschal said.
"We were told (by SRS) that that was not going to happen" and that the SRS was going to end its investigation, he said.
Paschal said that the DA's stance on the case was in line with its philosophy in such cases: "We follow the law ... but it's our position and policy to err on the side of protecting the child."
Ponce, the SRS spokeswoman, said she doesn't know details of the case and can't comment on it because of confidentiality laws.
Generally, she said, during an investigation after a child is put in protective custody, the social worker assigned to the case would speak to "anybody who would have pertinent information," possibly including a doctor, and recommend to the court whether the child should be removed from his home.
Family's perspective
The decision to return the boy to his mother appears to have rested on a state social worker's relying on a doctor's finding that abuse couldn't be ruled in or out, according to the grandmother.
"The medical system also failed him," the grandfather said. There is evidence of old injuries, he said. "They missed it."
Until it could be sorted out, the baby could have remained with his grandparents or been kept at a foster home, the grandmother said.
"That's all I ask: Be sure. And if they were sure, we wouldn't be doing this."
She said the SRS caseworker told her that "hindsight is 20/20," that the caseworker "wished she would have known then what she knew now," that a doctor couldn't prove it was abuse and couldn't prove it wasn't "and that was a big part of her assessment."
"And her I can forgive," the grandmother said. "A very tough job she has. But even though it's a tough job ... caution should go with the child... . It was a bad call, and she knows it was a bad all. I can't imagine how she's going to feel if he dies."
The grandfather said: "I have seen this woman's face, and you can tell she's tore up about it."
The grandparents say their grandson has sustained multiple "bleeds" in his brain and has been breathing with the help of a ventilator.
Although the grandparents say they have been praying for a miracle, they don't expect their grandson to survive.
"He's going to pass, it's just a matter of when," his grandfather said Friday.
"We just know he's going to be in God's hands, that's all we know," his grandmother added.

Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.

Read more: http://www.kansas.com/news/story/1160716.html#ixzz0eD95rYQO

Another Kansas Lawsuit Against Social Workers, Judge, County Attorney ETC... Woodward et al v. DCCCA Inc. et al

2010-01-26T07:40:00.000-08:00

Judge Rebecca Lindamood on left is listed on this lawsuit.

Woodward et al v. DCCCA Inc. et al
Plaintiffs:
James W. Woodward and Destiny Brown
Defendants:
DCCCA Inc., CASA, Randy Kauffman, Rebecca Lindamood, Charles Hart, Cheryl M. Pierce, Darrin C. Devinney, Kathleen Sebelius, Don Jordon, Deb Maaeir, Jennifer Wiebe, Loresa Lewis, Phyllis K. Webster, Janet Jacobs, Marry Lee Armstrong, Leslie Jensby, David McElhiney, Kelly Elliott, Tanya Lynn, Kristine Wilscam, Carmel Poor, Tom McDowell and Joshua Andrews

Case Number:
6:2009cv01410
Filed:
December 24, 2009

Court:
Kansas District Court
Office:
Wichita Office [ Court Info ]
County:
XX US, Outside State
Presiding Judge:
District Judge J. Thomas Marten
Referring Judge:
Magistrate Judge Karen M. Humphreys

Nature of Suit:
Civil Rights - Other Civil Rights
Cause:
42:1983 Civil Rights Act
Jurisdiction:
Federal Question
Jury Demanded By:
Plaintiff
Amount Demanded:
$5,100,000.00

Magistrate Judge: Rebecca LindamoodGreenwood County Magistrate Court
311 N. MainEureka, KS 67045
Ph: 620-583-8155

Also listed in this lawsuit is the Secretary of SRS Don Jordan

and former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius

What about Judge Lindamood?

She has a history of kicking kids out of school and forcing them to get a GED.

Article from 2005:

http://www.kake.com/news/features/2/1948522.html
Kansas Judge Is Ordering Teens To Drop Out Of School
KAKE On Your Side Investigation
Reporter: Jeff Golimowski
Judge Orders Teens To Drop Out Of School
Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005

A judge stands in the way of a hardworking, earnest girl trying to finish school. She’s not alone.
Graduation Day: It’s supposed to be one of the proudest days of a person’s life, a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment for hard work. Jessica won’t have one.
Jessica is a foster kid, who wished to remain unidentified. She should be a high school senior, but a judge told her to drop out.
A lot of Kansas kids can’t wait to get out of school. The girl we met fought to stay in. But, she lost in court, now her future is in doubt. A system dedicated to making kids’ lives better failed to help her.
Harold and Pam Walker have taken in more than 40 foster kids. The Walkers treat their charges like their own.
“They want you to create good memories and stand up for your kids and get them to do what’s right,” said Pam Walker.
Jessica’s been with the Walkers for almost a year after being removed from her parents by SRS. She had been having problems at El Dorado High. But, as soon as she got to the Walker’s and enrolled at Goddard High, things started turning around.
Jessica will turn 18 Nov. 4. At 18, a ward of the state can be released from SRS custody. Judge Rebecca Lindamood, a magistrate judge in Butler County who’s in charge of Jessica’s case, sees a problem.
Apparently, if a child hasn’t graduated by the time they’re 18, they’re going to lose them. The solution, according to Lindamood, is to force her out of school and into a GED.
“Most people that hear GED hear you’re a quitter,” said Harold Walker.
Jessica is not a quitter. She even found a way to graduate six months ahead of schedule. Not good enough.
“The judge said if I didn’t get my GED, she would pull me out of this home,” said Jessica.
For the Walkers, this is too familiar.
“I really didn’t make an effort,” said Johnathan Alvord, a former foster kid. “So, instead of trying to keep me in, they made me go take a GED.”
Alvord had truancy issues at 16. Lindamood’s decision, again, was to let him out of class.
Alvord said, looking back, he agrees. Though he said he could’ve graduated had he been forced to stay in. He spent the next two years looking for work. His GED was nearly useless.
We went to SRS headquarters in Topeka for answers. It’s against SRS policy for the agency to talk about specific cases. But we asked program manager Deanne Dinkel how the system is supposed to work.
“We always encourage our youth to be very involved with their educational goals,” said Dinkel.
So someone in Jessica’s position, who desperately wants to graduate, should be helped to succeed, according to the SRS. But, it’s not up to SRS. The ultimate decision for kids like Jessica is left in the hands of judges.
Lindamood made helping kids in SRS get an education part of her campaign. Yet state law seals every SRS case. Her constituents have no way of knowing the decisions she’s making. We tried to talk to Lindamood. The Kansas state court system responded, saying Lindamood was unable to respond because it involves a child in need of care case. They said Lindamood, as with other judges presiding over children in need of care, put education of the child as the highest priority.
Jessica has taken the tests for her GED and is now awaiting her results.
Friday is Jessica’s 18th birthday. Another court hearing is her present. She’ll be back in front of Lindamood, possibly for the final time.

Overhaul of Kansas foster-care system urged

2010-01-24T11:59:00.001-08:00

Posted on Wed, Jan. 13, 2010 10:55 PM

By DAVID KLEPPER
The Star’s Topeka correspondent

TOPEKA Legislation to end Kansas’ privatized foster care system is the latest volley from lawmakers who say the state lacks oversight over the contractors managing such child welfare services.
Dozens of parents who lost custody of their children have complained to lawmakers in recent weeks that the state and its contractor caseworkers remove children without giving sufficient reason or the chance to appeal.
The legislation would stop the state from signing new deals with the foster care contractors. The Johnson County lawmaker behind the new legislation said it’s meant to force contractors to answer questions if they want to keep the state’s business.
“We’re certainly going to get their attention,” said Rep. Mike Kiegerl, an Olathe Republican. “There’s a lack of oversight, a lack of transparency. Nobody ought to have the kind of power these caseworkers have.”
The contractors and the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services say they’re happy to address lawmakers’ concerns.
They note that local police and judges also play a key role in deciding when a child should be removed.
SRS officials promised to investigate the complaints raised by parents. But they stand by the privatized system, which was the first of its kind in the United States when it began in 1996.
“We feel like we have made a lot of accomplishments since privatization,” said SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce.
Kyle Kessler, a spokesman for contractor KVC Behavioral HealthCare, said his company will “provide any information that is requested.”
To reach David Klepper, call 785-354-1388 or send e-mail to dklepper@kcstar.com.
Posted on Wed, Jan. 13, 2010 10:55 PM