July 19, 2006
Government Out of Control
It's one thing to get upset with government bureaucracy, government stupidity, and government power. It's another thing when those are combined to wreck your life with a long and humiliating investigation covering something that common sense could have dismissed. Read about the tale of a family that took pictures of their kids on a camping trip and the nightmare that they faced when an untrained drug store employee notified the Department of Family and Children's Services about his interpretation of those pictures that he developed. It's a nightmare that I wouldn't wish on anyone. The following link goes to the story. Read all of it and check some of the comments from their readers, too.
I took some photos of my kids naked on a camping trip. A drugstore employee called the police -- and my family's life became a living hell.
I don't want to diminish the horror of child abuse and the need for protecting abused children. I suspect that G.M. has an even greater appreciation for that and may have some stories from his work that would be too hard for me to hear. However, government, in many cases, just casts too broad of a net and causes unnecessary damage that will never be forgotten or repaired.
I know two families who have suffered from unsubstatiated accusations of child abuse. In one situation, the parents did not agree to a medical procedure for their new born child, as they felt that the treatment was premature and excessive. (The mom was a health care provider herself, and it turned out that she was correct.) The doctor reported them to authorities for child abuse for not taking his advice, and they had to undergo extensive investigations and home visits. Another parent was in a doctor's waiting room with her child when the child decided to test the limits of patience by acting terrible. The mom clarified the limits with a good swat to the child's bottom. Result? The doctor's receptionist called authorities reporting child abuse, and that parent's nightmare started. Even though there was no crime, the parent was warned that she only gets one pass and that the child will be taken into protective custody with just the filing of another complaint.
If government cared so much about "the children," then it would try to help their parents rather than turn their lives upside down. If it cared for the children, then government would properly train it's workers to recognize and handle real cases and to distinguish them from false accusations. Real victims need help and need those resources being wasted chasing down frivolous claims.
Are government workers being stupid, afraid to apply good judgment to poorly written laws, trying to justify their jobs, or maybe getting a charge out of their power (which may be the case when they won't give it up?) Whatever the problem, they need to make changes so that these nightmares don't become a continued problem for parents who love and care for their children. Currently 60-70% of such claims are without merit. That's too high of a miss ratio and indicates that government has more problems than do parents.
The job of protecting children is important and must be hard. That's why it should be done right without the usual government ineptness.
Found at Nealz Nuze
Posted by Woody M. at July 19, 2006 11:00 AM | TrackBackActually Woody, I would suggest another alternative as well:
CYA. In our Blame Everyone As Soon As Possible culture, there's a good possibility that people are not so much making strictly good faith judgements as they are following procedures to the letter, rather than the intent, of the law, so no one can come back later and sue or otherwise discipline them for not having done it in the first place. Being something of a cynic, I would then say, "following procedures" and "being on a power kick" might follow on afterward, but my husband often tells me "Never look for evil when you can blame human stupidity!" I agree with the author when he suggests the possibility of a law that offers reporters an "out" if they (in good faith) honestly don't believe the situation is one of abuse. Another one is to drive home with a vengeance our legal maxim Innocent Until PROVEN Guilty.
Not that it's likely to make much difference - I think many of the people drawn to these types of jobs gravitate toward them because of their own problems and issues (I used to have several friends and acquaintances who were social workers, and almost to a person, they tended to be far more troubled or disturbed than any of their clients!). Many have been educated in a system that sees nuclear (and especially Christian) families as anathema, and see almost all forms of contact between parent and child as some form of exploitation. It's a view I've heard expounded by some feminist speakers/organisations, and here we are able to see tangible results of just some of the damage this kind of rhetoric causes. Add this to the mentality of your average state or federal employee, and well... This is what you get.
The real shame is that there really are very good and caring investigators out there, but there are so many cases, and so many children, and a lot of new money going to new police programs for that someone looking to make a name for himself to sit behind his Work Station, surfing the web all day for kiddy porn... Ugh, don't get me started! At any rate, this is one case the citizens can and should stand up for, because all it'll take is one spanking, harsh word, grabbing one little arm or such, and a phone call from some busybody or "social crusader" will toss you right into the water, between Scylla and Charybdis...
Posted by Katje at July 19, 2006 09:26 PM
Katje, Janet Reno got her big start in Miami by accusing and prosecuting innocent people, whose lives were ruined. She and her type even consider that the denials of the children are that much more proof that they were abused. How do you fight that?
If you have a bad neighbor and want to get rid of them, maybe all that it takes is a call to DFCS that you heard children's screams from his house. (Of course, those could be from a birthday party, but why get technical?)
I hope no one considers my "reminding" my son for the fourth time to cut the grass isn't abusive and that his actual cutting of it with a power mower isn't endangering him.
I liked your husband's philosophy of "Never look for evil when you can blame human stupidity!" Stupidity includes guidelines or lack of them that force otherwise qualified people to waste more time on bad decisions.
Posted by Woody at July 20, 2006 06:21 AM
This really often does get out of hand. My daughter was a nervous wreck a few weeks ago after a visit to the pediatrician with her 22 month old daughter. I've watched this kid. Her precious little head is a veritable magnet for hard things. I've watched her walk through door ways (right dead center in the middle) and her head automatically swings right or left to connect with the frame. She often has a small bruise somewhere on her body. She's merely a clumsy, almost two year old who hasn't gotten entire control of all motor faculties for how fast she moves around. We've made jokes about having to pad my daughter's entire apartment.
We stopped joking when Sara came back from the doctor in tears. When the doctor made a remark about a bruise on the baby's knee and eyed my daughter suspiciously, he said he was required to make a note about any bruises that couldn't be "explained". (Whatever the heck THAT meant) He added that he hoped she would not have any bruises at their next visit.
My daughter said it sounded like an implicit threat more than anything and is afraid to go back for her next scheduled visit for fear that the day before the baby may fall, or stumble, or even play with her sister and trip over a toy.
It was all I could do to keep from marching down there and giving him a piece of my mind for such intimidation.
So it's not just government employees. It's the general public who has been conditioned to be suspicious of everyone and automatically assume the worst and report things as such. I remember my brother telling me once, when his daughter fell off a swing and scraped her face, that he couldn't wait for it to heal because he was tired of the dirty looks he was getting.
Posted by Oyster at July 20, 2006 11:59 AM
