There is a national epidemic that has been hitting our nation for years. Children are dying; more than 1, 700 a year. These deaths could have been prevented, just ask their social workers at the child protection agencies that were supposed to protect them.
Every year children in states across the U.S. are victims of abuse. To give you a clearer picture, Child Welfare reported that children younger than one year made up almost half of the percentage of children being abused.
Children from the ages of one to three made up 35 percent; ages four to seven, ten percent; Eight to eleven, four percent; and ages 12 to 17, six percent.
Children younger and younger are being targeted and left to die. Where is their protection?
Too many times you turn on the television and you see commercials about abused puppies, asking for people to give money to humane societies or to adopt them, to give them a better home, where they will be loved and properly cared for.
What about the children?
What about four year-old Marchella Pierce from New York, who was physically abused and tied to her bed by her mother? She was only eighteen pounds when she died last September.
Didn’t little Marchella deserve a better home? A home where she would be loved and respected as a human being, more importantly, as a child of God.
Marchella’s mom, who is said to have been addicted to drugs, is already facing murder charges. According to a report by New York Times reporter, Mosi Secret, prosecutors said her mother, “tied her to her bed, beat her with a belt and a videocassette tape, deprived her of food and water, and force-fed her medication. Marchella died… of child abuse syndrome, along with acute drug poisoning, blunt impact injuries, malnutrition and dehydration.”
Couldn’t Marchella’s social worker see the red flags? What about the New York judicial system? Why was she even allowed to live with her mother given the evidence of abuse and drug use?
Now Marchella’s welfare worker and his supervisor are being indicted on charges of criminally negligent homicide, along with her grandmother who allegedly saw her being abused and tied to the bed, reported the New York Times.
The sad truth is that Marchella’s story is just the tip of the ice berg. Many other children have lost their lives to the negligence of the child protection system. Now this is not to say that all the social workers are being negligent, but too many are.
In 2006, seven-year-old Nixzmary Brown, who was also under the protection of the child welfare agency, died due to child abuse. New York Times reporter Mosi Secret and Cara Buckley reported that she had been “tied to furniture with bungee cords and ropes and was beaten by her step-father.” Although despite her situation the Child Welfare Agency did nothing.
The problem could be traced to that fact that too many cases are being assigned to each social worker, it may be hard to keep tabs on every child- but that is still no excuse. And what’s worse, the state of New York is now looking to cut funds for child welfare agencies. With positions being cut, now there is a lower amount workers assigned to follow more cases of children being abused.
According to the New York Times, the average case worker is assigned to 16.5 cases, but since the many reports of neglect on behalf of these workers have emerged over the past few years, the load is now being narrowed down to nine cases.
The words, “case closed,” should only be used when workers are for certain that the child is in safe hands. Higher standards need to be established by these agencies to better assure that abused children will not be left to abusive parents.
Our children need protection. Negligence is not a valid response to the overwhelming amount of children that need shelter from their dysfunctional homes.
I’m not here to judge Marchella’s case worker, but one can only hope that this will be an example to all social workers everywhere. Hopefully it can serve as a message, telling everyone that a child’s life is not to be gambled with. One can never be too careful, especially when in the position to protect the life of an innocent person being abused.
Like the old saying goes. To whom much is given, much is expected. The life of any child is precious; the case workers must recognize this and realize that they have the ability to make a positive difference in the world and for these kids. Why not start on the right path and make sure these children do not become another statistic.
It's scary to think what will happen to already underfunded social services programs at both state and federal levels when looming budget cuts are taken. Clearly, the heart of the problem lays with the delusion parents who think it's okay to abuse their children--just because they can't fight back. More stringent punishments need to be enforced against child abuse and more oversight of potentially dangerous situations needs to happen. But, it seems that oversight cannot happen until we have lobbyists and politicians willing to fight for the rights of these children, to get social services or public interest groups way more funds to do their jobs and do their jobs correctly. If we can't fix the problem of abusive parents, let's at least augment our efforts to provide a solution--more money for social services so that hopefully these workers can spot problems earlier, and be more persistent in their approach. It seems that because children a) can't vote and b) can't contribute campaign funds, they're left without any willing policy makers to champion their cause. If government won't step up, hopefully there's a greater effort on the part of public interest or ngo's to pick up their slack.
ReplyDeleteVery informative piece! It's heartbreaking to hear these kinds of stories, that a person could do something this terrible to a child (their own child even) and nothing was done to stop or prevent it. It's unfortunate that there are so many children who need the help that just isn't as abundantly available as we'd hope it would be.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that there is anything to say about making abortion (whether it's the right thing to do or not) more affordable? You've got to imagine that the majority of these children born into these situations were not planned.
Such a well-written and informative post. This is a sticky situation not just for the state of New York, but for every state, town, and city. With deficits at all levels of government, money for jobs in social work are one of the first things to be cut. Is this right? No, it is not, but it is the reality of the situation. What should be done then?
ReplyDeleteI think that training social workers in such a way as to take every precaution possible, even if they are just skeptical that abuse is taking place, is the route to take. While social workers may have multiple children to look out for, they must be trained to see any evidence of abuse and be encouraged to report it.
I think this is a really well written and important issue to bring up. Its so sad to think that so many children are with parents who do not take care of them properly. I think being a social worker would be really hard and I think giving the social worker less cases is really the only case. Since you cant watch a family 24-7, the only solution is to allow a social worker more time to focus on each child's protection because that is what they really deserve. For so many kids to die and be harmed by their parents who are not fit to take care of children and who selfishly have kept them in their possession instead of giving them up for adoption to allow them a better life, is crazy to me. This is a preventable issue that with the right time and energy can be put to a stop.
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