Whether it is in Washington State or another state the action that will get you the most reliable information is through making a "public disclosure request" or "Freedom of Information request" when researching the daycare you are considering..
Use that wording (in bold).
Tell the day care licensing agency you want the entire history for that day care provider and/or facility or at the minimum ask for the "violations of the regulations" and "complaint investigations" and "child protective services (CPS) investigations" and "legal enforcement actions."
Again use the wording exactly as I've provided in bold.
In Washington State the child care licensing agency has moved into the 21st century and scans in documents now which is by far the most efficient, effective and economical manner in which to make day care licensing history transparent.
Washington State legislators especially Representative Ross Hunter of Bellevue has had the envisioning of government transparency for some time now.
Where ever the day care licensing agency is for your state make that request and make in writing (encase you end up taking the state government to Superior Court.
Google your state law in regards to public disclosure and read it. You become the professional, be methodical and have a copy of the law to give to the government bureaucrat who might try to tell you the law is what it isn't.
I had occasion to be at my old state government agency talking to a former co-worker in CPS who said it takes thirty days to process a request. When I told him the law says five days he was not happy with me and with no hesitation told me I was wrong.
I will follow up with him and send him a link to the law (RCW in Washington State); and educate him.
Showing posts with label DSHS and CPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DSHS and CPS. Show all posts
Friday, August 26, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
DSHS Secrets, DSHS Failures, AG Secrets and Secrets sealed by the Courts
Your Courts, Their Secrets | Failures by state, caregiver kept secret in child-rape case | Seattle Times Newspaper
Finding this article on the internet I'm taken by the mention of The OK Boys Ranch in a state email highlighting that secrets were still being buried by the state regarding children being terrorized and violently sexually assaulted:
"Please be aware that Youth Care has a very high powered board in Seattle; it is a long term agency with a ton of community support. Not to say that changes what we do but if we think [a particular boys ranch] had connections; we have seen nothing yet!"
This time it's 2001 about a decade after the OK Boys Ranch crimes (that state licensed residential facility stayed in business for at least 23 years) were released to the public, now it's YouthCare a group home for teenagers in Seattle, Washington. Christine Gregoire was still the Attorney General at the time of this problem as she was with the OK Boys Ranch.
From Louis Bloom's website documenting in detail the OK Boys Ranch: "Christine Gregoire is the present Washington State Attorney General (1993+). Many of her assistant attorney generals were involved in defending the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch. Her department made a half-hearted attempt to prosecute some of the low-level OKBR people. The Olympia Kiwanis members are politically connected. She backed off. Christine spoke at a Jan 19, 1999 Olympia Kiwanis meeting. It's easy to forgive people involved with child abuse when they're politically connected."
The last time I re-viewed the documents on Louis Bloom's website and reread what was done to the boys at the OK Boys Ranch I felt nauseous.
From attorney Jack Connelly's website (who got a measure of justice for some of the boys) about some of the abuse:
"Case Details The abuse occurring at the OK Boys Ranch was varied and severe.
Newcomers, as well as those who broke the rules were initiated or punished in group beatings, young boys would lay awake at night expecting to be raped by the older boys and many tried, unsuccessfully, to escape. The staff did little to stop such behavior and even beat and sodomized the boys themselves. Roughly two serious incidents, which should have been reported to state authorities, occurred per week."
In teaching a child abuse class for the last four and a half years it is clear to me the worst and most shaming of abuses that happen to children and continue into adulthood are the emotional ripping up of children's souls and sexual violation of those same souls. Of all the categories of child abuse, it is emotional abuse and sexual violation that brings tears to the eyes of those in my class.
It's the crime we are not allowed to talk about it. It's the crime that gets hidden like it's the victim's shame. It's not their shame. Such secrets have been covered up in child day care licensing as well.
"Sexual" abuse is not about sex. It's about power and control. It's not about the perpetrator having the orgasm. The worst and most shaming is forcing the child to have the orgasm, it's the emotional control the perpetrator has over the child...well into adulthood.
As was the case for Elizabeth Lynn Dunham who was first sexually seduced and used by former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt at the age of thirteen. Not until her death this year (February) at age 49 years old did we learn her name.
We learned it from the Willamette Week, the Oregonian didn't honor and respect this woman, this girl who could never be healed in this lifetime. It is not her shame what Goldschmidt did to her and the control he had over her the rest of her life.
Secrets devastate and secrets kill. A thank you to the Seattle Times for investigating and investing to get records unsealed to tell this story.
Elizabeth Lynn Dunham's story and others like the boys at the OK Boys Ranch must be honored and remembered.
Finding this article on the internet I'm taken by the mention of The OK Boys Ranch in a state email highlighting that secrets were still being buried by the state regarding children being terrorized and violently sexually assaulted:
"Please be aware that Youth Care has a very high powered board in Seattle; it is a long term agency with a ton of community support. Not to say that changes what we do but if we think [a particular boys ranch] had connections; we have seen nothing yet!"
This time it's 2001 about a decade after the OK Boys Ranch crimes (that state licensed residential facility stayed in business for at least 23 years) were released to the public, now it's YouthCare a group home for teenagers in Seattle, Washington. Christine Gregoire was still the Attorney General at the time of this problem as she was with the OK Boys Ranch.
From Louis Bloom's website documenting in detail the OK Boys Ranch: "Christine Gregoire is the present Washington State Attorney General (1993+). Many of her assistant attorney generals were involved in defending the Olympia Kiwanis Boys Ranch. Her department made a half-hearted attempt to prosecute some of the low-level OKBR people. The Olympia Kiwanis members are politically connected. She backed off. Christine spoke at a Jan 19, 1999 Olympia Kiwanis meeting. It's easy to forgive people involved with child abuse when they're politically connected."
The last time I re-viewed the documents on Louis Bloom's website and reread what was done to the boys at the OK Boys Ranch I felt nauseous.
From attorney Jack Connelly's website (who got a measure of justice for some of the boys) about some of the abuse:
"Case Details The abuse occurring at the OK Boys Ranch was varied and severe.
Newcomers, as well as those who broke the rules were initiated or punished in group beatings, young boys would lay awake at night expecting to be raped by the older boys and many tried, unsuccessfully, to escape. The staff did little to stop such behavior and even beat and sodomized the boys themselves. Roughly two serious incidents, which should have been reported to state authorities, occurred per week."
In teaching a child abuse class for the last four and a half years it is clear to me the worst and most shaming of abuses that happen to children and continue into adulthood are the emotional ripping up of children's souls and sexual violation of those same souls. Of all the categories of child abuse, it is emotional abuse and sexual violation that brings tears to the eyes of those in my class.
It's the crime we are not allowed to talk about it. It's the crime that gets hidden like it's the victim's shame. It's not their shame. Such secrets have been covered up in child day care licensing as well.
"Sexual" abuse is not about sex. It's about power and control. It's not about the perpetrator having the orgasm. The worst and most shaming is forcing the child to have the orgasm, it's the emotional control the perpetrator has over the child...well into adulthood.
As was the case for Elizabeth Lynn Dunham who was first sexually seduced and used by former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt at the age of thirteen. Not until her death this year (February) at age 49 years old did we learn her name.
We learned it from the Willamette Week, the Oregonian didn't honor and respect this woman, this girl who could never be healed in this lifetime. It is not her shame what Goldschmidt did to her and the control he had over her the rest of her life.
Secrets devastate and secrets kill. A thank you to the Seattle Times for investigating and investing to get records unsealed to tell this story.
Elizabeth Lynn Dunham's story and others like the boys at the OK Boys Ranch must be honored and remembered.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
The ‘Barefoot Bandit,’ and Another Failed Bureaucracy-DSHS-CPS
For ‘Barefoot Bandit,’ Life on the Run Started Early - NYTimes.com
Having worked group care with severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed adolescents for six years that group of kids was and is my favorite population. The abuse done to them as young, vulnerable little ones with no one to turn to for protection can manifest to acting out as they get bigger.
As a child protective services intake and investigations worker for Washington State DSHS - CPS, one day a referral came in. A young father recognized his brutal upbringing by his mother was effecting his parenting of his child; and went in for counseling. The counselor made a CPS report. The young man called me, was livid on the phone, yelling loudly at me. As a child his mother brutally beat him and CPS came out and did nothing to help. When CPS left his mother beat him even more.
I told him on the phone I would be right out to see him and got in my car. He unloaded about his childhood and CPS not protecting him as a child. Me being the witness to listen to his story helped him. Then because I worked for a bureaucracy that messes up, the referral got assigned to another social worker as well to investigate the same referral; and when he went out (unknown to me), the young man horribly frustrated yelled again about the work of the agency.
My co-worker came back to the office, came by my Dilbert cubicle and said, "That guy's an asshole." I explained that CPS didn't protect the young father when he was young.
My supervisor called me into his office. "That guy's an asshole", he said and the non-verbals told me I was supposed to agree with my boss and co-worker that this young father was an "asshole".
I explained to my boss that CPS didn't protect the young father when he was young. He had strong feelings about that. He hadn't been violent, he hadn't been threatening.
I tried to get the young father on one of those citizen advisory committees you hear about that are supposed to be open to the public to be a member, so called citizen oversight, you know? They wouldn't put him on the committee because he criticized the agency.
When I read this background news article (above link) on Colton, his mom and CPS I know the failures of the bureaucracy beast that is DSHS - CPS. It is beastly and unkind for government workers to angrily and mockingly vent about the clients they are paid to help. My co-workers would get off the phone from talking to a client; and in those Dilbert cubicles, the rat mazes of state government, another co-worker would call out, "Sounds like the family from hell." And off they'd laugh and mock the client.
When I took exception to this name calling about clients, I was put down and told this was "venting" and by "venting" when they did meet with clients face to face they would then be respectful. I disagreed. You cannot hate someone energetically behind their backs and it not be manifested in person in some fashion to a client.
I took a train the trainers course for teaching mandatory child abuse reporting to get my certificate to teach that class. The government social worker who taught the course said that 45% of CPS social workers come from child abuse backgrounds. Which is higher than in the general population. When I asked how many of them were in touch with that childhood abuse and how many of that 45% were healed, she didn't know.
Denial is a strong defense mechanism for those abused as children. As an adult if you are not in touch with it and haven't healed you can't help your clients. Around the mulberry bush you'll go.
My witnessing and speaking up for our DSHS clients resulted in most of my unit turning on me.
Who's going to help Colton Harris-Moore now?
He's obviously a very smart kid who was trying to survive with no adult help. I'm hoping Frank Abagnale, Jr from the book and movie, Catch Me if You Can, will be in contact with Colton. The good father figure Frank finally got was the F.B.I. agent, Hanratty, that caught him.
Abagnale turned his life around and he caused more havoc than Colton, was on the run a year longer than Colton and had millions more in restitution to repay.
Which he did and now Frank Abagnale is a millionaire helping the banks he hurt foil criminals. If you haven't watched, watch Catch Me if You Can, it's a wonderful film.
Having worked group care with severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed adolescents for six years that group of kids was and is my favorite population. The abuse done to them as young, vulnerable little ones with no one to turn to for protection can manifest to acting out as they get bigger.
As a child protective services intake and investigations worker for Washington State DSHS - CPS, one day a referral came in. A young father recognized his brutal upbringing by his mother was effecting his parenting of his child; and went in for counseling. The counselor made a CPS report. The young man called me, was livid on the phone, yelling loudly at me. As a child his mother brutally beat him and CPS came out and did nothing to help. When CPS left his mother beat him even more.
I told him on the phone I would be right out to see him and got in my car. He unloaded about his childhood and CPS not protecting him as a child. Me being the witness to listen to his story helped him. Then because I worked for a bureaucracy that messes up, the referral got assigned to another social worker as well to investigate the same referral; and when he went out (unknown to me), the young man horribly frustrated yelled again about the work of the agency.
My co-worker came back to the office, came by my Dilbert cubicle and said, "That guy's an asshole." I explained that CPS didn't protect the young father when he was young.
My supervisor called me into his office. "That guy's an asshole", he said and the non-verbals told me I was supposed to agree with my boss and co-worker that this young father was an "asshole".
I explained to my boss that CPS didn't protect the young father when he was young. He had strong feelings about that. He hadn't been violent, he hadn't been threatening.
I tried to get the young father on one of those citizen advisory committees you hear about that are supposed to be open to the public to be a member, so called citizen oversight, you know? They wouldn't put him on the committee because he criticized the agency.
When I read this background news article (above link) on Colton, his mom and CPS I know the failures of the bureaucracy beast that is DSHS - CPS. It is beastly and unkind for government workers to angrily and mockingly vent about the clients they are paid to help. My co-workers would get off the phone from talking to a client; and in those Dilbert cubicles, the rat mazes of state government, another co-worker would call out, "Sounds like the family from hell." And off they'd laugh and mock the client.
When I took exception to this name calling about clients, I was put down and told this was "venting" and by "venting" when they did meet with clients face to face they would then be respectful. I disagreed. You cannot hate someone energetically behind their backs and it not be manifested in person in some fashion to a client.
I took a train the trainers course for teaching mandatory child abuse reporting to get my certificate to teach that class. The government social worker who taught the course said that 45% of CPS social workers come from child abuse backgrounds. Which is higher than in the general population. When I asked how many of them were in touch with that childhood abuse and how many of that 45% were healed, she didn't know.
Denial is a strong defense mechanism for those abused as children. As an adult if you are not in touch with it and haven't healed you can't help your clients. Around the mulberry bush you'll go.
My witnessing and speaking up for our DSHS clients resulted in most of my unit turning on me.
Who's going to help Colton Harris-Moore now?
He's obviously a very smart kid who was trying to survive with no adult help. I'm hoping Frank Abagnale, Jr from the book and movie, Catch Me if You Can, will be in contact with Colton. The good father figure Frank finally got was the F.B.I. agent, Hanratty, that caught him.
Abagnale turned his life around and he caused more havoc than Colton, was on the run a year longer than Colton and had millions more in restitution to repay.
Which he did and now Frank Abagnale is a millionaire helping the banks he hurt foil criminals. If you haven't watched, watch Catch Me if You Can, it's a wonderful film.
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