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Posts Tagged ‘CPS’

2YO Foster Child Murdered, Previous Abuse Complaints on Foster Home – California

November 1st, 2011 9 comments

UPDATE: July 20, 1010. Foster Mom + Boyfriend Formally Charged for Girl’s Hammer Death. Bail Set in Millions. Los Angeles (KABC). A Los Angeles foster mom has been charged in the death of a 2-year-old girl who was killed with a hammer. Police said 30-year-old Kiana Barker was arrested Thursday on murder and child abuse charges. They say Barker initially told investigators she accidentally hit Viola Vanclief with a hammer while trying to free the girl, who had become trapped in a bed frame. But authorities say records show the child had several bruises. The girl died on March 4. Barker is being held on $1.1 million bail. Her boyfriend, 38-year-old James Julian is facing an accessory to murder charge. His bail is set at $1.6 million. Related Content on link: County fires foster care agency after deaths, Foster mom previously accused of abuse, Foster mom + boyfriend probed in child’s death. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7564504

Report: Foster mom previously accused of abuse. March 18, 2010, South Los Angeles, KABC. The family of a two-year-old girl who died after being beaten with a hammer questioned how the toddler was placed in the South Los Angeles home following a report that the foster mother had been the subject of five child abuse complaints.
A South Los Angeles foster mother and her live-in boyfriend are under investigation in the death of a 2-year-old girl who was struck with a hammer. Thirty-year-old Kiana Barker and her boyfriend, 38-year-old James Julian, were arrested on suspicion of murder, then released after prosecutors sent the case back to the police and coroner for further investigation.
Barker told investigators that she accidentally struck Viola with a hammer while trying to free her after the girl became trapped in a metal bed frame from the torso down on March 4.
The coroner ruled the death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. There was also bruising to the lower back, buttocks and hips, according to the complaint filed by the Department of Social Services.
“How can you hit a child with a hammer and not take them to the hospital. It just don’t make sense to me,” the victim’s sister, Sonja Vanclief of Columbus, Ohio said in a phone interview. “Just talking about it is just so sad because she was just an innocent child. Children are the purest things in this world, especially when they died young, they come back directly from God.”
Multiple agencies are investigating the toddler’s death. Her family now questions whether Viola would have been better off with her birth mother, Olivia Vanclief. The family acknowledges Olivia was bi-polar. The Los Angeles Times reports she was also a drug addict. She is currently in a rehab program, where we cannot reach her.
Yet there were also danger signs with foster mother Kiana Barker. The Los Angeles Times, citing confidential records, reports there were five allegations against her and one substantiated complaint that Barker had severely neglected her own child in 2002. Under state rules, the inconclusive cases should have been entered into the state database and might have precluded a state license.
The non-profit group United Care Inc. placed Viola with Barker. Child care workers failed to discover that Barker’s boyfriend, convicted felon James Julian, was living at the home. Both adults should have been disqualified from caring for a foster child.
“The Department of the Children and Family Services joins the community in mourning the loss of the child Viola,” said Neil Zanville, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services. Department officials pledge to work with every agency to determine what went wrong. “Safety remains our first and foremost concern and we’re committed to keeping children safe whenever possible,” said Zanville.
But Viola’s family still has many questions and doubts. “She was a child. She couldn’t fend for herself and in actuality they put her in more danger than my mom would have,” said Sonja Vanclief.
The child welfare workers who were in charge of checking in on Viola have been placed on desk duty pending the outcome of the investigation.
The LAPD juvenile division is seeking the public’s help in the case. Anyone with information was asked to call (213) 486-0580. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7338830

Duration : 0:2:49

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My widowed mother threatened to ditch me for Foster Care/City House care in Texas. Is it legally possible?

April 16th, 2011 2 comments

Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal if it was once, but this is the 5th time this year and she says she wants to kick me out because I’m a medical burden and rebellious.

She threatens to have a lawyer sign me over and have me live at city house with life insurance for my dad’s recent death. She also threatened foster care and abandonment in an Ikea store. I want to know if this is legal for her to do any of the above 3.

We have a CPS record for various things but nothing serious. She assaulted me 2 weeks ago but the police blew me off and told me to grow up.

Me: 15/Male/High School Student in texas. Suffering from various medical issues that have to be taken care of ASAP.
Mom: Widowed for a little over a year.

I would REALLY appreciate it if you informed me about the legality of these threats. It sounds possible but then again, don’t all parents want to ditch their kids?

Thanks!
We got into the arguments about my life-threatening case of pectus excavatum.

Yes some days all parents want to ditch their kids and go to the beach. Then the kids come screaming in the house and need lunch and the parents forget about it and tend to their little darlings. I am sorry she is verbalizing these things to you, she sounds like she is at the end of her rope and concerned that she cannot take care of you. Legal, I don’t know. Appropriate to say to your kids, NO. Hope you can find a counselor at your next school and talk to someone about how all this is affecting you.

Psych Drugging Foster Children Florida Senate Comm Pt2 – Gabriel Myers Bill

April 29th, 2010 No comments

Florida Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs – Psychotropic Drug Use Among Foster Children. Oct 7, 2009. Senators committee to discuss SB2718 after death of Gabriel Myers. Children are not given traditional therapy but instead are subjected to extreme psychotropic drugging. Point made that psychiatry is not what it used to be and has resorted to drugging; the move away from psychiatry which should be replaced with more traditional use of psychologists for therapy if needed – attachment disorder, trauma therapy.

Florida Senate 2010 SB 2718, to be effective July 2010. By Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; and Senator Storms. A bill to be entitled An act relating to the provision of psychotropic medication to children in out-of-home placements.
http://www.flsenate.gov/data/session/2010/Senate/bills/billtext/pdf/s2718c1.pdf

In Memory of 7 Year Old Gabriel Myers: In wake of childs suicide, Legislature moves to limit foster cares reliance on psychiatric drugs. St. Petersburg Times, By Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer.
TALLAHASSEE, Fl. – A year after a 7-year-old boy heavily medicated on powerful psychiatric drugs hanged himself in his Margate foster home, lawmakers are pushing to reform state medical requirements for foster children.
The Senates Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee unanimously approved a measure Thursday designed to curb the prescription of mental-health drugs to children in state care.
The proposed law would require the state Department of Children and Families to assign volunteer guardians to oversee each childs mental health care. It prohibits foster children from being the subject of clinical drug trials and raises the age at which children are allowed to take these drugs from 6 to 11 in many cases.
The measure (SB2718 and HB1567) would also give children some say in the drugs they take.
We are not just going to medicate them until they turn 18 and then dump them into adulthood, said sponsor Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, chairwoman of the Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee.
The states growing use of adult medication on emotionally and mentally troubled children has sparked debate for years.
Multiple state studies show child-welfare doctors and case managers routinely failed to follow legally required treatment plans or properly document when and why drugs were given to foster children, creating a network of youth sedated by chemical straitjackets, Storms said.
The death of Gabriel Myers in April further revealed the shortcomings of 2005 legislation that required more information sharing, parental involvement and second-party review of doctors prescriptions for the youngest children.
Because foster children are often cared for by multiple service contractors, communication lapses and fragmented mental health care are still rampant, a recent state report on Myers death determined.
Our response to him was to medicate him, and medicate him, and medicate him, Storms said.
Under the bill, proposed medical treatment plans must be explained to a child and the child must consent to the treatment in many cases before taking the drugs.
What this means is less medication and more behavior analysis so that they are not just sedated little zombies, said Jan Montgomery, president of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis, which would train legal guardians to observe and treat behavioral problems.
Still, Montgomery said she did not expect a sudden culture shift, given failed past efforts to track foster childrens medical records.
Its going to be a slow slide toward what we are hoping is the right way, Montgomery said.
In wake of child’s suicide, Legislature moves to limit foster care’s reliance on psychiatric drugs

FDA warns psychiatrist who treated dead foster child.
http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/fda-warns-psychiatrist-who-treated-dead-foster-child/

Duration : 0:6:3

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Psych Drugging Foster Children Florida Senate Comm Pt1 – Gabriel Myers Bill

April 20th, 2010 No comments

Florida Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs – Psychotropic Drug Use Among Foster Children. Oct 7, 2009. Senators committee to discuss SB2718 after death of Gabriel Myers. Children are not given traditional therapy but instead are subjected to extreme psychotropic drugging. Point made that psychiatry is not what it used to be and has resorted to drugging; the move away from psychiatry which should be replaced with more traditional use of psychologists for therapy if needed – attachment disorder, trauma therapy.

Florida Senate 2010 SB 2718. By Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs; and Senator Storms. A bill to be entitled An act relating to the provision of psychotropic medication to children in out-of-home placements.
http://www.flsenate.gov/data/session/2010/Senate/bills/billtext/pdf/s2718c1.pdf

In Memory of 7 Year Old Gabriel Myers: In wake of childs suicide, Legislature moves to limit foster cares reliance on psychiatric drugs. March 19, 2010. St. Petersburg Times, By Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer.
TALLAHASSEE, Fl. – A year after a 7-year-old boy heavily medicated on powerful psychiatric drugs hanged himself in his Margate foster home, lawmakers are pushing to reform state medical requirements for foster children.
The Senates Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee unanimously approved a measure Thursday designed to curb the prescription of mental-health drugs to children in state care.
The proposed law would require the state Department of Children and Families to assign volunteer guardians to oversee each childs mental health care. It prohibits foster children from being the subject of clinical drug trials and raises the age at which children are allowed to take these drugs from 6 to 11 in many cases.
The measure (SB2718 and HB1567) would also give children some say in the drugs they take.
We are not just going to medicate them until they turn 18 and then dump them into adulthood, said sponsor Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Brandon, chairwoman of the Children, Families, and Elder Affairs Committee.
The states growing use of adult medication on emotionally and mentally troubled children has sparked debate for years.
Multiple state studies show child-welfare doctors and case managers routinely failed to follow legally required treatment plans or properly document when and why drugs were given to foster children, creating a network of youth sedated by chemical straitjackets, Storms said.
The death of Gabriel Myers in April further revealed the shortcomings of 2005 legislation that required more information sharing, parental involvement and second-party review of doctors prescriptions for the youngest children.
Because foster children are often cared for by multiple service contractors, communication lapses and fragmented mental health care are still rampant, a recent state report on Myers death determined.
Our response to him was to medicate him, and medicate him, and medicate him, Storms said.
Under the bill, proposed medical treatment plans must be explained to a child and the child must consent to the treatment in many cases before taking the drugs.
What this means is less medication and more behavior analysis so that they are not just sedated little zombies, said Jan Montgomery, president of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis, which would train legal guardians to observe and treat behavioral problems.
Still, Montgomery said she did not expect a sudden culture shift, given failed past efforts to track foster childrens medical records.
Its going to be a slow slide toward what we are hoping is the right way, Montgomery said.
In wake of child’s suicide, Legislature moves to limit foster care’s reliance on psychiatric drugs

FDA warns psychiatrist who treated dead foster child.
http://gabrielmyers.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/fda-warns-psychiatrist-who-treated-dead-foster-child/

Duration : 0:6:59

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