Opponents
of family preservation have a lot of great applause lines. They are for
"child protection," they say. They are for "children's
rights," they say. They are for "putting children first instead of
families first," they say. And
over and over again, they tell us they are just “erring on the side of the
child.”
But
in the name of "child protection" children have been beaten. In the
name of "children's rights" children have been raped. And in the name
of "erring on the side of the child," children have been murdered.
These are the stories of some of those children:
When
Sara Eyerman of northern California was nineteen-months-old, child protective
services was concerned that she wasn't growing fast enough. So they "erred
on the side of the child" and placed Sara in a "specialized"
foster home.
About
six weeks later, Sara began running a 105 degree fever. But the
"specialists" in the specialized foster home decided it was o.k. to
wait two days before taking her to a doctor. On the way to the doctor's office,
Sara Eyerman died of viral pneumonia.
"She should have been in the hospital two days
earlier when she had a 104.8 [degree] temperature," said Sara's mother,
Angie. "When she was home, she went to the emergency room if her
temperature got over 101. I didn't care if they laughed at me when I got there
or not. One time I took her when she was cutting a tooth ... I kept her alive
for a year and seven months. They had her for six weeks and three days and she
died."[1]
Authorities in New York City thought Caprice Reid wasn't
being properly supervised by her mother. So they decided to "put the child
first" and put the child in foster care. They made a "child
focused" decision. They "erred on the side of the child." Eleven
months after placement in her third foster home, Caprice Reid, then age four,
was dead.
Death
did not come quickly. She was starved. She was dehydrated. And her body was covered
with bruises. Police say she was tied to a chair and beaten with a stick for
four days until she could no longer walk.
The
foster home was licensed by one of the scores of private agencies that handle
foster care for the city in the midst of a sudden shortage of foster home beds
caused by the city's decision to effectively abandon family preservation. The
home was licensed even though another agency had found the home unfit just a
few months earlier.
About
a week before she died, Caprice Reid's mother saw her daughter for the last
time. The little girl clung to her mother's neck and said "Don't go,
Mommy. I love you."[2]
China Marie Davis was placed in foster care in Arizona
when she was a little over a year old. Someone decided to "put the child
first" and take her from her parents. They made a "child
focused" decision. They "erred on the side of the child."
Ten
months later, China Marie Davis' autopsy revealed two broken collarbones, a
broken left arm, a broken right rib, two fractures of the left upper arm, a
fracture of the right upper arm, broken left wrist, a broken left hand, a
broken left forearm, a broken right wrist, a broken right forearm, fractures of
both thigh bones and a compression fracture of the spine.
No
one suspected anything because her foster mother always dressed her in such
pretty outfits.[3]
Somebody "erred on the side of the child" and
placed Corey Greer of Treasure Island, Florida, in a foster home that would
later be described by police as "filthy and overcrowded." The home
was licensed for four children. By the time Corey Greer died in his crib of
dehydration, 12 were living there. The foster mother was convicted of
manslaughter and third degree murder.
Corey
Greer might have survived the overcrowding, if only he had been white.
According to a witness at the foster mother's trial, the foster mother said
that touching black children "just gives me the willies." According
to the witness, the foster mother referred to Corey Greer as "a big black
blob."[4]
Tina Ponce thought she was doing the right thing. She was suffering from bipolar disorder and
couldn’t take care of her children. She
also was too poor to get the help that a middle class family can count on. So she did the only thing she could think
of: She asked the State of California to keep her children in foster care until
she got better. Rather than provide Ponce with mental health services, the state
“put the children first.” They made a
“child-focused decision.” They “erred
on the side of the child,” and gladly threw the children into foster care. “I
had five kids, I was alone, I didn’t have any money, Ponce said. “I thought it would be a temporary
thing. I didn’t think they would be in
the system that long or it would be that hard to get them back.”
But when Ponce was better, she found it was much harder to get her
children back than to get the state to take them. One day, while Ponce still
was jumping through hoop after hoop in order to get her children back, she saw
a television news story about a little girl who died after being left in her
foster mother’s car in 100 degree heat.
It was her three-year-old daughter, Maryah.
“Even in my confusion, I never jeopardized my children’s safety or
health,” Ponce said. “If I had them,
this wouldn’t have happened. I thought
I was doing the right thing by putting them in foster care.” [5]
When child protective services took four-year-old Jamie Mayne from
his father, they never bothered to tell his mother, Marie Panos, who was not
living with the man. The mother was
never accused of abusing or neglecting the boy. But after she found out about the removal two days later and
offered to care for him, authorities in California refused. They decided to
make a “child focused” decision, to “put the child first,” to “err on the side
of the child” by placing Jamie with a stranger.
"I went up to them to get my children, and they said they’re in
the system now and I had to do a case plan in order to get my kids back,” Panos
said.
But a jury in Visalia, California found that while Panos was working
on her “case plan,” Jamie was being tortured and murdered by his foster
mother. He died of a collapsed heart, a
ruptured small bowel and an abdominal hemorrhage. There were more than 40 bruises on his body. “It’s hard because I can’t pick him up
and kiss him,” Panos said at the foster mother’s trial. “All I have is a headstone to look at
instead of his beautiful face.”[6]
Authorities in Massachusetts decided to "put the
child first" and take seven-year-old Michelle Walton away from her
parents. They made a "child focused" decision. They "erred on
the side of the child."
Three
years later, the body of Michelle Walton was found in the dirty hallway of her
foster home, under 380 pounds of Sheetrock. Her foster mother says it was an
accident. But a judge found that it was murder. And he found that Michelle was
chronically sexually abused during her time in "care."
No
one has been charged. According to the Boston Globe, Michelle's mother
"heads to work every day with a worn Peanuts knapsack on her back crammed
with her daughter's autopsy report and assorted other documents that chronicle
her death and proffers them to most anyone interested. Not many are.
"'I
carry 'em because it makes it easier for my sanity ... It helps me from going
insane. Or maybe it just keeps her alive a little bit longer.''[7]
Of
course most foster parents don't harm the children in their care -- but most
birth parents don't either. The case against family preservation has been
fueled by "horror stories." It's important to remember that there are
horror stories in foster care -- and family preservation has the better track
record.
More examples of the harm of “erring on the side of the
child” can be found in Issue Paper 6.
1. Kent Pollock, "The Child Protectors:
Innocent Suffer in War to Protect," Sacramento Bee, August 3, 1986,
p.1 Back to Text.
2. Rachel Swarns, "Agency Was Warned About Foster
Mother Charged in Girl's Death," The New York Times, July 2, 1997,
p.B3; Michelle McPhee et. al., "Two Charged in Foster Death" New York
Daily News, July 2, 1997, p.17 Back to Text.
3. Clint Williams and Norm Parish, "Few Grown-Ups
Wanted to Bother With China Marie Davis," The Arizona Republic,
April 9, 1994, p.A1 Back to Text.
4.
Diana Smith, "Foster Baby's Death Spurs Corrective Action by State,"
Associated Press Dec. 8, 1985, "Race Issue Raised in Baby's Death,"
United Press International, Oct. 22, 1986," Woman Faces Seven Years in
Foster Child's Death," Associated Press, June 13, 1988. Back
to Text.
5. Rachel Tuinstra, “Tot’s Family Still Dazed,” The
(Riverside, CA) Press Enterprise, July 6, 2001, p.B1 Back
to Text.
6. Jennifer M. Fitzenberger, “Visalia
woman gets life for death of 4-year-old foster son,” Fresno Bee, Sept.
12, 2001, p.B1; Jennifer M. Fitzenberger,” Convicted foster mom’s ‘a good
mother,’” Fresno Bee, May 24, 2001, p.A1 Back to Text.
7. Sally Jacobs, "Who Killed Michelle Walton?"
The Boston Globe, December 10, 1995, p.1. Back to Text.