Age-old problem: babies having babies
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/142895.html
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
The soon-to-be mom was knitting baby booties, gathering shower gifts and
discussing the joys of breast feeding.
But though she was days from giving birth, she was never to hold her
daughter, much less be her mother.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen ordered that her baby go straight
from the hospital into foster care. At 13, and with an IQ on the
borderline of mental retardation, the mom was about to perpetuate one of
the most pernicious cycles in American child welfare:
Foster children begetting more foster children.
''We cannot leave a baby with this child,'' Cohen said of the teen at
the May 15 hearing. ``We cannot perform miracles. But we have to try to
help these girls.''
Three days later, the teen gave birth to a healthy girl who shares her
middle name. At a hearing Thursday, the lawyer for her foster-care
agency asked Cohen to offer the teen counseling and parenting classes in
an effort to win custody of the newborn. ''We feel she should be given a
chance,'' Lourdes Pons said.
''Asking me to give a 13-year-old from an abused and neglectful
environment [a chance] to get her baby back would be cruel not only to
the baby but to the 13-year-old as well,'' said the judge, voice rising.
``I am not going to do it. I won't preside over it.''
For the 13-year-old, and thousands like her in foster care, the state
has been a woefully indifferent parent when it comes to teaching the
facts of life.
The children and their advocates say most foster girls have never been
told where babies come from -- though they typically find out the way
most kids do, from friends. Historically, caseworkers and foster parents
were discouraged from discussing anything but abstinence as a
birth-control measure, advocates say.
As a result, foster kids are more likely to get pregnant and give birth
than children living at home, research shows. And they're more likely to
suffer the consequences -- dropping out of high school or becoming
dependent on public assistance as adults.
More than 28,316 children in Florida are receiving out-of-home care,
such as foster care, from the Department of Children & Families, DCF
spokesman Al Zimmerman said. Among them are 3,728 girls between 13 and 17.
Florida child welfare administrators do not track the number of girls
who become pregnant each year, but a smattering of research from across
the United States reflects the problem. A 2005 study by the University
of Chicago, for example, found that nearly one-third of 17-year-old and
18-year-old foster girls had been pregnant.
The extremely large number of adolescent foster kids who run away each
year -- as of Wednesday, close to 600 children in state care were listed
as ''missing'' -- contributes to the problem, said Broward Circuit Judge
John A. Frusciante, a nine-year veteran of juvenile court.
''A fair number of girls who run away come back pregnant,'' Frusciante
said. They often return seeking help, he added, but run again after
giving birth. ``The trouble is keeping them there, and not allowing them
to run away again.''
DCF's procedure for securing medical care for foster kids does not
mention birth control. In practice, judges and advocates say, securing
contraceptives has been difficult, if not impossible.
Official reluctance to discuss family planning was so acute in Miami
that one now-retired juvenile judge, Steven D. Robinson, dispensed free
samples of condoms to kids -- and their parents -- from a table in his
courtroom.
''I had them in clear view,'' said Robinson, who retired in 2002.
In Tallahassee, attorneys with Florida State University's children's law
clinic twice have represented girls who sought birth control but were
turned down by foster-care caseworkers, said the clinic's chief, Paolo
Annino.
In one case, about three years ago, a DCF worker finally agreed to take
a girl to a clinic after a Leon County judge ''browbeat'' the caseworker
into changing course, Annino said. In a second case, one of the clinic's
students finally bought a teenage girl condoms after a caseworker
refused to help her get them.
In the St. Petersburg area, Public Defender Robert Dillinger said his
attorneys have been told that the Pinellas County private foster-care
agency will not seek birth control for teens because of ``liability
issues.''
Agency heads fear girls may overdose on birth-control pills, or use
contraceptives incorrectly, he said.
As part of a pilot project for foster kids who wind up in criminal
court, assistant public defenders have been taking their clients to the
health department for birth control and gynecological care. ''We're
walking a delicate line here,'' Dillinger said.
Lee Johnson, the executive vice president of the Sarasota Family YMCA,
which runs private foster care in Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota and
DeSoto counties, said caseworkers have not been told to block birth
control. ''It's ultimately up to the girl, or her parents if they have
rights,'' Johnson said.
In Miami, judges like Cohen routinely have ordered caseworkers to take
teens to the health department for counseling and birth control. Cohen
helped set up a Planned Parenthood clinic for foster kids in a DCF
service center in North Miami-Dade.
In an effort to clarify policy, the Community Based Care Alliance, an
advocacy group that guides child-welfare practice in Miami, developed a
six-page ``protocol for assisting pregnant teens.''
The protocol, still in draft form, calls for caseworkers to take
pregnant girls to Planned Parenthood for counseling, to provide prenatal
care to those who wish to give birth, to help in placing their babies up
for adoption if they choose and to take them to a clinic if they request
an abortion.
Already the plan is fraught with controversy.
''This is a hot potato nobody wants to touch,'' said Cindy Lerner, a
Miami attorney who helped draft the protocol.
Though other agencies accepted the protocol, an attorney for Miami's His
House Children's Home, a nondenominational Christian campus for abused
and neglected children, threatened to go to court if forced to follow it.
His House objected to taking girls to Planned Parenthood, saying the
family planning group favors abortion over other options. The agency
said it would not transport girls to clinics for abortions, arguing that
would be the same as consenting to an abortion -- something DCF and its
contractors cannot do by state law.
Liz Anon, His House's general counsel, declined to discuss the group's
objections at length, saying, ``We are faith-based. Everyone knows we
are faith-based. We laid out our objections.''
Candice L. Maze, the Miami alliance's director, said: ``I have a lot of
faith we can craft a solution that will work for everyone involved. We
don't want to lose a good provider. But, at the same time, these girls
still have a legal right to pursue an abortion.''
Last month, Cohen ordered caseworkers at the privately run Family
Resource Center to take the 13-year-old girl's baby into custody
immediately after birth and then to take both the teen and her
9-year-old sister to Planned Parenthood for counseling. The girls are
not being named to protect their privacy.
Caseworker Annabelle Sanchez said the younger girl also is at risk. She
said the 13-year-old had said ``her little sister is not a virgin.''
Caregivers threw a baby shower for the teen, who had been dreaming of
motherhood. She would have read What to Expect When You're Expecting if
only she could read. ''That's her biggest problem,'' the judge said.
``She is not reading or writing.''
The girl first told caseworkers an unnamed 28-year-old man is the baby's
father, but now she and her mother say they don't know who the father
is, said Fran Allegra, who heads the Our Kids foster-care agency.
Allegra said her agency will alert prosecutors to the case, which could
constitute statutory rape.
At the May 15 hearing, Cohen and foster-care caseworkers pondered how
the girl will endure losing a baby she already cherished in the abstract.
''It will break her heart to see the baby and know the baby will not be
with her at all,'' said Sanchez, a senior case manager at Family
Resource Center.
Said the girl's mother, who lost custody of the two girls because of
allegations of severe neglect: ``This is going to be a tremendous amount
of pain. It is going to be traumatic, but I can't help it.''
CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL
SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....
CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.
every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf
http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com
Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS
*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*
Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5
Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that
are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per
100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse
and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the
citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold
parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY
government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and
death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more
human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which
they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that
they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when
children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a
bunch of social workers.
BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...
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