Good afternoon, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you reach for a beer or a whiskey or something, because it’s been a freaking depressing news day.
— A Cleveland Heights man has been charged with murder for allegedly killing his son. The two were fighting Sunday afternoon and the dad put the teen in a choke hold. The son lost consciousness and died later at the hospital. (WOIO)
— An emergency meeting was called today at Cuyahoga County Family and Children’s Services after details emerged of a 46-year-old woman who kept three children locked up with no beds, electricity, or access to restrooms in the basement of her home. (WEWS)
— A man who worked for a security company apparently used his knowledge of alarms to bypass the system protecting one house, allowing him to enter and swipe some jewelry. (WEWS)
— And if that wasn’t enough sadness already, here’s the story of a 62-year-old man who followed his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend to a bar and shot the new boyfriend in the head. (Cleveland.com)
This article appears in Dec 15-21, 2010.
The Department of Children and family services, are negligent for many cases.
The media only highlight a few issues, relative to reunification. There are issues concerning abuse of children placed in foster homes and are abused. This incident occurs often, Teenagers are coming up pregnant while in their foster homes, and I am not just talking about relative foster homes. I am speaking of non relative as well.
These cases are not being mentioned at all, no media wants to get involved with this story. Also fraud with reports go on all the time with The Department of children Services. Several more Supervisors and more need to be fired, this is slow moving I see very slow moving.
Bellfair is one of the agencies with a high turnover rate, because many workers do not agree with the agencies way of handling complaints about foster parents.
I have offered the Scene to do a story, and they never showed an interest. Thats Cleveland ,Ohio for ya.
Laws which provide for automatic termination of parental rights generally assume parents are guilty until proven innocent, and place the burden on parents to prove they are fit to raise their children – as opposed to the state to prove that they are not.
Their is a serious problem within Cuyahoga County and the Department of children and family services many of the victims being in foster care – removed from their homes for purported abuse, only to suffer real abuse at the hands of those charged with their safety and well-being.
When a child is abused in a foster home or in an institution while in state custody, the state investigates itself. That is something we cannot tolerate
Restoration of Rights
There needs to be intact Family advocates and local representatives to present evidence to state and federal representatives and urging that a congressional investigation be called toward revamping the laws governing child protective agencies and child welfare.
High on the list for reform are state codes which provide for automatic termination of parental rights. These generally assume parents are guilty until proven innocent, and place the burden on parents to prove they are fit to raise their children — as opposed to the state to prove that they are not.