Social worker killed during home visit.

[DisneyPhD]

Police track Illinois lead in Kentucky baby abduction.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/17/missing.baby/index.html

So sad. As social worker this really hits home to me.

It reconfirms my decision to stay at home with my kids right now too.

 

[nightowlky]

Good to hear there's a lead. Local news has been inundating viewers with this.

 

[dmslush]

I know what you mean.. I am in the middle of a career change. I worked in a domestic violence shelter for three years. I just don't think people realize how dangerous social work can be.

 

[N.Bailey]

My God what a crazy world we live in.

 

[barkley]

i could not read this without becoming physicaly ill. i am totaly disabled as a result of my professional experiences with social services-and daily, i count myself, my spouse and children as lucky to not be deceased (to my knowledge-some 7 years post initial incident, with multiple multi year spanning repetative incidents- at least one individual with an extensive violent/battery record with firearms who has made threats against myself and my family is still at large/with warrant for arrest being aided and abeted by the government social services agency i was employed by- 'cleint rights' ).

i cannot speak with regards to other states/counties/agencies-but based on my personal experience and the experiences of many individuals from nationwide studies my attorneys secured-despite police and district attorney advisements, in the face of social services clients making viable death threats (including but not limited to bringing loaded firearms to agency buildings, bringing the same to employee homes and daycare centers/schools of the employee's children)-a large majority of social service employers side on the part of 'client services'. to this end they not only fail to report, but preclude employees from reporting on 'work time' threats or actual cases of personal violence. in the case in which an employee reports a violent act or threat-the same agencies utilize 'client confidentiality regulations' to cite the employee for disclosing names to policing officials.

i would encourage any person pursuing a career in social work to do extensive research into an employer's stated/recorded record.

 

[Uncle Remus]

I didn't read the article, just read everyone's post, but a few months ago a realtor was killed in the Dallas area, I guess showin' up to show a house.
I want to mention that I recently stayed at the Contemporary at WDW and called down for coffee cups and when the housekeeper delivered them, she had a man with her. I wasn't offended and thought that's kinda a good idea. Yet when room service came and it was a woman, she came alone. Scary world out there.

 

[DisneyPhD]

I did in home social work for about a year (or less). I left when I got a job offer for a better job (and just what I went to school for.) My biggest issue back then was many of my clients parents smoked and I just could not handle it. Still this wasn't foster care, but parental support services for parents with autistic children, so they wanted us there.

As a therapist I had more to do with helping parents keep their kids then taking them away. I did have one young mother abandon her 9 year old son on me one day. She couldn't handle it and just didn't want him any more. I had to wait 5 hours with him for the police to come and find a place for him. He asked if I could be his new mom (I was pregnant at the time.) It was heartbreaking.

I believe in this case the social worker was just transporting and supervising the in home situation. She had no power over them not having the child.. That poor baby.

It is just so sad.

 

[barkley]

to an even further extreme-there was a highly (nation wide) publicized situation in northern california wherein a govenment employee told both his supervisor, other supervisors, co-workers and members of the public that if he continued to be reprimanded for his admitted illegal/inappropriate work behaviours he would 'bring a gun and kill everyone'. individuals from all the groups he told reported this to both the police and his governing employers-yet his employer refused to have police or protective authorities on hand at his subsequent termination appointment (which the employee was notified was a termination appointment in advance) citing 'until he is violent we will not take action'. the employee brought a gun, killed the individuals at the meeting as well as several co-workers (his supervisors and those other officials at the meeting as well as innocent bystanders within the adjacent office were told that refusal or failure to appear on the premises for the meeting/other assigned work assignments would result in immediate termination, and any law enforcement called in by the employees would be turned away and be considered grounds for dismissal for diseminating confidential personnel information).

 

[chrissyk]

I just heard an update about this on one of the news channels. I think that it is horrible that the social worker was killed, but I also think that the mother was probaby out-of-her-mind with fear when she did it. They said that she had had other children taken away and that she had just been informed that this baby was going to be put up for adoption. They also said that she was doing everything she could to comply with what social services asked of her, and they were still going to adopt out her baby.

Maybe social workers would be safer if social services erred on the side of actually providing services to parents so they could safely keep their kids Also, in my area, anyone with any degree can become a case worker and can therefore make decisions about removing a child from the parents. Why are unqualified people allowed to do this job? Doesn't that result in some danger to social workers as well? Why are they so quick to remove children, and why are they so quick to place them up for adoption? I hate to say it, but sometimes it seems to me that parents have their children removed from DSS for the crimes of being poor, uneducated, and unable to afford a good attorney I would not want to be a social worker for any amount of money, because I don't think that DSS errs on the side of protecting their employees a lot of the time. I also think that they are very quick to jump to adoption rather than reuinfication, and that this places social workers in dangerous situations a lot of the time.

 

[noodleknitter]

I don't know where you are located, but in OH you just can't go in and take a kid. It doesn't work like that. That isn't to say that some social workers don't act like they have that power. And break laws in the process.

CSB's primary role is to reunite the family, even if it is stupid. They do err on the side of the family. We had a mom strangle her son in front of CSB and it still took 4 years for him to be permanently removed. It took a friend 2 years of fostering kids whose parent were in prison for the abuse against them to have the opportunity to adopt.

That poor worker's family.

 

[momof2inPA]

Maybe social workers would be safer if social services erred on the side of actually providing services to parents so they could safely keep their kids

I can't speak to this particular case, but I think social services err too often on the side of parent's rights and should always lean toward the rights of the child to lead a stable, normal life as quickly as possible.

It was nice that the state flew the flags at half mast as a tribute to the murdered social worker.

 

[chrissyk]

I don't know where you are located, but in OH you just can't go in and take a kid. It doesn't work like that. That isn't to say that some social workers don't act like they have that power. And break laws in the process.

CSB's primary role is to reunite the family, even if it is stupid. They do err on the side of the family. We had a mom strangle her son in front of CSB and it still took 4 years for him to be permanently removed. It took a friend 2 years of fostering kids whose parent were in prison for the abuse against them to have the opportunity to adopt.

That poor worker's family.

I agree that the law doesn't support being able to just go in and take a kid, but when you have states desperate for caseworkers, some number of unqualified caseworkers do go in and do just that. My state advertises in the local paper EVERY week for new caseworkers. They must go through them like crazy if they are constantly trying to hire. There is no need to actually be a social worker. They will hire people with any degree according to the ads. These people only get a short training course, and then they are allowed to make decisions about removing children from their homes. To me, that puts them in danger, it puts the social workers bringing the children to the home for visits in danger, etc. How can you make a good decision if you are not educated in the field of social work? How can you avoid mistaking poverty and lack of education for neglect? I personally believe that that happens a lot, and I'm not even a bleeding-heart liberal. That leads to volatile situations like the one that occured in this case IMHO.

It is truly horrible what happened to that social worker. It never should have happened. The system is messed up IMHO. Kids that don't need removal are removed, while other kids like the ones you describe languish. The social workers get caught in the crossfire. It's really bad.

 

[noodleknitter]

The decision isn't made by just one person. It is made by committee. And pulling kids for foster care means you have to have an available foster home. Not exactly an overabundance. And, as I said, the permanency hearings can go on for years. And then it takes a judge to make the final decision.

 

[N.Bailey]

So, if the woman did this so her baby wouldn't be taken, why the need to kill? Why not just flee with the child? At most, they could have bound the social worker. This is no excuse to kill her. Now the woman can face the rest of her pathetic life in prison.

 

[ash1569]

This VERY sad tragdey happened in my home town! Please if anyone sees them PLEASE call the police immeditely! This people are crazy and need to be caught! I feel so sorry for the poor baby! Please say they won't hurt him! The Update is they have had several leads but no Breaks Hopefully something will come up soon!!! Keep Praying please!

 

[DisneyPhD]

So, if the woman did this so her baby wouldn't be taken, why the need to kill? Why not just flee with the child? At most, they could have bound the social worker. This is no excuse to kill her. Now the woman can face the rest of her pathetic life in prison.

This is all here say, but I read a post on another mothering board about this topic. A women there knew the murdered social worker. She said she was small gentle person who loved her job and the kids she worked with. There is no way the 2 people would of needed to kill her in order to over power here.

In my opinion the fact that this happened is speaks volumes on the fact that the parents should have had there rights taken away.

chrissyk, social work doesn't work that way in Michigan. It is very difficult to mind a position for less then a masters degree. Cases workers might only have a BSW or a BS in another social science, but it also takes training and normally 2 years of experience before you can work in that job. They also need a state license. I do admit they could use more and more support, most people do.

I hope they find them soon.

 

[chrissyk]

So, if the woman did this so her baby wouldn't be taken, why the need to kill? Why not just flee with the child? At most, they could have bound the social worker. This is no excuse to kill her. Now the woman can face the rest of her pathetic life in prison.

There is no excuse for killing the social worker. That is just sick. What I was saying is that this mother must have been freaked out of her mind by the possibility that she was going to lose yet another child to adoption. The news channel certainly made it sound like the mother was trying hard to comply 100% with what social services wanted, but they were still going to adopt her child out. That to me is a recipe for putting social workers in unsafe situations. Tell the mother to do this and that and you'll get your kid back, and then turn around and tell her that you're adopting the baby out even though she's complying with what you want her to do. That is messed up, and it put the social worker in a very unsafe situation when she brought the child to the home for a visit IMHO.

 

[chrissyk]

chrissyk, social work doesn't work that way in Michigan. It is very difficult to mind a position for less then a masters degree. Cases workers might only have a BSW or a BS in another social science, but it also takes training and normally 2 years of experience before you can work in that job. They also need a state license. I do admit they could use more and more support, most people do.

I hope they find them soon.

Does this apply to the caseworkers who go to the homes to make assessments after calls are made? Here anyone with any degree can get that job. Every single week the same ad is in our paper. Excellent benefits (except that you might get maimed or killed on the job I guess), etc. I get the feeling that these case workers do not have a clue as to what they are getting themselves into. They are probably people who want to help, but have no idea of the dangers of the job. Social workers should have degrees in social work, period. They need to be educated as to the realities of this field, because I agree that it IS dangerous for so many reasons. They need to be educated as to the fact that poverty does not necessarily equal neglect, and they need to have some sort of practical education before being set loose to do a dangerous job. I think that this topic hit home with me because I cringe every week when I read the paper and see that ad

 

[Hedy]

Did anybody read the article on the Social Services dept that was in the NY times magazine? I thought it covered a lot of the issues on both sides (one of a family whose kids were in the system, and of the caseworkers).

 

[bellarose23]

I'm in the process of getting my masters in counseling, and some of my classmates are social workers with the Department of Children and Family Services. As far as I know in Illinois, you need at least a Bachelors. The pay is not great, and the work is heartwrenching and dangerous. I don't know the people in this case, but it doesn't make sense that they would still take the child if the clients were complying. The fact that she murdered the social worker makes me think they were justified in not wanting to give her custody. While I think every effort should be made to keep the family in tact, the final decision should always be what is best for the child. Not always an easy or clear choice, but safety if paramount.