Greegor
February 27th 07, 05:06 PM
Notice the cases of horrible abuse at the hands of Fosters listed at
the bottom.
Feb 2007 New Mexico suffocating his 2-year-old foster son with a
blanket
Jan 2007 Brooksville charged with sexually abusing four boys
Oct 2006 Missouri 15 counts of possessing child pornography featuring
two of his foster boys
Aug 2006 Ohio 3-year-old wrapped in blanket and packing tape couple
went to a family reunion
Aug 2006 Minnesota man charged with molesting two girls
AUG 2006 MN another man same county week earlier charged with
molesting foster daughter
July 2006 WV charged with sexually abusing two boys and a girl
May 2006 Wisconsin charged death of 3-year-old boy by PUNCHING (also
punched 2 year old)
Mar 2006 New Mexico charged with felony child abuse 18-month-old boy
suffered brain injury
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02022407.htm
February 24, 2007
Arrests spur examination of foster parent criteria By DEBORAH
CIRCELLI Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Monitoring devices, drug testing, psychological
evaluations and a national network among states are a few steps being
discussed to keep foster children safe.
With two recent cases of local foster parents charged with molesting
or sexually abusing children, state and national child-welfare workers
are struggling for answers on how to keep them from being abused by
people entrusted to provide a safe haven.
"These kids have enough stuff in their lives and they just don't need
this," said Dr. Carl Schwenker, a Port Orange adoptive parent and
former foster parent.
Schwenker, a board member of Community Partnership for Children, a
local agency contracted to provide foster care services, said one idea
may be having a psychologist meet with prospective foster parents.
"It will probably discourage some people from becoming foster parents,
but I think it's necessary. We really need to get tough," he said.
Robert R. Clinton, 51, of Deltona, was charged Thursday with sexual
battery on a 3-year-old local foster girl and 40 counts of promoting
sexual performance of a child. Investigators found 40 images on
Clinton's computer and digital camera of him and the child in sexual
acts, reports show. He also was charged with 10 counts of possessing
child pornography that investigators believe he downloaded from the
Internet.
George Goolde of Orange City, who was president of the local foster
parent group, was arrested in November and faces charges of molesting
three children in his care. Both Goolde and Clinton remain in the
Volusia County Branch Jail.
The state Department of Children & Families in Tallahassee is looking
at the foster parent application process, though a psychological
evaluation is "not on the table at this time," a spokesman said.
Local officials are open to obtaining more information because they
say criminal background screenings don't always show the full picture.
But some caution against putting up more barriers when the majority of
foster parents are trying to help children. In Volusia and Flagler
counties, there are 225 licensed foster homes, but about 65 more are
needed, officials say, especially for teens, who at times are placed
outside the area.
Reggie Williams, local district administrator for the state DCF, met
with staff Friday to review procedures and further meetings are
planned. But he said, "We shouldn't just do things because they sound
good.
"There are no easy answers," Williams said. "People who want to be a
perpetrator will find ways of doing it. It's sick."
Neighbor To Family, which provides sibling foster care and oversaw
Clinton's home, installed monitoring devices in its foster homes last
year in Florida and four other states. The motion detectors cause an
alarm to go off in the house to wake up the foster parents and the
child if someone enters the child's bedroom at night. But in Clinton's
case, the sexual battery, police say, occurred in the living room.
Gordon Johnson, chief executive officer of Neighbor To Family, said
his agency talked about installing cameras but thought they would be
too hard to monitor. Some day-care centers nationally have installed
cameras so parents through an Internet site can see their children
throughout the day.
"This is a rare case. I'm not sure we want to overreact," Johnson
said.
State Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, said she's "appalled" that
some foster parents are abusing children. She said the state needs to
study the issue and make changes, even if it means periodically
checking a foster parent's computer.
She and local DCF staff also say a national registry of foster parents
is needed so if the parent does something wrong in one state, other
states would know about it.
"We have to have a national approach to making sure our children are
safe," Lynn said.
DCF workers last year revoked a Deltona woman's foster care license
after being notified from someone outside the state that she was
charged in 1993 with endangering foster children in New Jersey. Local
DCF officials said the foster mother, who had been licensed locally
for five months, gave inadequate information on her application and
didn't tell local officials she had been a foster parent in New
Jersey.
An official with the National Foster Parent Association said such a
registry would be an invasion of a foster parent's privacy.
But a federal law passed last year is requiring a national registry of
all people involved in substantiated cases of child abuse. Until that
is developed, local DCF staff and foster care agencies already started
in August checking with abuse hot lines in other states where an
applicant has lived in the last five years to see if any abuse calls
were made on the person.
An official with the Child Welfare League of America suggests workers
visit children more and talk to children away from the foster home to
deter abuse.
Ohio officials are looking at changes after a foster couple was
arrested in August in the death of their 3-year-old developmentally
disabled foster boy left in a closet for two days wrapped in a blanket
and packing tape.
Some changes include drug testing, credit and bankruptcy checks, more
extensive reference checks and medical forms attesting to an
applicant's physical and mental condition and what psychotropic drugs
they are taking.
But Karen Jorgenson, executive director of the National Foster Parent
Association, said toughening the licensing processes is not going to
help. She suggests more home visits, smaller case loads per worker and
better training of workers to identify signs of sexual abuse.
"People who are abusive or into pornography, it appears, are very good
at what they do, and keeping it hidden from people," she said.
-- News researcher Helen Morey contributed to this report.
Other Abuse Cases
While some national experts say abuse in foster homes is less than 1
percent, two local foster fathers were charged in the past three
months either with sexual battery or molesting children in their care.
Here are some other cases nationally in the past year:
· February 2007: A 31-year-old foster father in New Mexico was charged
with suffocating his 2-year-old foster son with a blanket.
· January 2007: A 30-year-old foster father in Brooksville was charged
with sexually abusing four boys.
· October 2006: A 40-year-old foster father in Missouri was charged
with 15 counts of possessing child pornography featuring two of his
foster boys.
· August 2006: A foster couple in Ohio were charged in the death of
their 3-year-old developmentally disabled foster boy. Reports say the
child was left alone in a closet for two days, wrapped in a blanket
and packing tape while the couple went to a family reunion.
· August 2006: A 49-year-old Minnesota foster father was charged with
molesting two girls. Another foster father, 45, was arrested in the
same county a week earlier and charged with molesting his foster
daughter.
· July 2006: A 51-year-old foster father in West Virginia was charged
with sexually abusing two boys and a girl.
· May 2006: A 31-year-old foster father in Wisconsin was charged in
the death of a 3-year-old boy. Reports say he punched the child and
his 2-year-old brother.
· March 2006: A 32-year-old foster mother in New Mexico was charged
with two felony counts of child abuse involving an 18-month-old boy
who suffered a brain injury.
the bottom.
Feb 2007 New Mexico suffocating his 2-year-old foster son with a
blanket
Jan 2007 Brooksville charged with sexually abusing four boys
Oct 2006 Missouri 15 counts of possessing child pornography featuring
two of his foster boys
Aug 2006 Ohio 3-year-old wrapped in blanket and packing tape couple
went to a family reunion
Aug 2006 Minnesota man charged with molesting two girls
AUG 2006 MN another man same county week earlier charged with
molesting foster daughter
July 2006 WV charged with sexually abusing two boys and a girl
May 2006 Wisconsin charged death of 3-year-old boy by PUNCHING (also
punched 2 year old)
Mar 2006 New Mexico charged with felony child abuse 18-month-old boy
suffered brain injury
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD02022407.htm
February 24, 2007
Arrests spur examination of foster parent criteria By DEBORAH
CIRCELLI Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH -- Monitoring devices, drug testing, psychological
evaluations and a national network among states are a few steps being
discussed to keep foster children safe.
With two recent cases of local foster parents charged with molesting
or sexually abusing children, state and national child-welfare workers
are struggling for answers on how to keep them from being abused by
people entrusted to provide a safe haven.
"These kids have enough stuff in their lives and they just don't need
this," said Dr. Carl Schwenker, a Port Orange adoptive parent and
former foster parent.
Schwenker, a board member of Community Partnership for Children, a
local agency contracted to provide foster care services, said one idea
may be having a psychologist meet with prospective foster parents.
"It will probably discourage some people from becoming foster parents,
but I think it's necessary. We really need to get tough," he said.
Robert R. Clinton, 51, of Deltona, was charged Thursday with sexual
battery on a 3-year-old local foster girl and 40 counts of promoting
sexual performance of a child. Investigators found 40 images on
Clinton's computer and digital camera of him and the child in sexual
acts, reports show. He also was charged with 10 counts of possessing
child pornography that investigators believe he downloaded from the
Internet.
George Goolde of Orange City, who was president of the local foster
parent group, was arrested in November and faces charges of molesting
three children in his care. Both Goolde and Clinton remain in the
Volusia County Branch Jail.
The state Department of Children & Families in Tallahassee is looking
at the foster parent application process, though a psychological
evaluation is "not on the table at this time," a spokesman said.
Local officials are open to obtaining more information because they
say criminal background screenings don't always show the full picture.
But some caution against putting up more barriers when the majority of
foster parents are trying to help children. In Volusia and Flagler
counties, there are 225 licensed foster homes, but about 65 more are
needed, officials say, especially for teens, who at times are placed
outside the area.
Reggie Williams, local district administrator for the state DCF, met
with staff Friday to review procedures and further meetings are
planned. But he said, "We shouldn't just do things because they sound
good.
"There are no easy answers," Williams said. "People who want to be a
perpetrator will find ways of doing it. It's sick."
Neighbor To Family, which provides sibling foster care and oversaw
Clinton's home, installed monitoring devices in its foster homes last
year in Florida and four other states. The motion detectors cause an
alarm to go off in the house to wake up the foster parents and the
child if someone enters the child's bedroom at night. But in Clinton's
case, the sexual battery, police say, occurred in the living room.
Gordon Johnson, chief executive officer of Neighbor To Family, said
his agency talked about installing cameras but thought they would be
too hard to monitor. Some day-care centers nationally have installed
cameras so parents through an Internet site can see their children
throughout the day.
"This is a rare case. I'm not sure we want to overreact," Johnson
said.
State Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, said she's "appalled" that
some foster parents are abusing children. She said the state needs to
study the issue and make changes, even if it means periodically
checking a foster parent's computer.
She and local DCF staff also say a national registry of foster parents
is needed so if the parent does something wrong in one state, other
states would know about it.
"We have to have a national approach to making sure our children are
safe," Lynn said.
DCF workers last year revoked a Deltona woman's foster care license
after being notified from someone outside the state that she was
charged in 1993 with endangering foster children in New Jersey. Local
DCF officials said the foster mother, who had been licensed locally
for five months, gave inadequate information on her application and
didn't tell local officials she had been a foster parent in New
Jersey.
An official with the National Foster Parent Association said such a
registry would be an invasion of a foster parent's privacy.
But a federal law passed last year is requiring a national registry of
all people involved in substantiated cases of child abuse. Until that
is developed, local DCF staff and foster care agencies already started
in August checking with abuse hot lines in other states where an
applicant has lived in the last five years to see if any abuse calls
were made on the person.
An official with the Child Welfare League of America suggests workers
visit children more and talk to children away from the foster home to
deter abuse.
Ohio officials are looking at changes after a foster couple was
arrested in August in the death of their 3-year-old developmentally
disabled foster boy left in a closet for two days wrapped in a blanket
and packing tape.
Some changes include drug testing, credit and bankruptcy checks, more
extensive reference checks and medical forms attesting to an
applicant's physical and mental condition and what psychotropic drugs
they are taking.
But Karen Jorgenson, executive director of the National Foster Parent
Association, said toughening the licensing processes is not going to
help. She suggests more home visits, smaller case loads per worker and
better training of workers to identify signs of sexual abuse.
"People who are abusive or into pornography, it appears, are very good
at what they do, and keeping it hidden from people," she said.
-- News researcher Helen Morey contributed to this report.
Other Abuse Cases
While some national experts say abuse in foster homes is less than 1
percent, two local foster fathers were charged in the past three
months either with sexual battery or molesting children in their care.
Here are some other cases nationally in the past year:
· February 2007: A 31-year-old foster father in New Mexico was charged
with suffocating his 2-year-old foster son with a blanket.
· January 2007: A 30-year-old foster father in Brooksville was charged
with sexually abusing four boys.
· October 2006: A 40-year-old foster father in Missouri was charged
with 15 counts of possessing child pornography featuring two of his
foster boys.
· August 2006: A foster couple in Ohio were charged in the death of
their 3-year-old developmentally disabled foster boy. Reports say the
child was left alone in a closet for two days, wrapped in a blanket
and packing tape while the couple went to a family reunion.
· August 2006: A 49-year-old Minnesota foster father was charged with
molesting two girls. Another foster father, 45, was arrested in the
same county a week earlier and charged with molesting his foster
daughter.
· July 2006: A 51-year-old foster father in West Virginia was charged
with sexually abusing two boys and a girl.
· May 2006: A 31-year-old foster father in Wisconsin was charged in
the death of a 3-year-old boy. Reports say he punched the child and
his 2-year-old brother.
· March 2006: A 32-year-old foster mother in New Mexico was charged
with two felony counts of child abuse involving an 18-month-old boy
who suffered a brain injury.