Why was Jacques Edwards, a man with a murder conviction on his record, hired to care for foster children? That’s what we, Robert and Kathleen Raskin of Las Vegas, are asking the State of New York today. A representative of the ACS claims the safety and well-being of the children in their care is their top priority, but if that were true they’d work harder to keep dangerous criminals away from children.

Edwards, 55, was hired by the Administration for Children’s Services four years ago. Today he has been charged with pushing a six-year-old child up against a door and shoving his head into a filing cabinet at the Nicholas Scoppetta Children’s Center in Kips Bay. The center is a temporary home for children who have recently entered the foster care system. The child suffered an abrasion on his temple which required medical treatment, and the incident was captured on video.

We need a system of checks and balances in place to prevent dangerous offenders like this from being entrusted with our vulnerable foster children. In 1981 Edwards was convicted of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to 15 years to life. This past Monday he was arrested on felony assault and child endangerment charges, and he is currently being held on $15,000 bail.