Tag Archives: protect families

When Foster Kids Lash Out

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Being wrenched away from the only family you have ever known and thrust into the care system is often a traumatic experience, and sometimes at-risk children deal with their trauma by getting angry and acting out. Unfortunately for children who have this very natural reaction in the State of California, they are arrested for the act more often than foster kids in other states. We are Robert and Kathey Raskin, and we want to see this issue brought to light so more people are aware of this terrible injustice that is taking place.

 

A Vulnerable Position

Children in foster care are in a vulnerable position. Separated from their families and under the constant threat of repeated abandonment, many develop issues with anger and other emotional problems. When these children have trouble dealing with their emotions, they usually will not receive the professional help they need. Unable to deal with their swirling emotions and their separation trauma, many will strike back with physical violence. In shelters and group homes in California, the result of this is that children as young as eight years old have been arrested.

 

Who Are the Real Criminals Here?

Between the years of 2015 and 2016, nearly 500 children in shelters and group homes were arrested, detained, or received citations. For these children, what already may be one of the most difficult times of their lives is then made even more damaging when they end up in handcuffs, or, worse, in jail. The CPS system that is supposed to be protecting them is not taking steps to make sure children in crisis receive the emotional support and psychiatric services they need, and unfortunately for these children who now have criminal records, it is too late for many.

 

Possible Risks in Adulthood

While many children who spend time in the foster care system grow up fine, there are others who do not fare as well. Kids who are trapped in the system can end up with a stunted sense of empathy as a result of growing up without learning to be empathetic to the well-being of other people. Some people even refer to children who endure multiple placements as “psychopaths in the making” because they are being deprived of the normal bonds they need in order to develop a conscience. Placing children who already have the odds stacked against them at further risk by arresting them and sending them to juvenile correction facilities is completely unacceptable, and we, Robert and Kathey Raskin, aren’t standing for it.

Kansas Task Force Created to Protect Foster Kids

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The state of Kansas is finally taking steps to protect children in foster care from unscrupulous contractors. We are Kathey Raskin and Robert Raskin, and we are thrilled that this state is finally stepping up to the plate to regulate their own out-of-control services. Senate Bill 126 will require intensified scrutiny of these contractors, who are charged with caring for children who were not receiving the care they needed while they were in state custody. This is just one step of many that need to be taken, but it is a good start and it shows that these problems are being taken more seriously.

 

Bill 126

This bill would produce action plans by January of 2018 based on annual reports that are compiled by a specially appointed task force. This is designed to hold the Kansas DCF accountable for the implementation of new laws, which is much-needed in this state, which currently has record-setting high numbers of children who are in state custody. This situation was brought to light after a tragic recent case in which a child in Wyandotte County was murdered by his stepfather and fed to the child murderer’s hogs.

 

A Big Problem

There have been ongoing issues with the care of approximately 7,000 foster children in the state, and these have intensified in severity and frequency of occurrence over the years. Countless reports have been issued regarding the problems, but too often these end up filed away and sitting on a shelf. This task force will change that, because it will force the DCF to demonstrate that they are applying recent findings and strategies to their broken system and following recommendations that are designed to stop children from being further victimized.

 

Time for Action

The task force will have 18 voting members, and among them will be individuals who work directly with foster children. Non-voting members of the task force will represent Kansas DCF and contractors who provide both adoption services and foster care. Whether the bill is passed or it will really make a difference in the quality of children’s lives still remains to be seen. We are Robert Raskin and Kathey Raskin, and we are hoping these lawmakers will finally do what they should have been doing all along, and that is to protect children and families from this corrupt system.

Proposed Bill Would Require CPS to Tape Child Interviews

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One Michigan father blames not being able to play recorded testimony of his young daughters’ psychological examinations for a jury cost him his children, and he is taking steps to prevent future tragedies like this from occurring by fighting to pass a bill that will require electronic recordings of any interviews with young children in the future. This bill’s detractors claim videotaping may retraumatize children, but how is being permanently removed from a parent not also incredibly traumatizing? We are Robert Raskin and Kathleen Raskin, and we are concerned that children are being removed from their families not for safety reasons, but rather due to policies.

 

Cary Flagg’s Story

Mr. Flagg is a 35-year-old father of four daughters, all of whom were removed from his custody after it was alleged during his contentious divorce battle that he had sexually abused two of them. They were removed from the home based upon the testimony of a psychologist who was hired by the state, despite the fact that this deviated from the established protocol that is commonly adhered to in these cases. Although Cary Flagg was never formally charged with any crime, his parental rights were stripped, and this is why he is fighting for changes to the system by insisting that forensic interviews be video recorded.

 

HOUSE BILL 4298

House bill number 4298, if it passes, will require electronic recording of any interviews of children that are requested by department investigators or law enforcement officers that take place at accredited or accreditable child assessment centers. The person who is conducting the interview will be required by law to record it in its entirety, at no point shutting the recording device off. After this, the Department of Child Protective Services will be required to allow access to and to retain these recordings so they can be viewed later on in court or at any other time when documented proof is needed.

 

CPS and Divorce

The sad truth is, CPS is involved in divorce battles all too often, often for the sole reason that an embittered spouse is bent on revenge or obsessed with winning at all costs. Without videotaped evidence, we will never know what was really said during the forensic interviews of Cary Flagg’s daughters, because in court the details quickly devolved into a mess of he said-she said accusations. Although it is too late for Mr. Flagg to do anything about his situation, if this bill passes, it will prevent this from happening again in the future. We, Robert Raskin and Kathleen Raskin, only wish this bill had been passed sooner, but it’s never too late to right the future wrongs of these corrupt organizations.

NC Gets Tough on Parental Reunification Laws

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We, Kathleen Raskin and Robert Raskin, are sad to report that yet another child has died due to corruption within the organizations that are meant to protect them. On Oct.25, 2015, a woman named Samantha Nacole Bryant lost custody of her toddler son, Rylan Ott, after she and her boyfriend were in a drunken fist-fight in her Carthage-area home. This fight involved both alcohol and guns, so the system stepped in to protect the boy, but unfortunately for Rylan, they did not do nearly enough to ensure his continuing safety. Both Rylan and his sister were placed in temporary custody, only to eventually be returned to a mother who remained unfit to parent.

 

Rylan’s Story

In Moore County in April of 2016, a child who drowned after he was returned to his mother’s custody. Rylan, who was just 23 months old when he died, was able to slip out from his house and wander a half-mile to this pond. He was reunited with his mother without any prior observation by child protection agencies, so there was no attempt to make sure she was fit to parent or that her parenting skills had improved since he was initially removed from her care. He had only been in her care for four months when tragedy struck.

 

The DSS Response

A caseworker claimed in her report that Rylan’s mother visited the child while he was in care three times a week, but his guardians say this is not true. Rylan’s Guardian Ad Litem, Pam Reed, and the boy’s kinship parents, Shane and Amanda Mills, had attempted to argue in court that Samantha Bryant was still an unfit mother, and they were proven correct too late. His mother is now being charged with child abuse and involuntary manslaughter, but the caseworker who was involved has not been penalized or charged with any wrongdoing. His case has undergone a second investigation, but the results of this are not public. The Moore County DSS director resigned as a result of this case.

 

Rylan’s Law

As a response to Rylan’s senseless death, Rylan’s Law was enacted. This bill requires social workers to document and observe two successful visits between children who are in state care and the parents they were removed from before they can be reunited. Until this law was passed, this was considered to be a “best practice,” for obvious reasons, but why it was not a requirement is less clear. This law is intended to close this loophole in an effort to strengthen this broken system, and it will help other children to be spared from Rylan’s fate in the future. We are Kathleen Raskin and Robert Raskin, and we won’t stop fighting to protect families and children until this corruption has been stopped.