here in the making we have a child being victimized by a government that knows & does nothing plz view write the white house and I as well am faxing this info tomorrow to them also plz sign petition let's ban together and save 1 child today while I fight to save millions tomorrow
http://taylorspetition.blogspot.com/
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Justice for Erin Oswego county DSS fails child murdered
An emergency room doctor who treated 11-year-old Erin Maxwell just before she died last year says Oswego County's child protective workers have for years been unresponsive to reports of child abuse.
Dr. Dennis Mullaney, a former ER physician at A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton, says his worst fears of that complacency were realized with the deaths of Maxwell and 15-month-old Nick Taylor two weeks earlier.
The county's Department of Social Services routinely ignored reports of suspected child abuse called in by doctors and nurses in the emergency room at Lee Memorial, Mullaney said in an interview last week. The medical staff talked frequently among themselves about DSS's complacency, he said.
Mullaney, an ER doctor for more than 30 years in three states, said he's never seen child protective workers as unresponsive as in Oswego County. In one case, he transferred a child to a hospital in Onondaga County so caseworkers there would get involved. The problem in Oswego County became so pervasive a year before Maxwell's death that he called for a meeting between DSS and hospital officials.
"I know it's hard to believe, but you'd call and they'd say, 'Why are you bothering us with this,'" he said.Mullaney saw Maxwell in the ER on Aug. 29 and she died the next morning. Her stepbrother, Alan Jones, is charged with strangling her in their Palermo home. DSS received complaints in 2003, 2005 and 2006 about her living conditions, and workers had visited the home but did not remove her. State officials last week issued a report criticizing DSS's handling of the case.
Two weeks before Maxwell's death, Taylor died from severe trauma to the head. His mother's boyfriend, Jay John Barboni, was charged with murder. The night Taylor arrived in the ER, Mullaney got the boy's medical records from Crouse Hospital. They showed that two weeks earlier, the case had been referred to child protective workers, Mullaney said. He doesn't know what the agency did.
Mullaney, who left Lee Memorial in September, said he and other medical professionals there had become so frustrated with DSS that they requested a meeting with agency officials in the summer of 2007. He feared some children might die, he said.
"I was at the end of my rope," Mullaney said. "I knew what was coming down the road."
About 10 people attended the meeting -- four from DSS, he said. Mullaney told them child protective workers were brushing off calls from the ER of suspected child abuse.
Mullaney said he reported about 12 cases of suspected child abuse in his four years at A.L. Lee. Only once or twice did a child protective worker go to the hospital to investigate, he said. They would usually tell him they'd interview the child's parents the next day, he said. He said he laid out his concerns to DSS officials at the meeting.
Their response was that they were professionals and knew what they were doing, Mullaney said.
DSS Commissioner Frances Lanigan did not return phone requests for an interview. In an email response, she said she was not at the meeting. She said confidentiality laws prevented her from discussing cases publicly.
She wrote in her email that DSS officials sometimes meet with "community stakeholders" such as hospital workers about promoting child safety.
"There are times we cannot agree," she wrote. "However, our approach is always one where we are open to hearing concerns and responding in a professional manner."
Tammy Brown, the former nursing director of the ER at Lee Memorial, confirmed that the meeting took place with the Oswego County DSS leaders, but declined to comment further.
After the meeting in a board room at the hospital, Mullaney told the hospital's administrator, Dennis Casey, that he feared the county's apathy could have devastating results, Mullaney said.
"I told him, 'We'll have dead kids upstairs,'" referring to the ER, Mullaney said. Casey did not return phone requests for an interview.
A week after the meeting, Mullaney contacted the Syracuse office of the state Office of Children and Family Services and complained about Oswego County's lack of interest in suspected child abuse cases, he said. A spokeswoman for the office confirmed that Mullaney made the complaint, but was unable to say what became of it.
Mullaney's meeting with DSS officials was prompted by the case of an 18-month-old who'd suffered a spiral fracture to his leg, Mullaney said. It's the kind of injury in a child that's almost always caused by abuse -- usually an adult twisting the child's leg, Mullaney said. He called the state child abuse hotline that night, but got a cold response from the Oswego County DSS worker who called back, Mullaney said. The worker refused to come to the hospital, he said.
"She said, 'Why are you bothering us with this? You decide which parent did it and send him home with the other one,'" Mullaney said. As in other cases, the worker told Mullaney an investigator would look into the allegations the next day, he said.
Fearing more harm to the child, Mullaney kept the child overnight in the emergency room, then had him transported to a Syracuse hospital, he said. There, Onondaga County caseworkers were called in and referred the case to Oswego County for investigation, Mullaney said. He doesn't know what became of the child or the case, and does not remember the boy's name.
Telling a doctor to decide who abused the child is an inappropriate response, according to Karen Schimke, president of the Albany-based Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy.
"That's why we have child protection," she said. "How's the doctor supposed to know?"
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said a toddler with a spiral fracture is a case that clearly should be investigated.
"I would argue that if they didn't investigate, they screwed up," he said.
But child protective workers shouldn't necessarily go to the hospital just because it's an ER doctor reporting abuse, Wexler said. The caseworkers should evaluate the evidence independently because some doctors report suspected child abuse just to cover themselves, he said. Innocent families can be needlessly torn apart by false accusations, he said.
Lanigan wrote in an email that caseworkers who get a call from the state hotline consider the information and determine whether the child is in imminent danger. They have 24 hours under the law to contact the alleged victim, she said.
"When a child is in the hospital and there is no plan for release within 24 hours, a reasonable assumption made by the department would be that the child is in a safe place," Lanigan said. The caseworker might have more pressing issues than getting to the hospital immediately, such as the safety of other children in the home, she said.
"If the hospital staff says release is imminent and they have concerns about the release, a child protective investigator would be sent immediately, no matter what time of day," Lanigan wrote.
Oswego County DSS child protective workers have been under scrutiny since Maxwell's death last year. The state's investigation found that DSS did inadequate long-term monitoring of the deplorable conditions in her home, even though it smelled of animal urine, animals were kept in the kitchen and there were more than 120 cats in the house. The report said Maxwell's death likely would not have been prevented had DSS acted differently.
Mullaney disagrees, and questions the thoroughness of the state's investigation. He was on duty in the ER when Maxwell was brought in, and gave state police a written statement about his medical findings. And he'd complained to the state a year earlier about Oswego County's caseworkers, he said. But he was never contacted by the state investigators who did the report, he said.
State investigators didn't interview Mullaney because they were focused on reviewing the work of Oswego County's caseworkers, not on the police investigation, said spokeswoman Susan Steele.
Mullaney, who heads the ER at Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, said he blames himself for not going public sooner with his concerns. He said he can't shake the children's deaths.
"When you finish resuscitating them and they're lying there dead on a gurney and you're waiting for the police," he said, "that is burned into your mind. It never goes away."
John O'Brien can be reached at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.
http://www.justiceforerin.webs.com/
this DR look at him he is a broken man
Dr. Dennis Mullaney has accused Oswego County child protective workers of brushing off reports of suspected child abuse.
Leaving court in September are (right to left): Erin Maxwell's stepbrother, Alan Jones; her stepmother, Lynn Maxwell; her father, Lindsey Maxwell; and their attorney, Salvatore Lanza.
Dr. Dennis Mullaney, a former ER physician at A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton, says his worst fears of that complacency were realized with the deaths of Maxwell and 15-month-old Nick Taylor two weeks earlier.
The county's Department of Social Services routinely ignored reports of suspected child abuse called in by doctors and nurses in the emergency room at Lee Memorial, Mullaney said in an interview last week. The medical staff talked frequently among themselves about DSS's complacency, he said.
Mullaney, an ER doctor for more than 30 years in three states, said he's never seen child protective workers as unresponsive as in Oswego County. In one case, he transferred a child to a hospital in Onondaga County so caseworkers there would get involved. The problem in Oswego County became so pervasive a year before Maxwell's death that he called for a meeting between DSS and hospital officials.
"I know it's hard to believe, but you'd call and they'd say, 'Why are you bothering us with this,'" he said.Mullaney saw Maxwell in the ER on Aug. 29 and she died the next morning. Her stepbrother, Alan Jones, is charged with strangling her in their Palermo home. DSS received complaints in 2003, 2005 and 2006 about her living conditions, and workers had visited the home but did not remove her. State officials last week issued a report criticizing DSS's handling of the case.
Two weeks before Maxwell's death, Taylor died from severe trauma to the head. His mother's boyfriend, Jay John Barboni, was charged with murder. The night Taylor arrived in the ER, Mullaney got the boy's medical records from Crouse Hospital. They showed that two weeks earlier, the case had been referred to child protective workers, Mullaney said. He doesn't know what the agency did.
Mullaney, who left Lee Memorial in September, said he and other medical professionals there had become so frustrated with DSS that they requested a meeting with agency officials in the summer of 2007. He feared some children might die, he said.
"I was at the end of my rope," Mullaney said. "I knew what was coming down the road."
About 10 people attended the meeting -- four from DSS, he said. Mullaney told them child protective workers were brushing off calls from the ER of suspected child abuse.
Mullaney said he reported about 12 cases of suspected child abuse in his four years at A.L. Lee. Only once or twice did a child protective worker go to the hospital to investigate, he said. They would usually tell him they'd interview the child's parents the next day, he said. He said he laid out his concerns to DSS officials at the meeting.
Their response was that they were professionals and knew what they were doing, Mullaney said.
DSS Commissioner Frances Lanigan did not return phone requests for an interview. In an email response, she said she was not at the meeting. She said confidentiality laws prevented her from discussing cases publicly.
She wrote in her email that DSS officials sometimes meet with "community stakeholders" such as hospital workers about promoting child safety.
"There are times we cannot agree," she wrote. "However, our approach is always one where we are open to hearing concerns and responding in a professional manner."
Tammy Brown, the former nursing director of the ER at Lee Memorial, confirmed that the meeting took place with the Oswego County DSS leaders, but declined to comment further.
After the meeting in a board room at the hospital, Mullaney told the hospital's administrator, Dennis Casey, that he feared the county's apathy could have devastating results, Mullaney said.
"I told him, 'We'll have dead kids upstairs,'" referring to the ER, Mullaney said. Casey did not return phone requests for an interview.
A week after the meeting, Mullaney contacted the Syracuse office of the state Office of Children and Family Services and complained about Oswego County's lack of interest in suspected child abuse cases, he said. A spokeswoman for the office confirmed that Mullaney made the complaint, but was unable to say what became of it.
Mullaney's meeting with DSS officials was prompted by the case of an 18-month-old who'd suffered a spiral fracture to his leg, Mullaney said. It's the kind of injury in a child that's almost always caused by abuse -- usually an adult twisting the child's leg, Mullaney said. He called the state child abuse hotline that night, but got a cold response from the Oswego County DSS worker who called back, Mullaney said. The worker refused to come to the hospital, he said.
"She said, 'Why are you bothering us with this? You decide which parent did it and send him home with the other one,'" Mullaney said. As in other cases, the worker told Mullaney an investigator would look into the allegations the next day, he said.
Fearing more harm to the child, Mullaney kept the child overnight in the emergency room, then had him transported to a Syracuse hospital, he said. There, Onondaga County caseworkers were called in and referred the case to Oswego County for investigation, Mullaney said. He doesn't know what became of the child or the case, and does not remember the boy's name.
Telling a doctor to decide who abused the child is an inappropriate response, according to Karen Schimke, president of the Albany-based Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy.
"That's why we have child protection," she said. "How's the doctor supposed to know?"
Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, said a toddler with a spiral fracture is a case that clearly should be investigated.
"I would argue that if they didn't investigate, they screwed up," he said.
But child protective workers shouldn't necessarily go to the hospital just because it's an ER doctor reporting abuse, Wexler said. The caseworkers should evaluate the evidence independently because some doctors report suspected child abuse just to cover themselves, he said. Innocent families can be needlessly torn apart by false accusations, he said.
Lanigan wrote in an email that caseworkers who get a call from the state hotline consider the information and determine whether the child is in imminent danger. They have 24 hours under the law to contact the alleged victim, she said.
"When a child is in the hospital and there is no plan for release within 24 hours, a reasonable assumption made by the department would be that the child is in a safe place," Lanigan said. The caseworker might have more pressing issues than getting to the hospital immediately, such as the safety of other children in the home, she said.
"If the hospital staff says release is imminent and they have concerns about the release, a child protective investigator would be sent immediately, no matter what time of day," Lanigan wrote.
Oswego County DSS child protective workers have been under scrutiny since Maxwell's death last year. The state's investigation found that DSS did inadequate long-term monitoring of the deplorable conditions in her home, even though it smelled of animal urine, animals were kept in the kitchen and there were more than 120 cats in the house. The report said Maxwell's death likely would not have been prevented had DSS acted differently.
Mullaney disagrees, and questions the thoroughness of the state's investigation. He was on duty in the ER when Maxwell was brought in, and gave state police a written statement about his medical findings. And he'd complained to the state a year earlier about Oswego County's caseworkers, he said. But he was never contacted by the state investigators who did the report, he said.
State investigators didn't interview Mullaney because they were focused on reviewing the work of Oswego County's caseworkers, not on the police investigation, said spokeswoman Susan Steele.
Mullaney, who heads the ER at Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, said he blames himself for not going public sooner with his concerns. He said he can't shake the children's deaths.
"When you finish resuscitating them and they're lying there dead on a gurney and you're waiting for the police," he said, "that is burned into your mind. It never goes away."
John O'Brien can be reached at jobrien@syracuse.com or 470-2187.
http://www.justiceforerin.webs.com/
this DR look at him he is a broken man
Dr. Dennis Mullaney has accused Oswego County child protective workers of brushing off reports of suspected child abuse.
Leaving court in September are (right to left): Erin Maxwell's stepbrother, Alan Jones; her stepmother, Lynn Maxwell; her father, Lindsey Maxwell; and their attorney, Salvatore Lanza.
7 Yr old boy commits suicide in foster care
What a SAD SAD story! What if instead of putting him in danger if they got the mom the housing and inpatient treatment that she needed wit him beside her? Would this have had a different outcome? Maybe!
Blessings,
Misty
MessageComments can be made here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-gabriel-myers-hanging-b042409,0,6377809.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
State officials investigating whether 7-year-old suicide victim was given mind-altering drug
By Jon Burstein
April 24, 2009
MARGATE - State officials are investigating whether a 7-year-old boy who hanged himself in his Margate foster home had been given a powerful, mind-altering drug in violation of Florida law.
Three weeks before his April 16 suicide, Gabriel Myers was prescribed the drug Symbyax, which is a combination of the generic forms of the anti-depressant Prozac and the anti-psychosis drug Zyprexa, according to state Department of Children & Families records released Friday night.
But there was no court order in place for Gabriel to use the drug, the records show. Under Florida law, parental consent or a judge's ruling is needed before a foster child can be administered a psychotropic drug.
It's unclear whether Gabriel was taking Symbyax. Margate police have his medication logs as they investigate his death, according to DCF spokeswoman Leslie Mann.
Mann said the agency is examining why a court order was not obtained to put Gabriel on the drug.
"We are not sure at this time if the medication played a role in Gabriel's death, but the department will seek a professional medical review of the treatment and prescription medication in Gabriel's case," she said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Prozac for use in children, but not Symbyax and Zyprexa. Even so, doctors have the right to prescribe any drug for any patient they think it will help.
Symbyax, like all anti-depressants, carries a "black box" warning - the strongest the FDA can issue - because anti-depressants increase the risk of suicidal thoughts in minors. Studies have not linked the drugs to an increase in suicides.
The FDA first issued the warning about Paxil in 2003, then extended it to all anti-depressants the next year.
In addition to Symbyax, Gabriel also was on Vyvanse, an attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug, records show.
At the time of his death, Gabriel was home alone with the 19-year-old son of his foster father. Gabriel got upset with the young man during lunch, locking himself in the bathroom and saying he was going to kill himself. The young man used a screwdriver to pick the lock and found Gabriel hanging from a shower hose, according to DCF records.
Gabriel was pronounced dead one hour later at Northwest Medical Center in Margate.
DCF is also investigating why Gabriel was being watched by the 19-year-old.
"The bottom line is that (the 19-year-old) should not have been left alone with Gabriel, if in fact he was," Mann said.
DCF began releasing more than 1,000 pages of Gabriel's child welfare records about 7:30 p.m. Friday, detailing a tragic life in which he was both a victim and an apparent danger to other children.
A month before his death, Gabriel told a therapist he was "a bad person," the records state.
"(Gabriel) said, 'I lied when I was 1 years old, then I lied when I was 2 years old. I was born a liar and I will always be lying,' " according to the therapist's report.
DCF first learned of Gabriel in June after his mother was found passed out in a parked car in Hallandale Beach and he was in the back seat. The boy had come from Ohio--where authorities were looking into allegations that he had been sexually abused by an older boy, according to DCF records.
While in Florida, he bounced between his uncle's home and two foster homes. He lived in one foster home from October until March, when fears arose that he might hurt a toddler in the house, according to DCF records. He was then moved to the Margate foster home, where he lived for the three weeks leading up to his death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28,506 Signatures Against TeenScreen. Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
Blessings,
Misty
MessageComments can be made here: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-gabriel-myers-hanging-b042409,0,6377809.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
State officials investigating whether 7-year-old suicide victim was given mind-altering drug
By Jon Burstein
April 24, 2009
MARGATE - State officials are investigating whether a 7-year-old boy who hanged himself in his Margate foster home had been given a powerful, mind-altering drug in violation of Florida law.
Three weeks before his April 16 suicide, Gabriel Myers was prescribed the drug Symbyax, which is a combination of the generic forms of the anti-depressant Prozac and the anti-psychosis drug Zyprexa, according to state Department of Children & Families records released Friday night.
But there was no court order in place for Gabriel to use the drug, the records show. Under Florida law, parental consent or a judge's ruling is needed before a foster child can be administered a psychotropic drug.
It's unclear whether Gabriel was taking Symbyax. Margate police have his medication logs as they investigate his death, according to DCF spokeswoman Leslie Mann.
Mann said the agency is examining why a court order was not obtained to put Gabriel on the drug.
"We are not sure at this time if the medication played a role in Gabriel's death, but the department will seek a professional medical review of the treatment and prescription medication in Gabriel's case," she said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Prozac for use in children, but not Symbyax and Zyprexa. Even so, doctors have the right to prescribe any drug for any patient they think it will help.
Symbyax, like all anti-depressants, carries a "black box" warning - the strongest the FDA can issue - because anti-depressants increase the risk of suicidal thoughts in minors. Studies have not linked the drugs to an increase in suicides.
The FDA first issued the warning about Paxil in 2003, then extended it to all anti-depressants the next year.
In addition to Symbyax, Gabriel also was on Vyvanse, an attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder drug, records show.
At the time of his death, Gabriel was home alone with the 19-year-old son of his foster father. Gabriel got upset with the young man during lunch, locking himself in the bathroom and saying he was going to kill himself. The young man used a screwdriver to pick the lock and found Gabriel hanging from a shower hose, according to DCF records.
Gabriel was pronounced dead one hour later at Northwest Medical Center in Margate.
DCF is also investigating why Gabriel was being watched by the 19-year-old.
"The bottom line is that (the 19-year-old) should not have been left alone with Gabriel, if in fact he was," Mann said.
DCF began releasing more than 1,000 pages of Gabriel's child welfare records about 7:30 p.m. Friday, detailing a tragic life in which he was both a victim and an apparent danger to other children.
A month before his death, Gabriel told a therapist he was "a bad person," the records state.
"(Gabriel) said, 'I lied when I was 1 years old, then I lied when I was 2 years old. I was born a liar and I will always be lying,' " according to the therapist's report.
DCF first learned of Gabriel in June after his mother was found passed out in a parked car in Hallandale Beach and he was in the back seat. The boy had come from Ohio--where authorities were looking into allegations that he had been sexually abused by an older boy, according to DCF records.
While in Florida, he bounced between his uncle's home and two foster homes. He lived in one foster home from October until March, when fears arose that he might hurt a toddler in the house, according to DCF records. He was then moved to the Margate foster home, where he lived for the three weeks leading up to his death.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28,506 Signatures Against TeenScreen. Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/TScreen/petition.html Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfU9puZQKBY
Child abuse prevention
Child abuse statistics show that about 900,000 children are the victims of child abuse or neglect in the United States each year, and about of these 1,500 children die.
Effects of Child Abuse
For the survivors of child abuse, the effects include:
* long-term physical problems, including physical disabilities
* behavioral problems
* psychological problems
* difficulties in school and social relationships
* criminal behavior and a high risk of being arrested for a violent crime as a juvenile or adult
Another big consequence of child abuse is the direct and indirect cost associated with child abuse, which have been estimated to be about $94 billion each year, including child welfare, law enforcement and special education.
Child Abuse Prevention
One good way to prevent child abuse is to recognize risk factors that are associated with child abuse, including:
* substance abuse
* domestic violence
* a personal history of child abuse
* poverty
* lack of parenting skills
* a small social support network
And then, in addition to supporting programs that target those high risk groups to prevent child abuse, such as education programs, parent support groups, and mentoring, some good child abuse prevention strategies include learning the signs of child abuse and how to report suspected child abuse.
Groups that support child abuse prevention that you could get involved with include:
* Prevent Child Abuse America
* Childhelp
* National Exchange Club Foundation
* Parents as Teachers
* Nurturing Parent Programs
* Parents Anonymous Inc.
* Circle of Parents
* Healthy Families America
* Parent Child Home Program
* National Respite Locator Service
* National Center for Children in Poverty
* American Humane Association
Signs of Child Abuse
Since child abuse is so common, recognizing the signs of child abuse, including physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, can be a good way to help prevent further abuse of these children. This is especially important for people who have regular contact with children, such as teachers, coaches, and friends and family members of these children.
Some signs of child abuse can include, but aren't limited to:
* sudden changes in a child's behavior
* a child with unexplained bruises or burns, etc.
* the child's medical problems are not being cared for properly, for example, he may have regular asthma attacks or a lingering cough and hasn't been to the doctor
* a child being left without adult supervision
* a parent who doesn't seem to have appropriate concern for her children
* families who seem to have entirely negative relationships
* a child who isn't dressed appropriately in cold weather, is dirty, or frequently misses school
* a child who talks about age-inappropriate sexual behaviors
Child Abuse Hotlines
If you suspect that a child is being abused, you should report it right away.
There are many reasons why people don't report child abuse, such as:
* not wanting to get involved
* not being sure if it really is child abuse
* they aren't sure how to make a report of child abuse
* thinking that someone else will do it
* not being aware of child abuse laws in their states, which could make reporting mandatory for certain people
* being afraid of getting in trouble for filing a report if the child isn't really being abused, which doesn't happen as long as you are making the report in good faith
None of these reasons is going to help a child who is being abused though, especially if they are in a life threatening situation. What if you're wrong? The local child welfare agency will likely do an investigation. If you are right and stop the abuse, you may change or save a child's life.
To report child abuse, in addition to the Child help National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-4-A-CHILD), you can call your state child welfare agency's child abuse hotline.
In an emergency situation, call 911.
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