LA Child Protective Services in “State Of Emergency” (VIDEO)
According to the LA Times, a new report was released by a panel commissioned to investigate Los Angeles County’s child protective system. The report claims there is a lack of response and help for children and that the system has “fallen into a state of emergency”.
From LA Times:
The commission released its first set of recommendations in December. In its new report, it notes that none of the suggestions were approved and evaluations of their costs or potential benefits haven’t been completed.
‘Since then, another 5,000 referrals of child abuse and neglect have been investigated without the benefit of systemic reform,’ the commissioners wrote. ‘Each day we wait for reform, 40 more infants are reported as possible victims of abuse and neglect.’
Currently, the commission found, infants sit for hours at social workers’ desks or in holding rooms awaiting foster placements. Also, children are often unable to get return phone calls from their social workers and lack a meaningful voice in decisions about their care, the panel said.
As PolitiChicks reported in May 2013, Child Protective Services (CPS) was in the process of being audited for neglect and abuse after several cases were brought to the attention of the public, including the death of 8-year old Gabriel Fernandez .
Before he was ultimately beaten to death by his mother & her boyfriend, Gabriel’s 1st grade teacher made multiple attempts to report the abuses to Child Protective Services. The following video features teacher Jennifer Garner discussing her frustration with the seemingly inept CPS, and her important role in Gabriel’s very brief life. (Gabriel’s alleged murderers, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 29, and Isauro Aguirre, 32, each face one count of capital murder with the special circumstance of torture.)
