Washington: Foster Parent Arrested For Abusing A Foster Child For Ten Years; CPS Caseworkers Ignored 15 Reports of Child Abuse!
CPS caseworkers in Washington apparently failed to follow up on fifteen reports of child abuse, but when a neighbor told police a teenage foster child was locked in the closet, the girl was finally rescued from what appears to be a horrific foster care abuse situation. Detectives said the first fifteen complaints weren’t acted on because the foster parent moved from apartment to apartment, and they couldn’t find her, yet at the same time this woman collected foster parent benefits for housing the young girl.
My theory is different. I believe that cases of child abuse in foster homes are ignored because CPS doesn’t get any money for taking children from one foster home and putting them in another. They only get an increase in funding when they take a child from their natural families, then place them in a foster home. Therefore foster child abuse isn’t a priority for busy CPS caseworkers.
Fight CPS hopes to shed light on the problem of abuse in foster homes. Statistics have shown that child abuse of all types is about ten times more likely to happen in a foster home than in a natural family home.
The child, who is now sixteen, lived with foster parent Chornice Lewis, 33, for ten years. Acquaintances said Lewis was very polite and made a good impression on them.
Police allege that if the foster child caused any problems, Lewis put the child’s hand on a hot stove. And if she didn’t listen she had to stand next to her foster parent’s bed all night long. If she slept, a 10-lb weight was dropped on her feet. And once, when she wasn’t packing properly, an insulin needle was plunged into her eye, so the girl is now blind in one eye.
According to a KOMOTV.Com article, Cheryl Stephani, an employee of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, DSHS, said “We missed it. . . . As a child welfare system. It’s all of us, the courts, the department, the children’s administration. We should hold each other accountable; we need to hold each other accountable.”
Holding CPS caseworkers accountable = Good Idea. When?
Source: Mother accused of abusing foster daughter for years by Bryan Johnson, for KOMOTV.Com, published June 26, 2007.
This is such a gross injustice, that our society is so consumed with money that childrens cries go unheard because the state gets nothing for removing a child from one foster home to the next.
Comment by star — June 28, 2007 @ 3:21 pm
There is an even more horrific story now, June 29, in the Washington news where a 7 yo foster child who had teeth knocked out, presumably by his foster incarcerator, died of THIRST.
What a horrible, painful way to die.
The poor little kid broke through his screen to eat snow!
Any cw who condoned and continued that placement should be fired and sentenced for child abuse.
There are even more dreadful parts to this story of torture.
Comment by Fern — June 29, 2007 @ 4:45 am
Linda,
you site statistics in a few articles on this site alledging that more children are abused in foster care than their natural homes. Where are you getting your information. Just curious.
Comment by Wendy — June 29, 2007 @ 5:28 pm
The statistics are from the federal government, which collects statistics from all the states. I am about to start a new study of the statistics within the next month or so and will report everything I can find.
Please keep in mind that we’re talking about percentages. For example I found out a few years back that children were 3.6 times more likely to be killed in foster care, but I believe it could have been much more likely because I didn’t account for all the states that didn’t send in their statistics on that point. Next time I’ll exclude states that withhold statistics, and see what we come up with.
Comment by Linda — June 29, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
Dino Rossi has a web site called (washingtonideabank.org) catigories are: transportation, general government, taxes and education. all of the catigories but one could be used to talk about the problems with cps. i once heard a social worker tell me that they did not want dino to win govener election because, he wanted to audit them every 30 days
Comment by Christy — July 15, 2007 @ 2:40 pm
I’ve been fighting for my life. I owned a house in Jacksonville Florida, until DCF Caseworkers came and filled my house with raw sewage to seek funding for my child. They molested my daughter, my daughter lost weight they had the nerve to try to give me a case plan regarding drugs and employment when they chased me out of seventeen employers, and 13 domestic violence shelters in a year, and then tried to run into court to substantiate a case. The case regarding Ryla Wilson the missing child was initially the child kidnapped from Shands University Hospital in Jacksonville, Fl the lawyers involved in Human Trafficking had a composite of the woman who supposedly kidnapped this baby drawn in my likeness. They spit on me, they tore up my paychecks. I’m proud to say the U.S government had these caseworkers and attornies listed as pornogrophers, and traffickers, who was slipping these supposedly unwanted children in INTO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY AND RAPE MOVIES.
I’m also proud to say that they have no shame in BLOWING THEIR HEADS OFF DOWN THEIR NOW.
They piss on them like animals because they are. A bunch of cocaine traffickers, and liars, lying on innocent people to cover up a drug and child rape trade.
KEEP DYING DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. DIE FOR YEARS, AND YEARS AND YEARS!!!!!
Comment by Angelique Jackson — September 21, 2007 @ 8:57 am
I actually live 5 minutes away from where Chornice Lewis lived. I feel so bad for that child. I have 4 beautiful children of my own and I have been fighting cps since 1997. My kids are 11, 10, 7 and 3. My rights were terminated in Aug, 06. I never abused my kids, but I was in an abusive relationship that I didn’t know how to leave. Plus I had a hard time keeping my house clean cause I have a severly disabled daughter that needed 24/7 attention. She is the 10 year old. She had adhd, odd, ptsd, seperation anxiety and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t even think of. She is in a behavioral facility 4 hours away, maybe indefinately. She was bounced around from foster home to foster home. 1 of the homes called 911 on her and 2 cops restrained her. Let me remind you she was 9 at that time. She has not seen my 3 1/2 year old since he was 3 months old or my 7 year old since he was 4. Them 2 were very very close and the state severed that. Her name is Noel and my 7 year old used to call her his Noel. My 11 year old son is in another facility about an hour away. They are working him into a foster home. My 2 other kids are being adopted by their cousin. I have an appeal going on at the current time. The hurt never goes away. Sometimes I wanna die, cause I can’t bare to go years without holding them. How do you fight the state and win? You know my termination trial took 2 months. That is because it was a hard trial for them to win, but they always do win. My family is destroyed, now and forever. My kids will never forget this. My kids need me more than anything and I need them. I also know that 16 year old girl has a mom out there somewhere that loves her too. If anybody would like to email me…Please feel free. jodimae25 -at- comcast.net
Comment by Jodi — September 27, 2007 @ 4:25 am
Attention Washington State families:
If you are an adoptive parent of a special needs/mentally ill child and you have been falsely accused of “Abandonment” and have had your name published in CAMIS/CPS Registry for “founded” abandonment, please contact Jo Ann Lang at RTRIBE2000@aol.com regarding a possible Class Action Lawsuit. Thank you and God Bless!
Comment by Jo Ann Lang — February 6, 2008 @ 11:07 pm