About 150 attend meeting on SRS closure
By Scott Rothschild — Lawrence Journal-World
July 9, 2011
If Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to shut down the Lawrence office of the
Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services goes into effect, it will harm many vulnerable Kansans, social workers and law enforcement officials said Saturday.
For example, Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said police must have a social worker accompany them if they go into a school to interview an alleged victim of sexual abuse.
The decision by SRS Secretary Robert Siedlecki Jr. to shut down the Lawrence office will make it more difficult to get a social worker in these instances, Branson said.
"I'm just very fearful that we are going to miss a lot of people who are in need of care," Branson said. "We have children going through horrific instances in their lives, and we have small windows to go in and make a difference, and the governor and secretary have closed that window on us," he said.
He said without the timely availability of an SRS social worker, the child could face having to return to his or her abuser at the end of the school day before police could intervene.
Branson's comments were made during a meeting at the Lawrence Public Library that was attended by a packed crowd of about 150 people, many of whom had to stand or sit in adjacent rooms.
Those in attendance expressed anger and shock at the Brownback administration's decision announced July 1 to close nine SRS offices, with Lawrence being the largest one by far. The closures would take effect within three months. Siedlecki has said the 87 employees will be able to get jobs at other SRS offices.
Brownback and Siedlecki have said the closures are needed to save money during tight budget times, and that those receiving SRS services in Lawrence can continue to get assistance by accessing them online or traveling to offices in Topeka, Overland Park or Ottawa. Brownback has noted that Lawrence is served by several four-lane roads.
Many at the meeting said that was unrealistic.
Gayle Sigurdson of Lawrence said she thought the closure of SRS offices was intended to cut state spending by making it more difficult for people to get help.
She also said the way Siedlecki announced the closures without any public meetings to gain input was a "suspension of the Democratic process."
"These closures were made without public comment, or participation of our local legislators and without any formal appeals process," she said.
She said she feared Brownback's statement on Friday when he said he may consider options to the closures was "lip service."
The meeting was held by the Douglas County Democratic Party. Former SRS Secretary Robert Harder had been scheduled to speak several weeks ago prior to the announced closures.
Harder, who has held the position of SRS secretary the longest in state history, said the prevailing political climate at the Statehouse represented a departure from decades of bi-partisan support for social services.
Of the past legislative session, which produced massive cuts to social services, he said, "I would have to say, without question, it was absolutely the meanest, toughest session that I have observed in my 50 years," of being around Kansas politics.
He said the assertion that people could receive SRS services online was not plausible. Applications for medical assistance are not available online, and the application for cash assistance is 16 pages long, he said.
Harder added that social service advocates are not opposed to change but they want change in a careful, thought out way.
Steve Ruttinger of Lawrence said he was dismayed by the Brownback administration's layoffs of experienced staff at SRS and replacing them with those lacking experienced. "They profess this connection to God but there is nothing Christian about it," he said.
The Democratic members of the Douglas County legislative delegation urged the crowd to continue to contact Brownback's office to voice their disapproval and attend Monday's meeting at 7 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church to discuss ways to try to reverse the closure decision.
"People in government make mistakes from time to time and they need to be called on it, and this is a classic example," said House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence.
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jul/09/about-150-attend-meeting-srs-closure/
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Kansas Foster Child, Girl was staying at shelter before she died
Mother reports that her daughter, of Garden City, ran away from girls
home.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
http://www.hutchnews.com/Localregional/Great-Bend-death-follow--2
Although
Akings declined to release the girl's name, citing an ongoing investigation into
the suspicious death, The Garden City Telegram identified the girl as Jessica
Cheyanne Shearer of Garden City.
Shearer's mother, Alida Potter of
Garden City, told The Telegram her daughter had been staying at the girls home
for a couple of months before running away.
Joseph J. Rykiel, 30, was
arrested Tuesday on suspicion of second-degree murder and aggravated indecent
liberties with a child. Akings said investigators are focusing on the suspected
aggravated indecent liberties, and formal charges against Rykiel were being
prepared late Thursday.
Jackie McHolland, 39, and his fiancee, Mary Coker,
27, told The News on Wednesday they have been renting a room in their basement
at 2509 Walnut to Rykiel since Feb. 23. They came home from out of town on the
Fourth of July to find police at their house and learn the girl had been found
dead in their basement.
Police were called to the home at 5:10 p.m. Monday on
the report of a female with respiratory problems, but when officers arrived,
they found the 15-year-old girl had died from "unknown medical causes,"
according to Akings.
McHolland said his prescription medication was found on
Rykiel, and the locked box he kept his prescription medications in, including
morphine, had been "pried open."
"She ran away, and somehow she met up with
this guy," Alida Potter, Shearer's mother, told The Telegram.
When contacted
by phone Thursday, an employee at Barton County Youth Care Inc. in Great Bend
declined to comment. The shelter offers level IV care to girls for the state of
Kansas, according to a 2009 annual report filed by the nonprofit organization.
Barton County Youth Care is licensed for in-home foster care, said Gary Brooks,
a former board member.
Kansas Department of Corrections records show Rykiel,
30, previously served time in prison for multiple convictions, including
aggravated robbery in 2002 in Labette County. He was previously paroled to Reno
County in 2007, violated parole and then was paroled out of state to Tennessee
in 2009 before his sentence expired Feb. 13.
Rykiel had been working for a
Great Bend concrete company.
http://www.hutchnews.com/Localregional/Great-Bend-death-follow--2
Although
Akings declined to release the girl's name, citing an ongoing investigation into
the suspicious death, The Garden City Telegram identified the girl as Jessica
Cheyanne Shearer of Garden City.
Shearer's mother, Alida Potter of
Garden City, told The Telegram her daughter had been staying at the girls home
for a couple of months before running away.
Joseph J. Rykiel, 30, was
arrested Tuesday on suspicion of second-degree murder and aggravated indecent
liberties with a child. Akings said investigators are focusing on the suspected
aggravated indecent liberties, and formal charges against Rykiel were being
prepared late Thursday.
Jackie McHolland, 39, and his fiancee, Mary Coker,
27, told The News on Wednesday they have been renting a room in their basement
at 2509 Walnut to Rykiel since Feb. 23. They came home from out of town on the
Fourth of July to find police at their house and learn the girl had been found
dead in their basement.
Police were called to the home at 5:10 p.m. Monday on
the report of a female with respiratory problems, but when officers arrived,
they found the 15-year-old girl had died from "unknown medical causes,"
according to Akings.
McHolland said his prescription medication was found on
Rykiel, and the locked box he kept his prescription medications in, including
morphine, had been "pried open."
"She ran away, and somehow she met up with
this guy," Alida Potter, Shearer's mother, told The Telegram.
When contacted
by phone Thursday, an employee at Barton County Youth Care Inc. in Great Bend
declined to comment. The shelter offers level IV care to girls for the state of
Kansas, according to a 2009 annual report filed by the nonprofit organization.
Barton County Youth Care is licensed for in-home foster care, said Gary Brooks,
a former board member.
Kansas Department of Corrections records show Rykiel,
30, previously served time in prison for multiple convictions, including
aggravated robbery in 2002 in Labette County. He was previously paroled to Reno
County in 2007, violated parole and then was paroled out of state to Tennessee
in 2009 before his sentence expired Feb. 13.
Rykiel had been working for a
Great Bend concrete company.
Wichita, Kansas Judge rules for social worker in child's death
Posted on Fri, Jul. 08, 2011
The Associated PressWICHITA, Kan. - A federal judge in Wichita has ruled in favor of a Kansas social worker accused of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's girlfriend.U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled Thursday that the civil lawsuit filed by the child's grandparents, Larry and Mary Crosetto, failed to show that social worker Linda Gillen was negligent in not protecting the child despite complaints about abuse.The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argued that Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of the 23-month-old Coffeyville girl, who died in 2008. The civil lawsuit did not name SRS as a defendant.The child's father's girlfriend, Melissa Wells, has been sentenced to life in prison in the child's death.Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/07/08/1925678/judge-rules-for-social-worker.html#ixzz1Rbn7bBsa
The Associated PressWICHITA, Kan. - A federal judge in Wichita has ruled in favor of a Kansas social worker accused of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's girlfriend.U.S. District Judge Monti Belot ruled Thursday that the civil lawsuit filed by the child's grandparents, Larry and Mary Crosetto, failed to show that social worker Linda Gillen was negligent in not protecting the child despite complaints about abuse.The Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argued that Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of the 23-month-old Coffeyville girl, who died in 2008. The civil lawsuit did not name SRS as a defendant.The child's father's girlfriend, Melissa Wells, has been sentenced to life in prison in the child's death.Read more: http://www.kansas.com/2011/07/08/1925678/judge-rules-for-social-worker.html#ixzz1Rbn7bBsa
Thursday, July 7, 2011
PBS The Watch List: The Medication Of Foster Children
The Watch List: The medication of foster children
By Shoshana Guy January 7, 2011
Nearly one in every 10 American children is diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Often the treatment prescribed is medication, and often the medication is heavy-duty — so-called antipsychotic drugs.
In this report, you’ll see that foster care children are prescribed drugs at a rate much greater than that of other kids. Concern over their well-being — not to mention the amount it costs to treat them — has prompted the Government Accountability Office to investigate potentially abusive prescribing practices in America’s state foster care systems. The GAO findings are expected to come out later this year.
Need to Know correspondent Shoshana Guy went to Texas to investigate overuse of psychotropic drugs in foster children, as well as that state’s efforts at reform
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/video-the-watch-list-the-medication-of-foster-children/6232/
By Shoshana Guy January 7, 2011
Nearly one in every 10 American children is diagnosed with a mental health disorder. Often the treatment prescribed is medication, and often the medication is heavy-duty — so-called antipsychotic drugs.
In this report, you’ll see that foster care children are prescribed drugs at a rate much greater than that of other kids. Concern over their well-being — not to mention the amount it costs to treat them — has prompted the Government Accountability Office to investigate potentially abusive prescribing practices in America’s state foster care systems. The GAO findings are expected to come out later this year.
Need to Know correspondent Shoshana Guy went to Texas to investigate overuse of psychotropic drugs in foster children, as well as that state’s efforts at reform
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/health/video-the-watch-list-the-medication-of-foster-children/6232/
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Bambi Hazen, CPS Fraud Upon The Court
Bambi Hazen spoke before the Blue Ribbon Commission May 26th, 2011, CPS Wrongful Removal, Fraud Upon The Court
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Marlene Jones Says CPS Wrongful Removal Costs Tax Payers
Marlene Jones spoke before the Blue Ribbon Commission,
Thur May 26th, 2011, CPS Wrongful Removal Costs Tax Payers
Friday, April 1, 2011
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