If the account buried within this story is true, then AmeriKa is a sick, twisted, evil society!!
The society of the Anti-Christ!
"DSS will hire more social workers"
"by Michael Levenson, Globe Staff | March 27, 2008
Under years of pressure to increase staffing, the state Department of Social Services has laid plans to hire 80 to 100 additional social workers, which officials say will reduce the ratio of cases to caseworkers for the first time in 20 years.
The increase in the agency's workforce of 2,200 social workers will boost the time and attention given to each case by reducing from 18 to 17 the average number of cases a social worker is handling at one time, DSS Commissioner Angelo McClain said.
The ratio of cases to caseworkers in Massachusetts is lower than it is in two-thirds of states, but is still too high, McClain said. The Child Welfare League of America recommends that a social worker handle no more than 12 to 15 cases at a time.
"This year, lowering the caseloads was our number one priority," McClain said in an interview this week. "Research shows there's a correlation between frequency of worker contact and good outcomes for kids and families, especially keeping kids safe."
The request is likely to gain attention as DSS grapples with fallout from the recent case of a 7-year-old boy from Middleborough who was being monitored by state social workers when his mother's boyfriend allegedly burned his genitals with cigarettes, beat him with a belt, and urinated on his head.
If this occurred then the U.S. is truly a depraved and ill culture.
This incident, and the microwaved baby reported on earlier today take the cake for barbarism.
And we criticize Muslims and people of color for being savages?
McClain has not said the caseload made a difference in the Middleborough case. But specialists said that reducing the caseload can make a surprisingly large difference for workers who juggle a number of complex decisions for each case. McClain, who was appointed in June after the ouster of Commissioner Harry Spence, said he hopes to eventually reduce the casload ratio to 16 to 1.
"I would say it's really a good direction, because, to me, that reflects a philosophical shift in how they're thinking about the work and what workers need," said Tien Ung, a former DSS social worker who teaches social work at Simmons College. "Any attempt to bring the caseload down, even if it's one case for one year or two for two fiscal years, is significant."
Zevorah Bagni, president of the union that represents DSS workers, echoed the sentiment, saying that most cases require social workers to work not only with a child but dozens of others, such as relatives, teachers, and doctors.
"It's a step in the right direction," Bagni said. "The more social workers you have, the lower the caseload numbers can be; the lower the caseloads, the more attention you can give a family."
To pay for the hiring, the Patrick administration has proposed boosting the agency's budget to $837 million from $800 million. McClain said legislative leaders have indicated support, but have not formally endorsed the increase.
McClain acknowledged last week that the agency failed the Middleborough boy. DSS allowed him to remain in the home, McClain said, because it failed to check the boy for injuries and failed to ascertain the identity and criminal background of the boyfriend, David J. Privette, a former convict who had served time for crack cocaine possession and assaulting a police officer.
The agency had known of neglect in the home since 2002. The boy's school also told DSS Dec. 19 that the boy was being beaten with a belt, and on March 4 school officials again contacted DSS to say that he was being burned with cigarettes. But DSS did not notify law enforcement authorities until March 17, when the boy's teachers discovered burn marks on his genitals, pelvis, and buttocks.
On Monday night, Robert M. Sullivan, the Middleborough superintendent of schools, issued a stark public apology, saying it was not enough that the school complied with state law and reported the abuse to DSS. He said that, in hindsight, the school should have also notified police.
First of all, after DSS was aware of this, where the hell were they?!?!
Second of all, we can INTERROGATE the KIDS and flood the schools with cops, but somehow this was missed and ignored, huh?
Schools are safe for who exactly these days, folks?
"The system failed our young student," Sullivan said at a selectmen's meeting, where he took no questions and read from a prepared statement. "To the young victim, I am sorry that it took so long for you to be delivered from what must have been hell." He did not return repeated phone calls.
That's fucking hollow at this point. WTF?!
They crawl up the kids' asses about graffiti on the jeans, but ignore this shit?
In his prepared statement, he pledged to investigate the case, meet with Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz, and reexamine school policy to ensure that whenever a student reports abuse, the staff contacts the proper authorities.
Cruz proposed changing state law to require DSS to notify a district attorney every time the agency receives a report that a child is being physically abused. Pointing to the Middleborough case, he said current law gives DSS too much discretion.
"Any allegation of physical abuse should be mandated reporting to the DA from the DSS," Cruz said. "That's not the law as it is. That's something we should look at and contemplate, because nobody wants to see kids hurt anymore, nobody wants to see the ball dropped anymore. We need to make sure we get notified quicker."
How about not sending them off to fight wars based on lies, too?
How about that?
Privette, 22, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include indecent assault and battery and mayhem. The boy's mother, Michelle Henry, 30, has pleaded not guilty to reckless endangerment and assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injury."
WTF is wrong with AmeriKan society and its parents, readers?
How come we don't love our children like Muslims do?
