Posted on 03/27/2007 7:06:25 AM PDT by edcoil
i'm not saying there is no place for CPS... in fact, we adopted our two boys right out of the foster care system... we spent a good three years with CPS going through the adoption process... we met some really good people/social workers/adoption workers/child advocates... but there is a lot wrong with the system...
Here's another article from the Register that gives a pretty frightening picture of what is happening in California.
California Focus: Don't force high schoolers to register
We're talking about voting, not the military draft, but it's still a bad idea
By LARRY N. GERSTON
Professor of political science at San Jose State University, author of "Public Policymaking in a Democratic Society: A Guide to Civic Engagement"
State Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, has introduced a bill that would require high school students to register to vote as a condition of graduation, beginning with the 2009-10 school year.
Targeting students who are both 18 and U.S. citizens, Assembly Bill 183 by Coto, a former school superintendent in Oakland and San Jose, is an attempt to bring hundreds of thousands of young people into the political process, a laudable effort. Proponents, no doubt, view the bill as a partial antidote to a recent announcement by the California secretary of state that the number of registered voters in the state has dropped by nearly 1 million in the past two years and now sits at 69 percent of all people eligible to register.
But mechanical registration is a long step away from voter participation, which is an even larger step removed from active and engaged citizenship. On these more compelling matters, the bill offers no relief.
The real issue in California and elsewhere throughout the United States lies in our failure to promote citizenship among young people from the earliest years on. As a result, as individuals reach adulthood, they see little connection between their rights as citizens and obligations as citizens, a separation that could ultimately threaten the very being of our republic.
Recent findings indicate that we are not preparing our young people for citizenship. They exhibit precious little awareness of defining societal problems and suggestions on how to solve them, the workings of the political process, and the importance of citizen engagement as the ultimate guarantor of democracy. A recent study by the nonpartisan National Assessment of Educational Progress, for example, found that 9 percent of high school seniors could name two ways a democratic society benefits from citizen participation.
Another study in 2000 found that 8 percent of people born 1980 and later followed public affairs, compared with 60 percent of the people born from 1930-45.
No wonder young people are disinterested, disconnected and downright disenfranchised – they have never been taught the essence of processing political issues and the consequences of not doing so. They have not been given opportunities to conceptualize the abstract notions of consent, compromise, individualism, and countless other strands of the fabric known as civic engagement. It goes without saying, furthermore, that young people who are not socialized politically in their formative years will see reason to alter their behavior in the future.
The problem is that we are not teaching young people about citizenship and its value in our public schools. Although history and government courses are offered in spurts, our schools do not dedicate time early on and continually to helping students understand their rights, obligations and myriad roles as engaged members of society. Precious little attention is focused on the workings of democratic governance and its dependence upon civic engagement in defining local issues, debating the roles of authority, or weighing in on what is or is not the "good" society. Little time is dedicated to comparing the value of self-governance with authoritarian regimes.
Instead, we spend hundreds of hours teaching students how to master the system in the name of standardized examinations, a substitute that may be efficient for quantification purposes but not effective as tools for instilling democratic values.
We should never trivialize an effort to register voters. In a democracy, voters connect valuable political dots between leaders, issues and the public. But voting does not take place in a vacuum. Rather, votes should be cast by people who are aware, interested, knowledgeable and involved enough on an ongoing basis to take positions on values, issues, and candidates.
Such enlightenment does not come from rote responses to a Scantron form but from lengthy discussions and applications. That's what we're missing; that's the citizenship we owe our young people and ourselves.
And it won't come simply by making it easier to vote.
Here are two sites you might be interested in:
http://adsg.syix.com/new_forum/index.php?sid=d7be69fea4b4f6bde43d94a96b88db32
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RAD_FASDkids/
Ummm. What's RAD?
As a Californian, I disagree. A spiral fracture is a red flag.
It doesn't by any means prove abuse, but most, NOT ALL, spiral fractures come from abuse.
Although there are hundreds of ways a kid can figure out how to get a spiral fracture on his own, still it is an indicator of possible abuse, and might be the only overt clue available.
Now, she said, she shares custody of her daughters, who are teenagers, with her ex-husband.
How sad for the kids and the parents. No amount of money can make up for such a loss. But it is the only thing that will make the gov't prevent such injustice in the future.
Reactive Attachment Disorder.
The child is incapable of bonding and feeling deep emotions or remorse. Usually a sign of pre-5 year old abuse/neglect. Future serial killers usually.
I've seen many and I do believe that whomever 'created' these kids deserve the death penalty.
Damm. Just damm.
Yep!
Great example. Also the fire starters, animal torturers etc. you hear about.
RAD = Reactive Attachment Disorder.
The problem people have isn't so much with the foster parents as the social workers themselves and the system which abuses people who are innocent. It's the unbridled power social workers have and their abuse of it that bothers people. Anonymous calls; bullying, threats and intimidation by social workers, is what's wrong with the system.
Sadly, though, while I know of foster parents who are wonderful, committed, caring people, which is the majority, there are those who are in it just for the money, and I personally know some. Also, one of the great foster couples told me that any kid who's been in the system for more than two years has been sexually abused while in that system-guaranteed.
The whole system needs an overhaul and overzealous social workers need to be reined in severely.
Kind of ironic that you should have to go through all that when the stated goal is to return the child to his parents in an effort to keep the family intact, and THEY don't have to go through that. And there are times the child was returned only to be picked up again, dead.
That movie scared the crap out of me. (I was about her age when I first saw it)...
There are many indicators of possible abuse. How about CPS is forced to investigate them all?
I think it is BS and a way for them to hire more people and get more money.
I worked for Health and Human Services as an eligibility worker in Medi-Cal. I turned over many actual abuse cases to CPS where they did absolutely nothing. When I would check on the situation they would say things like....haven't had time, overwhelmed, mother won't cooperate, no way to make boyfriend leave the home, etc., etc., etc.
Yet they have time to investigate EVERY spiral fracture?
CPS is screwed up just like every other government agency.
A spiral fracture (also called a torsion fracture) is a bone fracture in which the bone has been twisted apart; called also torsion fracture. It is highly unstable (problems of malunion or non-union) and may be diagnosed as an oblique fracture unless a proper x-ray has been taken. The spiral fracture will look like a corkscrew type which runs parallel with the axis of the broken bone. Oblique fractures are often hard to locate via radiographs with the oblique view usually the most diagnostic.
Spiral fractures never occur when the person is not moving.
OK, what's your solution?
Hubby wa a firefigher/emt for 33 yrs. I know what a spiral fracture is.
But thanks anyway.
So what's the most common way of getting a spiral fracture?
What makes it such a signal of abuse?
Spiral fractures never occur when the person is not moving.
Read post 56
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.