Social Workers Placed Children With Florida Relative With Lengthy Arrest Record

AP ^ | 5-10-03 | AP

[cgk]

Social Workers Placed Children With Florida Relative With Lengthy Arrest Record
The Associated Press
Published: May 10, 2003

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) - Police say three children were beaten and one was sexually molested after social workers placed them with a relative who had a lengthy criminal arrest record that included indecent exposure.

The Family Continuity Program, an agency funded by Florida's embattled Department of Children & Families, did only a local background check on Mervin Kitnurse, missing a string of arrests in south Florida dating from 1996, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. He had been on parole for indecent exposure as recently as November, officials said.

Kitnurse, 36, of North Port, gained custody of the niece and twin nephews last summer. Police allege he struck them every day and sexually molested the girl.

Kitnurse was arrested Wednesday and charged with felony sexual battery and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child younger than 12. He was being held without bail in the Sarasota County jail.

April Putzulu, a spokeswoman for the Family Continuity Program, blamed the faulty background check on poor training.

The Department of Children & Families has been under scrutiny for months over its handling of a number of child-welfare cases, including the disappearance of toddler Rilya Wilson.

[cgk]

Didn't find this posted yet. Something needs to be done about this, not just in FL, but across the US about how they are harming the children they claim to protect.

[annyokie]

Social workers are overworked, understaffed, underpaid and have quotas to meet. This, of course, doesn't excuse an appalling story like this one.

I do think that better pay would attract better quality employees and protect children at risk.

The only social worker I know who likes her job also has a trust fund and needn't rely only on the $16,000 a year she makes with her MSW that cost her $50K.

[js1138]

I did this work for a while. I would rather place a child with a "bad" relative than in a foster home. Social workers do not have automatic access to everyone's police record.
They rely for the most part on the judgement of any relatives and neighbors they can locate. I did this for seven years without having a child harmed. I suppose I was lucky, but I dont think my record was unusual. Newspapers have the whole nation at their disposal to find cases like this.

[annyokie]

I would rather place a child with a "bad" relative than in a foster home.

I'd have to agree. Many foster homes are in it for the check every month.

[najida]

I fostered for a while, but not for the check (the amount is a joke)....it barely covers food for the child. If I remember correctly, the amounts granted for an allowance, Christmas & Birthday gifts is also shockingly low. There is also an annual stipend for clothes that will get ya started, but won't get you through the first minor growth spurt, much less seasonal needs (like coats!) Simply put, you can make money off of foster kids if you don't feed them and let them run around in rags.

If you are serious about being a good foster parent, you have to do it with the attitude that not only will you be giving a huge chunk of your heart and life to the child, but a decent chunk of your income.

The foster system is stretched thin, the pay for social workers is horrible and the kids are so scared by the whole process. But there are so many kids living in hell. I don't know the solution.

[annyokie]

Bless you for taking those children under your wing. I don't know the solution either.

I didn't mean to generalize, but I am forever reading stories about children who are abused by their foster parents, as you said starved and in rags.

Thank you again for your good works. And Happy Mother's Day!

[supercat]

The Family Continuity Program, an agency funded by Florida's embattled Department of Children & Families, did only a local background check on Mervin Kitnurse, missing a string of arrests in south Florida dating from 1996, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. He had been on parole for indecent exposure as recently as November, officials said.

Why is it that "arrest records" get all the attention? I'd be more interested in people's conviction (or plea-bargain) records.

[Disgusted in Texas]

I have known many social workers in the past eleven years. I have yet to meet one worth the ink on their feel good certificates.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

AP's back to bashing Florida again - the Democrats must be getting restless.

The American family is being systematically and intentionally weakened by the left. No social worker at any government agency can read hearts and minds. No one can. Janet Reno made exploiting children part of her Florida political campaigns - and the left has used it damnably to further weaken and damage families and strengthen and grow government - and, most clever and useful of all - to bash your political opponent. There always have been and will be heartbreaking stories of abuse and neglect that slip through the cracks. Florida news - AP, Gannett, Florida Today, local TV and print is a VLWC - more one-sided and dishonest than the NY Times, imho.

Ask AP why California and NY's much higher rate of missing and abused children don't make the papers - especially nearing Democratic primaries? Why don't Florida's awards for improvements ever rate a news story?

Teachers today are forced to report bruises. Children have learned they can pay back inattentive parents by lying. The system is set up to fail. With Florida's migrants, beaches and theme parks - runaways flock to Florida, parents in the middle of divorces kidnap their own kids. Mostly, for AP and the left, this is a continuing effort to destroy Jeb Bush because he is daring to involve private and local groups and individuals in "child welfare" - mentoring programs and even (horrors!) faith based groups - a major threat to the same sex marriage, gay rights lobby and socialist activists working to strengthen the governments' roles and redefine society on their terms.

[marajade]

Do we even know if they had access to their criminal histories?