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Creating an extra layer of government bureaucracy to solve a problem, however serious, rarely proves effective. Here's hoping the newly created Office of the Child Advocate is the exception. The position is part of a law overhauling the state's child welfare system. Other measures include increasing penalties for people who work with children and fail to report instances of suspected child abuse, establishment of a foster care registry to track the success of foster parents and a revision of the process for deciding when to end the lift of an abused child in state custody. The last measure was crafted in response to the case of Haleigh Poutre of Westfield, now 14, who fell into a coma after a severe beating. Her adoptive mother and stepfather were charged with assaulting her. Poutre was nearly removed from life support at the direction of the Department of Social Services before her condition began to improve. Poutre is in a Boston rehabilitation hospital. She has been recovering and may testify against her stepfather, Jason Strickland, who has pleaded innocent to assault and battery charges. Her adoptive mother, Holli A. Strickland, died in what police said was a murder-suicide with her grandmother. While Poutre's case has garnered the most attention, there have been several others in the past few years that have been similarly disturbing: r In 2005, 4-year-old Dontel Jeffers of Boston was killed by his foster mother, Corinne Stephen. Stephen was sentenced to eight years in prison last December. r Four-year-old Rebecca Riley of Hull died last year after her parents gave her a massive overdose of drugs meant to treat hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder. The parents were under DSS supervision. r Jennifer Ward of Peabody has been charged with shaking her 9-month-old daughter Jocelyn Ward Anderson to death last November. Prosecutors contend the girl suffered a series of injuries, from a skull fracture to broken vertebrae, while her mother was under DSS supervision................................
Our view: A hopeful start for child welfare reform
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July 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A large number of endangered, unwanted, and unborn children held a town hall meeting on the 4th of July - alarmed at the brutal and untimely killing of millions of their brothers and sisters in recent years. That the murderous war waged on them had the full force and respectability of the law made their plight all the more terrifying.
Their complaint was humble and it was simple. They were not distressed by rising gas prices, or the deteriorating economy in general. They were not even frightened by the exponential increase of natural disasters. The threat of global warming or global terrorism did not greatly disturb them.
They had become an endangered species, and little had been done to answer their terrified and silent screams from the womb. They decided that the barbaric treatment that they and their fellow unwanted unborn human beings have had to endure for perilous decades was unconscionable and unbearable. They cried out to their Creator for inspiration and protection, and then unanimously they put forth a declaration. It began as follows:.................
Death Wish: The Impending Suicide of a Once Great Nation (Great Read!)
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