On Child Abuse, Torture and the Audacity of Secrecy
The most recent expose in the LA Times story regarding the horrifying circumstances of rape and torture of a child that should instead have been rescued by a DCFS (Department of Children & Family Services) social worker can only be described as a nightmare of incompetence and arrogance. That we learn of this episode only because of the unmitigated gall of the worker contesting her mild suspension is something we can only react to with disgust.
Our unsaid fear, of course, is the number of tortured children we do not know about — tortured children whose stories remain secret, as the worker wasn't dumb or arrogant enough to contest a mild suspension. If the workers' union SEIU contests this particular suspension, what won't they contest?
The culprit, Rocio La Voie had clearly moved on, but now she is a pariah, a status well-deserved in the writer's opinion, and unlike, for example, the workers who may have erred with Jorge Tarin, the teen who killed himself after being interviewed by different DCFS workers who were hobbled by a lack of available information.
We ask, what else had Ms. La Voie, or for that matter other DCFS officials, ignored that we know nothing about? At what point does such gross incompetence become more than an internal issue?
On the opposite end, how many children will now be saved because of this Times article? How many DCFS workers will put in that much more effort with the knowledge that such gross incompetence leading to such horrible circumstances won't be covered up. By lying through omission to supposedly protect itself and a very few individuals, DCFS shoots themselves (and us) in the foot.
There really is no reason for such lack of transparency. Our police force, for example, is a much better organization because of this transparency. They wouldn't dream of covering this stuff up or allowing a union to dictate so much policy. We wouldn't stand for it.
DCFS is a huge organization that is accustomed to unjustified governmental secrecy that harkens back to the 50's. We know best, now move along....
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