It's Almost Tuesday

Its Not Just Texas – Isaac’s Death

Click Here to view original article at www.Freep.com

photo

LOSING ISAAC: Last of a series

Overhaul may be only hope

The beating death of 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge in foster care exposes a stubbornly persistent pattern of failures in Michigan’s child welfare system, despite several attempts at reform. The overburdened system has seen the number of children in foster care rise steadily since the mid-1990s even as the state resources to handle them shrank. Isaac was the third young child to die under the state’s watch in the last 18 months.

3 violent deaths in 18 months under state’s watch

Isaac Lethbridge is the third child to die violently in a Michigan foster or adoptive home in the past 18 months. Ricky Holland, a 7-year-old former foster child from Jackson County, was killed by his adoptive parents in July 2005 in the family’s home near Williamston in Ingham County.

Troubles across the country

Foster-care systems across the country are troubled. In many cases, it takes a death or a lawsuit to spur reform. Here is what is happening in other states:

Where advocates want to see changes

Children’s Rights, a New York-based advocacy group, is suing Michigan’s child welfare system. Marcia Robinson Lowry, the organization’s executive director, cites these areas for which change is needed:

How the system is supposed to work

Michigan’s complex, labor-intensive child welfare system begins with a Child Protective Services worker investigating a complaint of maltreatment. The first decision: Is it abuse or neglect? Then: Should the child be removed from the home and placed with relatives or in a foster home?

VIDEO: Isaac Lethbridge slideshow

Photos and music capture the life of Isaac Lethbridge, courtesy of his family.

January 29, 2007
LOSING ISAAC | A 3-PART SERIES

Unheeded warnings lead to beating death of 2-year-old boy

Jennifer Lethbridge, 30, of Canton cries last week while looking at a picture of her son Isaac, who died in foster care Aug. 16 after being taken from her because of neglect. Before he died, Isaac had been beaten and burned.All the warnings were there that 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge was in trouble at a Detroit foster-care home. But everyone ignored them until after the toddler was beaten to death. A Free Press examination found irregularities in how the foster parent was licensed — and complaints alleging mistreatment of children that failed to raise alarms.

Agency had lengthy list of alarming problems

The Lethbridge children’s journey did not end with Isaac’s brutal death.

Isaac not 1st child that center had failed

Isaac Lethbridge and his sister weren’t the only children the Lula Belle Stewart Center failed. In early 2006, Betty Robins’ complaints sparked an investigation that should have signaled another alert about the agency.

Tragedy haunts siblings’ families

The families who adopted six of the Lethbridge children are deeply disturbed by what happened to Isaac. Daisy Tomlin of Detroit, who adopted Ashleigh, the oldest, several years after taking her as a foster child, regrets not having been able to take one of her siblings.

January 28, 2007
LOSING ISAAC

Day 1: How state’s big system failed this little boy

Isaac Lethbridge traveled a painful journey in his 2 1/2 years. He was neglected by his parents, moved through three troubled foster homes in less than a year and was dead by last Aug. 16, beaten and burned, his collarbone broken. A Free Press special report shows there were many chances to save Isaac. But no one did.

Problems with center preceded Isaac’s case

Despite several licensing violations by the Lula Belle Stewart Center and a 2004 state report that criticized the agency over the beating death of a 4-year-old foster child that year, the Michigan Department of Human Services renewed the Detroit-based agency’s license to place children in 2005.

August 23, 2006

Foster care agency is shut down

The state Department of Human Services on Tuesday shut down a private nonprofit foster care program that had placed a 2-year-old boy in a Detroit home where police say he was beaten to death last week.

October 4, 2006

Family sues in boy’s death at a foster home

The family of a 2-year-old boy beaten to death in a Detroit foster home in August has filed a federal lawsuit against the Lula Belle Stewart Center, the private foster care agency that licensed the home and was responsible for monitoring it.

September 20, 2006

Foster boy’s death reveals wider neglect

After the Aug. 16 killing of a 2-year-old boy in a foster home licensed through the Lula Belle Stewart Center in Detroit, a team of seven state child abuse investigators took a closer look at how the agency was caring for its 106 other foster children. What the investigators found was startling:

August 29, 2006

Workers could have saved boy

Just 12 days before 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge died of a beating in a Detroit foster home, two social services workers let his foster mother keep the boy despite noting that he was covered with “greenish, blue and black” bruises and had two black eyes.

August 27, 2006

Who killed boy is a mystery

Nine people — three children under age 4, a 12-year-old girl, three teenagers and two adult women — were present in a Detroit home when a young foster child was severely beaten and burned last week, according to court records from a hearing Friday. But Detroit police still don’t know who killed 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge.

August 19, 2006

Boy’s death ruled homicide

The death of a 2-year-old foster child was ruled a homicide Friday after Wayne County medical examiners determined the boy had been struck by a blunt object. Isaac Lethbridge died Wednesday at Children’s Hospital of Michigan after he stopped breathing in a Detroit foster home. Detroit police were investigating and no arrests had been made.

August 18, 2006

Police awaiting autopsy results on foster child

The attorney for a Detroit foster mother under scrutiny after a 2-year-old foster child died in her care this week said Thursday that his client has no idea why or how the child died. “She feels horrible about what happened,” attorney Marc Shreeman said of Charlise Rogers. “She doesn’t know what happened.”

January 10, 2007

Foster mom charged in tot’s death

Manslaughter and child abuse charges filed Tuesday against a Detroit woman in the beating death of her 2-year-old foster child were the latest dramatic turn in a case exposing flaws in the state’s child welfare system.

August 19, 2006

Boy’s death ruled homicide

The death of a 2-year-old foster child was ruled a homicide Friday after Wayne County medical examiners determined the boy had been struck by a blunt object. Isaac Lethbridge died Wednesday at Children’s Hospital of Michigan after he stopped breathing in a Detroit foster home. Detroit police were investigating and no arrests had been made.

August 18, 2006

Police awaiting autopsy results on foster child

The attorney for a Detroit foster mother under scrutiny after a 2-year-old foster child died in her care this week said Thursday that his client has no idea why or how the child died. “She feels horrible about what happened,” attorney Marc Shreeman said of Charlise Rogers. “She doesn’t know what happened.”

January 10, 2007

Foster mom charged in tot’s death

Manslaughter and child abuse charges filed Tuesday against a Detroit woman in the beating death of her 2-year-old foster child were the latest dramatic turn in a case exposing flaws in the state’s child welfare system.

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Tuesday to Tuesday

November 2009
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It’s Almost Tuesday


It's Almost Tuesday is a fictional story based on true events of abuse within the Texas Foster Care System. The story is written as if told by an 8 year old foster child using his exact words whenever possible.

Study: Troubled homes are STILL better than foster care

Kids who stayed with their families were less likely to become juvenile delinquents or teen mothers and more likely to hold jobs as young adults than kids who were removed into foster care.


Arrested at least once:

�14% oif Kids Who Stayed with family: were arrested at least once rather than 44% of Kids Who Went to foster care!



33 % of Kids who stayed with their family Became teen mothers: but more than half (56%) of Kids Who Went to foster care became teen mothers!



33% of kids who stayed with their family held a job at least 3 months: as opposed to merely 20 % of the Kids Who Went to foster care!



Out of 500,000 children in U.S. foster care
Statistics show that foster children are more likely than other kids to drop out of school,
commit crimes,
abuse drugs
and become teen parents!



Teens aging out of foster care have spent nearly five years there That's twice the average length of time for all kids in the system.

Fewer than 3% earn college degrees.


Teens in foster care are less likely to finish high school and more likely to go to prison or become homeless.


How can the government tell us, with statistics like this, that this is protecting the kids?

CP$ KNOW$ THE GUILTY ONE$

Caseworker: We know your husband is guilty, you've got
to force him into admitting it.


Mother: How do you know he's guilty?


Caseworker: We know he's guilty because he says he's
innocent. Guilty people always say they're innocent.


Mother: What do innocent people say?


Caseworker: We're not in the business of guilty or
innocent. We're in the business of putting families
together.


Mother: So why not do that with us?


Caseworker: Because he won't admit his guilt.


(Source:) Wounded Innocents: The Real Victims of the War on Child Abuse (Paperback) by Richard Wexler

CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD AUDIO FILE

of CPS Caught On Tape

A foster child carries a realistic looking cap gun in his pocket from the foster home to a visit; the children were given these guns and taught how to shoot them in target practice at a foster camp. At the time this child was only 8 years old; taking high doses of psychotropic medications.


Blog Note: If a parent carried the same toy gun into the same visit, that parent would definitely be arrested and probably lose their rights to visit their children.

Tuesday’s Poll

Do you believe that CPS serves the best interest of the children? Or the Government?

(polls)

Families Rights Should Be Protected

"Because the swing of every pendulum brings with it potential adverse consequences, it is important to emphasize that in the area of child abuse, as with the investigation and prosecution of all crimes, the state is constrained by the substantive and procedural guarantees of the Constitution.


The fact that the suspected crime may be heinous – whether it involves children or adults - does not provide cause for the state to ignore the rights of the accused or any other parties.



Otherwise, serious injustices may result. "


Syl.Pt.3,WALLIS v. SPENCER, 202 F.3d 1126(9th Cir. 2000)




Tuesday’s Topics

Quotes From Foster Children

Mother meant the whole world to me and there wasn’t anything I could do to get her back. It was like I had lost everything. Lucie, Age 19

I felt so bad for my mom and I constantly felt like it was my fault because I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
PoemGirl, Age 17

I felt so disappointed and heartbroken. I hated my life.
Brittany, Age 13

How does it feel to be a Foster Child? It’s like being in a great world of your own. MARK, Age 12

I felt very sad and I knew I could not do anything about it. I had to get over it. I know how it feels to be pushed around. I have been there.Einstein, Age 11

The placements did not work because in my heart I felt alone but in my mind I felt grown….The only problem in the home was me. There I was almost thirteen and hated the world. I could not trust anyone. I didn’t want to trust anyone. How could I trust someone? I had to
protect myself from hurt. The only way I could do that was to guard my heart….I messed up four homes because of this. Flower Girl, Age 18

I think that when you become an adult it’s just like a toddler you’re a caterpillar, and when you’re a kid you’re a cocoon and finally you become an adult which would be a butterfly. Jesse, Age 9

We should all make our foster care family a possibility.
MeMe, Age 17

The best advice I have from one foster child to another is that you never give up….Never think that you are worthless. Jane, Age 10

Tuesday to Tuesday

Tomorrow’s Healthy Adults Come From Today’S Teachings


Site Meter

Institute for Youth Development is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that promotes a comprehensive risk avoidance message to youth.


4Parents.gov is a guide to help you and your teen discuss important, yet difficult, issues about healthy choices, sex and relationships.

The NAEA
exists to serve, support and represent individuals and organizations in the practice of abstinence-centered education.

Abstinence Works provides recent news, articles, and studies validating the efficacy of abstinence education.

The Abstinence Clearinghouse is a privately funded 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan international educational organization. The Clearinghouse was founded to provide a central location where character, relationship, and abstinence programs, curricula, speakers, and materials could be accessed. The Clearinghouse serves agencies on a national, state and local level, as well as international organizations.


The Medical Institute for Sexual Health is an organization that has a tremendous heart for the health and well-being of all. It is committed to teaching people how to make good choices and adopt healthy behaviors that enable them to achieve their highest potential.

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Bookmark and Share

CPS’ Death of 5 Year Old

The Logan Marr Case






The death of a 5 year old in CPS' care.

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Foster Care – Go On!

by Crystal, age 13


Have you ever said mom, dad I love you?
Have you ever hugged them goodbye?
Well have you ever sat in a room and cried?
Well I can’t everyday say I love you mom, or
dad I can’t say goodbye!
Sometimes when I visit my dad and I have to be supervised!
How would you feel to live in a different home every couple of months?
You can’t stay in one place...
You always feel like you are replaced!
People saying they don’t want you there...
People lying so they won’t hurt your feelings!
People watching your every footstep while you sit there crying.
They can’t hold you like your parents.
I have to say I’m strong when I move there.
So I can GO ON

How would you feel to lift your head and see someone everyday that is not your mom and dad?
Would you cry, would you worry?
Or would you fly or would you scurry?
Sometimes you have to let go.
Sometimes you have to turn away.
Sometimes you let the tears drop,
And let them flow anyway.
There is more hurt to this than you will ever feel!
To see your mother die on mother’s day...
I have to GO ON is all you can say

Top of the Day

TEXAS FOSTER KIDS – STILL FORGOTTEN



”I saw filthy living conditions, make-shift outhouses, unsanitary food storage, in so-called outdoor camps where children must sleep in sleeping bags - no walls, no fans, no heat - for months and months and in many cases, year after year.

That’s not care. That’s cruelty.



That’s not educating.

That’s endangering” Carol Strayhorn on Texas Foster Care System in 2004

National Center For Missing and Exploited Kids








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