IMPROPER PRESSURE ON CASEWORKERS?
Excerpted from: The Wichita EagleBY TIM POTTER
For years, some families have complained that court documents filed by social workers that result in children being removed from the home have contained false or fabricated information.
Now, some say they have proof.
The head of the state's child welfare agency was recorded in a meeting with a family advocacy group saying that Sedgwick County prosecutors have "bullied" social workers into putting information they don't agree with in affidavits. Those affidavits are used to decide whether children remain in protective custody or are returned to their parents.
Sedgwick County prosecutors deny using improper pressure. And three Sedgwick County judges who hear the cases say they have seen no evidence of wrongdoing.
But critics of the state child custody system and some legislators say the remarks by Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, raise questions about the affidavits' validity.
The affidavits are important because judges rely on the documents to decide whether children go home to their parents or remain in temporary custody or go into foster care. The affidavits, typically three to four pages long, are based on interviews by social workers with parents, children, relatives, teachers.
The social workers lay out results of their child abuse and neglect investigations. Prosecutors then cite the documents in petitions recommending that children remain in temporary custody.
During a meeting with the advocacy group Citizens for Change on March 18 in Topeka, Jordan was recorded saying:
"But in Sedgwick County oftentimes we end up writing things because it's what our social workers get bullied by the District Attorney's Office into writing. So they really have no belief in what it says."Later in the meeting, Jordan said:
"I am working on our staff that we do our assessments properly and we not get bullied into writing things we don't believe. But then the reality comes down to, you send a 25-year-old social worker into a room with a 15-year county ADA (assistant district attorney) who is willing to yell at them, cuss at them, scream at them and threaten them, you know."Jordan said he made the comments but wishes he hadn't said
"bullied," adding that he respects District Attorney Nola Foulston and her staff.
"I don't think they intend to bully our staff. It was a poor choice of words.... I don't believe anybody's asked to perjure themselves or lie." He also said social workers should have independence.
"I think they (affidavits) should reflect, without intervention of the DA's office, the professional judgment of the social worker."His comments not only raise questions about the affidavits' validity but also seem to be grounds for families to contest court decisions that have kept their children in state custody, said Vickie Burris, president of Citizens for Change, a statewide family advocacy group."The courts are only going to be as good as the information they receive," she said.
Jordan's comments also confirm suspicions Burris has had, based on complaints from families, that the affidavits include false information, she said. Often, attorneys advise families not to contest the information or risk angering the judges, the prosecutors and SRS, she said.
Burris said an observer who was not a member of Citizens for Change recorded the comments. She said she had no part in the recording and learned of it afterward.
Foulston, the district attorney, called Jordan's recorded comments "outrageous."
"That was just so disappointing to have something like that said by an agency head," she said.
"You can't un-ring the bell. He's left the impression with citizens and individuals in the community that the District Attorney's Office is doing something that we shouldn't be doing." Deputy District Attorney Ron Paschal, who oversees Sedgwick County juvenile cases, said his staff reviews the affidavits but does not improperly pressure social workers about what they write in the documents.
Although preserving families is one goal of the child-welfare system,
"our utmost concern is the immediate safety of the child," he said.
"We have a job to do, and they have a job to do, and if they come to our office and have not done it, we're not going to hesitate to ask them to follow up," Paschal said.
Prosecutors have the legal authority and responsibility to order that relevant information be put in the affidavits, Paschal said. Social workers don't have to sign them if they disagree, he said.
"We're the ones who have t 
The African American Council of Elders, Wichita/Sedgwick County would like to invite community organizations serving African American children or young adults to a book give-away on Sunday August 24th, from 3:30 until 5:00 at Interfaith Ministries at 829 N. Market.
I found it incredibly ironic that these two dissimilar statements would close with the same determined and powerful statement. One stating that our basic humanity and rights would be declared and defended at any cost. The other saying that he would "get money" at any cost, presumably, even if that meant taking it from the very people and community brother Malcolm defended.
