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FAQ (4)
Child Sexual Abuse
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This information is NOT intended to replace professional counseling or legal services; but rather, to serve as encouragement for seeking those services. If your child (or a child you know) has been abused, or is at-risk of being abused, report it to the appropriate authorities and seek professional counseling.
FAQ (4) -- Child Protective Services:
Failure to follow-up
on child abuse allegations.
Comments by Mike Echols
Author of the bestseller I Know My First Name Is Steven
An Update: I spent a good deal of yesterday (December 10th) and an hour today trying to deal with CPS regarding the case of a teenage boy currently being emotionally, verbally, and physically abused by his father.
On October 17th I reported the situation in detail and in person and in writing to the Unit Supervisor for Childrens Mental Health Services and he told me that the matter met state requirements for investigation by CPS and that he would immediately refer the matter to CPS for investigation.
On October 20th CPS apparently decided that the case "did not meet state requirements" and they did not investigate it. But a copy of this report was not sent to the aforementioned CMH Unit Supervisor until December 1st!
After this Supervisor was unable to get CPS to reconsider the case, he phoned and told me about it and faxed CPS's report to me. I immediately jumped in the middle of the mess.
Yesterday, after making 8 phone calls and being bounced around from phone receptionist to phone receptionist to phone receptionist at CPS, Social Services, and Juvenile Court with no one available to speak with me in any of those offices, I phoned the State Social Services at the State Capitol several times and, finally, yesterday afternoon I received a call back from a state supervisor who seemed very concerned and spent 30 minutes speaking with me.
The lady had me fax my five pages of reports and letters and CPS's evaluation and late yesterday afternoon I received a voice mail message from a County CPS worker who said, "Mr. Echols, I understand that you have a problem with the way a child is being treated by CPS."
When I phoned this lady this morning she did not even know the boy's name and admitted that she had not even looked at any of the material faxed to her by the supervisor in Sacramento and then proceeded to ask me questions about the case.
I suggested to her that she read the material faxed to her and then call me back if she has any questions. Then I terminated the conversation and immediately called the supervisor in the State Office and told her what had happened.
Sadly, this will probably be a continuing saga.
Response: Debbie Myers
I have had past experiences with CPS. From these experiences I have learned a few lessons I would like to pass on to those of you that are interested.
 Lesson #1.
Go to Radio Shack and buy a device to hook up from your telephone to a recorder. Your initial investment is around fifty dollars and it will pay for itself many, many times.
Always record any conversation between you and publicly funded agencies and their employees. They tend to forget a lot or just plain lie about what they tell you. It is always nice to have a backup of your conversation to refresh their memories.
Lesson #2.
Buy yourself a pocket sized tape recorder (around $30.00). You can get micro cassette 90 minute tapes that last 180 minutes on half speed. Carry this with you at all times. You never know when you will run into a situation where you may need to have documentation to back up a conversation with a publicly paid servant. This little recorder has been my lifeline. It really makes a believer out of people that think we are crazies.
Lesson #3.
Never take a CPS or social workers word for granted. There are still a few good ones in there, but they are few and far between.
Please, if you can afford to do these things, give them a try. You will get results.
If you have the capability of e-mailing some of these State agencies, it is really rewarding to e-mail one agency that is responsible for a child and then cc a copy to another agency that is responsible for the first agency doing their jobs correctly.
Ask them to please e-mail you back and let you know what the results of their investigation are. This really does pile up the documentation.
Talk about finger pointing and utter chaos. It is unreal the blunders that are made at the expense of a childs life. We need ACCOUNTABILITY in the actions of some of these idiots and no one is willing to be accountable. I think this is the key word. Good luck Mike. You are doing a terrific job for the children.
Response: Nancy Burnett
Abuse/Incest Support ~ at The Mining Company
These are good suggestions BUT, state law varies on the legality and admissibility of tape recordings of this nature.
I advise taking just a moment or two to find out the law in your state. I'm not saying do not do this. I think its a wonderful idea. I'm saying know your state's laws before you do it so you can act within them or, at the very least, know that you are breaking them rather than breaking them accidentally from ignorance.
If you cannot afford a lawyer or do not know someone who will look this up for you, you could go to your local court house and ask for help from the librarian of the law library. Alternatively, you could ask for help from the Domestic Violence Shelter (child abuse is domestic violence) or from your local Legal Aid Society.
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