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Adam Wilson expounds on Washington state government, workers and politics. Wilson began covering those issues for the Olympian in 2004. He can be reached at: awilson@theolympian.com.
Foster care back in the headlines (not in a good way)
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The Children's Administration is going back over its records in another case of abuse that was reported long ago but apparently not resolved, this time a 14-year-old girl who was starved to 48 pounds.
"Obviously we wish we'd had the vision to know that something was going to happen to this child," Children's Administration head Cheryl Stephani said Tuesday.
The agency is still reviewing its work from 2005 to see if there are any lessons to draw. But for the most part, Stephani defended the agency's actions, saying that given the totality of the situation, the agency would have been hard-pressed to do anything differently.
"We're going to thoroughly review the case and see if there were things that were not disclosed at that point [three years ago]" Children's Administration spokesman Thomas Shapley said.
The 2005 case came to light after the girl disclosed abuse to a teacher, who called law enforcement and Child Protective Services (CPS). The girl was home-schooled, but attended a program once a week at Carnation Elementary School.
The agency is still reviewing its work from 2005 to see if there are any lessons to draw. But for the most part, Stephani defended the agency's actions, saying that given the totality of the situation, the agency would have been hard-pressed to do anything differently.
"We're going to thoroughly review the case and see if there were things that were not disclosed at that point [three years ago]" Children's Administration spokesman Thomas Shapley said.
The 2005 case came to light after the girl disclosed abuse to a teacher, who called law enforcement and Child Protective Services (CPS). The girl was home-schooled, but attended a program once a week at Carnation Elementary School.
Meanwhile, Maribel Gomez's conviction for homicide-by-abuse was upheld. Gomez was the mother of Raphael Gomez, who died of trauma at the age of 2. Won't go into even more details, but let us say the Court of Appeals found Gomez's actions met the legal definition of torture.
Raphael had been in foster care, but was returned to his mother and was killed. His case was among a rash of gruesome child deaths, along with Sirita Sotelo and others, that led to a taskforce that worked, recommending a host of reforms the Legislature actually did pass in 2007.
Those issues were focused on the way and reasons children are moved from their biological home. The latest case in Carnation, it appears from early reporting, was a matter of meeting the threshold of evidence needed to take action, another area lawmakers have been looking into.
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