Admitting error easier than learning from it
08/05/03
I t's tempting, once again, to throw Darlene Walsh and Colin Fitzpatrick to the wolves. There's a certain grim satisfaction in cursing the pair, as they slink back onto the state payroll with back pay, and pouting over what it takes to fire a public employee, any public employee, who drops the ball.
I'm tempted, too. Walsh and Fitzpatrick are far from blameless in the failure of Oregon's Department of Human Services to protect Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis. But it's much more important, I'd argue, to figure out whether the bureaucratic culture that predated and survives them has changed.
And by quietly settling with the two, the agency may have ensured that culture remains safely under wraps.
After the bodies of Ashley and Miranda were discovered in Ward Weaver's back yard, the public wanted blood. DHS made sure it was low-level blood: Fitzpatrick, who either ignored or didn't return calls concerning Ashley's allegations that Weaver had molested her, and Walsh, Fitzpatrick's supervisor.
In June, a judge ruled Walsh was unfairly singled out and recommended reinstatement. The state not only agreed to give her back pay, attorney fees and "damages," but also decided to demote rather then fire Fitzpatrick.
By sweeping the pair back under the agency rug, DHS probably avoided contentious court cases that would have tossed the way the child-welfare agency works into the light of day.
Former Gov. John Kitzhaber and agency heads conceded DHS didn't work to protect Ashley or Miranda. But it's one thing to admit a mistake and quite another to learn from it.
When Ashley was still alive -- albeit virtually ignored by her mother and apparently subject to the random surges of Weaver's lust -- agency screeners routinely handled third-party abuse calls by telling the caller to contact the police. Third-party abuse cases are those in which a child is abused by someone outside the family who doesn't have constant access to them.
The agency imperative was "Forward on," not "Follow up." Never mind that calling the cops is a lot more difficult for people than phoning an abuse hot line. When the calls came in to Clackamas County about Ashley, neither Fitzpatrick or anyone else followed through to make sure law enforcement officials had been notified.
(What difference that would have made is hard to assess: The county DA's office had already concluded Ashley was an unreliable witness when it came to reporting abuse by, among others, her prince of a biological father.)
Mickey Serous, the interim deputy assistant director of Children, Adults and Families, said the agency is working much harder to keep law enforcement in the loop on any abuse allegations. But I can't find much evidence that DHS has improved its ability to assess the risk in third-party abuse cases.
Eleven months ago, DHS spokeswoman Patricia Feeny said the agency didn't have the resources to cross-check whether potential third-party abusers had access to other children.
Serice said Monday that the agency has "restored" 18 child-welfare supervisory positions and 24 office managers. But when I asked Feeny to compare how many more abuse cases were being opened and investigated, she said the numbers hadn't changed between April 2002 and April 2003.
If DHS was following the more vigilant policy changes announced last fall, those numbers couldn't stay the same. What's more, the agency no longer monitors the screening process by recording incoming calls, a common practice in the early '90s. Serice said such recordings intimidate callers, but I doubt the screener's job performance can be properly assessed by a supervisor sitting across the desk and listening to only one side of the conversation.
I'll leave you with this: I don't think children who need the state's protection are in greater danger because Walsh and Fitzpatrick are back on the dole. But they remain at unfathomable risk if the agency still can't provide the care and risk assessment that weren't there for Ashley and Miranda.
Reach Steve Duin at 503-221-8597, Steveduin@aol.com or 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland OR 97201.
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