DCFS Can Do Better
	Working for a Kinder, Gentler, Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services If you have reason to suspect that a child you know is being abused, please call the Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-482-5964.  Don't stop until you get an answer.

Play Interrupted

Your afternoon play is interrupted when a lady with a clipboard and a camera enters your day care center. You watch as she talks with the director there, then, they come over to you and take you into a room and close the door. What have you done, now? You look up at the lady towering over you, as all grownups do at your age, as she asks you about a bruise they saw on you. You don't know - four days ago is a lifetime at your age, but you try to guess at an answer that will satisfy them. Maybe, then, they will let you go back out and play. You are getting a strange feeling inside that you don't like.

Then, the lady starts pulling up your blouse and pushing down your pants, as you squirm and try to get away. "No!" you keep telling her. "I want my mommy." And, you break free and run over to the director who you thought was your friend and would help you. But, she just stands there and pushes you back toward the lady. You are confused, and that sick feeling in your stomach is getting worse. Then you think maybe they will let you go if you just do what they say. So, you finish taking off your clothes and stand, slightly sobbing, before them naked. The lady begins taking pictures of you and pointing out things to the director. She stops you from turning around when she walks around behind you, and you see a few more flashes from the camera go off. Maybe this is just something else that grownups do - you don't know, you are just a little kid. Vulnerable, isolated, traumatized - these are words that you won't know for years, but you know the feelings now, and you don't like them.

They finish up and tell you that you can put your clothes back on, and they walk out of the room and close the door as you pull your panties and pants up, put your blouse back on, and sit down on the floor to slip your socks on, which is hard to do because you are still shaking. You had left your shoes out in the play area when they first came to get you. You reach up and turn the door knob to open the door, and walk back into the play area. Some of the other kids stop their play and look at you. You go over and sit down on the floor away from them, still confused, wipe off a few more tears, and start pushing away a teddy bear you notice beside you. You make a frightened glance around as the lady comes out of the director's office to leave. You watch her cross the room, then you put your head in your lap after she has walked out the door.

An hour later, Mommy comes through the door, and you run to her, then run back to get your shoes, and sit down beside her to put them on. Then you get your little backpack and go out the door with Mommy. "A lady took my clothes off and took pictures of me today," you say as you both walk down the sidewalk to the car. Mommy stops in her tracks, startled for a few seconds and trying to comprehend what you just said. You look up at her and see a look on her face that you have never seen before. She wheels around back into the day care, with you in tow, and lets go of your hand inside the door as she heads for the director's office. A minute or so later, she comes out trembling, with tears welling up in her eyes, and, without saying anything, takes your hand and walks out the door. "What does 'mo-les-ter' mean? Is that what I did?" you wonder after overhearing a couple of the day care workers talking and looking over their shoulders at you while you were waiting by the door.

After a quiet ride back home, with you buckled up in the back seat, you see Daddy pulling into the driveway as you get there. Mommy asks you to go to your room for a few minutes, because they "have to talk". From your room, you hear muffled talking going on, then a knock at the door. You come out of your room and peek around the corner to see who it is. It's the lady that was at the day care. You watch, hiding from the lady and them, as they talk a few minutes. Then, just as the lady pulls out some pictures, Mommy sees you watching them. Mommy's mouth opens a little, and she just stares at you. Daddy sees her, and turns around and sees you, and says, "Honey, please go back to your room." "Am I in trouble?" you ask, and he says, "No, Baby. Just go on back now." You go back to your room, get your favorite stuffed toy, and curl up on your bed with it. There is a tension in the house the rest of the evening, and, for some reason, Mommy and Daddy don't want to touch you. Mommy makes a few phone calls during the night, and you hear her sobbing as she talks, while you are laying in your bed, not able to go to sleep.

The next day, you spend the morning in your room, still confused and not wanting to come out, just surrounding yourself with your stuffed toys. Strangely, Mommy and Daddy just let you stay in there without a fuss. Your aunt comes over in the afternoon, and you leave your room and go shopping with them, still not knowing what's going on. A couple of days later, your aunt comes back with a friend and the three of you go to the mall. You overhear them say something about the case being closed - whatever that means. They give you a mall credit card, but you max that out at the first stop. They don't seem to mind. Then you all go to Penney's, hand in hand with you in the middle, and your aunt buys you a new little outfit. Then you go to SubWay for sandwiches, and you bounce around a "balloon" that your aunt's friend made out of one of the plastic sandwich bags. He slides close to you in the seat of the booth, and you quickly scoot over to the wall, but, he senses your discomfort and just as quickly slides back to the far end of the seat, and you look at him, then slide away from the wall, and want him to come back. Then you all go to a movie, Finding Nemo, but you are still holding on tight to your "credit card" through the movie. Back at home, you show your stash to Mommy as your little brother pulls the butterfly hairpins from the display card and hands one to everyone.

After leaving you at your house, the friend turns to your aunt and says you seem to be doing OK, and that you weren't clinging or withdrawn. But, later on, Daddy tells your aunt that you really haven't gotten over it, yet, and that you were still confused and troubled by what the lady did to you at the day care. And, Mommy tells your aunt that the day care workers were "astonished" when she brought you back there, and they saw that your family was still together.

I have to stop my story, now, but the story is not over, and will not be over for a long, long time. You see, I am "the friend" in this story, and I have tried to tell this story from my little friend's eyes the best that I could reconstruct it, having not been there myself, with a few parts changed to protect her identity. Each of us that was caught up with her in this DCFS (DHS Division of Children and Family Services) "child maltreatment allegation" investigation has our own story about it and how it affected us. It just tore me up and made me furious, the more it sunk into me what they had done to my little friend, and I'm still furious. How could DCFS be allowed to do that to her, and violate her privacy and traumatize her that way?

But, my greatest concern is for my little friend. I can only imagine how isolated she felt and how her trust of adults was shattered by this. How long will she live with the images of this? How will it affect her throughout her life? Will she live in fear of them coming back? Will she get the wrong ideas from it, and get hurt or taken advantage of for real? Will her parents be hesitant about touching her, depriving her of the love she needs? And, how many other children are traumatized by DCFS, whose mission it is to protect the kids, not to hurt them? Isn't there anyone who cares enough about what these kids are going through to look for some answers that will stop them from being victimized by "the system" as well?

Well, I started looking and researching and asking questions, and was astonished to find that there was nothing in the law that said what DCFS could or couldn't do during their physical examinations of children. And, there was just one line that I could find in the DCFS procedures manual that even mentioned taking photographs. I did happen to run across a couple of pages in their training material about physical examinations (which I thought were reasonable - at least someone was thinking about trying to minimize the violations of and trauma to the children). But, that was just two pages out of hundreds of pages created for a 10-week DCFS new case worker training course, and those were just suggestions, not requirements written into law.

It is just unbelievable in this day in age that no one is standing up for these kids. For the ones that have been abused, they certainly don't need to be abused further by "the system." They have been through more than enough. And for those two out of three investigations that are deemed unsubstantiated, those kids certainly shouldn't be traumatized only because they got caught up in "the system" when someone called in a report on them.

However, the parents and guardians are afraid to confront DCFS, and I don't blame them, for fear of the case dragging on and their child getting hurt more, or for fear of being targeted for other investigations, or for fear of being labeled as a suspected child molester even when nothing could be further from the truth. They just want to get it over with and get it behind them. But it's the children, whose confidence in their parents is shattered that they would always be there to protect them from whatever came against them, who are the ones left wanting someone, anyone, to stand up for them.

Well, you and I have got to be the ones who stand up for them, to protect our children from emotional harm while DCFS tries to protect our children from physical harm. And, it will take a team effort - us, DCFS, the legislature, and other groups - working together on it to get this done. Am I the only one around here that sees the need for a more compassionate approach in protecting these children caught up in a DCFS investigation? I hope not. If my little friend's story has kicked you in the gut, like it did me, please read over the web site that I have set up, www.KinderDCFS.org, and find out what you can do. We are forming a public advocacy group to try to address some of these issues, so that we can really make a positive difference for our children in this state, and possibly throughout the U.S. Please don't let our kids continue to be victimized over and over again like this. It will take work on our part, but only we can fix this. After all, aren't our kids worth it?

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