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| Retrieved from |
Summary
“Teen
makes video statement about abuse by children’s aid society 06/28/10” is a
webpage article (published on June 29, 2010) from the Canada Court Watch
website.
On
Monday June 28th, 2010, a teenager fled the control of Kitchener
Waterloo CAS because he and other children were being abused in the care of
CAS. This particular teenager, as well as another teenager who lived in the
same foster home, both made and signed statements that were videotaped.
The
teenager that fled the control of the CAS has his signed statement enclosed in
the article. I opened it up to see what information this boy was stating and
summarized it below.
· This boy is 15 years old and will be
turning 16 in one month.
· He has been in the care of Kitchener
Waterloo CAS since 2006.
· He has been involved in two fosters
homes where abuse has been seen and has occurred.
·
In his first foster home, his foster
mother did the following (NOTE: this teen’s sister also was in her care and
lived with them):
1. Degraded their biological parents (ex. Called their
mother a pig because they had lice)
2. Mentally abused him (ex. This boy had a
bladder problem and would sometimes wet the bed, the foster mother would make
fun of him and call him a pig, leaving this boy to feel bad about himself)
3.
She abused alcohol and smoked inside the
home.
4. She provided alcohol to minors. This boy
and his sister refused the alcohol because it was against their religion.
5.
Refused to allow phone calls between
himself and his parents for over a month.
6.
Restricted access to milk (due to a
metabolic disorder, this boy required many glasses of milk per day to stop the
symptoms including, “the shakes” and severe headaches).
7. Bathed four children in the same bath
water without changing it.
8. Had three boys (including the boy who
made the statement), of different ages, sleep in one bedroom. Inappropriate
actions took place and the same boy who conducted the inappropriate actions was
allowed back into the same foster home but required to sleep in a different area.
· In his second foster home (where he
stayed for one year and also fled), which was a single-mother foster home, the
following occurred:
1. He was prevented from calling his
parents when he felt like talking to them. If he was given permission to call,
he felt someone was listening to the conversation from another phone in the
home.
2. His safe was broken into that held his
valuables, including money and a letter to the Ontario Child Advocate.
3. He witnessed two other children in the
home being physically abused. One of the children would start crying and would get
pulled onto the ground and sat on by the foster mother. This child would cry
and scream and yell “get off of me.” This same child would end up at the
hospital for days and when he questioned his foster mother about her, she would
not disclose any information to him. This child was also given medication in
the morning and a bedtime. Under the influence of this medication this child
would laugh uncontrollably and lose their memory. When this child first arrived
at the foster home she was happy and cheerful and by the end she did not appear
to be happy anymore.
4. He had no privacy, not even in his own
room.
5. An alarm was put on his bedroom door.
6. His home was full of bugs, rodents, and
rodent feces.
7. He was forced to go to a church that was
no his own religion. He was punished for falling asleep in church. He would
be forced to stay in his room and phone calls to his
parents were taken away.
8. He was only allowed one glass of milk
per day, which did not fit with his medical needs.
9. He was given food he did not like and
rotten fruit.
· The following was the problems/issues
this teen had with CAS:
1.
His rights were being violated.
2.
Nobody in CAS would listen or help to do
what was best for him.
3.
He lived in fear of the CAS workers and what
they might do to punish him and his biological family.
4.
CAS would prevent him from calling his
parents and it was used as a form of punishment when he did not do as he was
told by the workers.
5.
CAS would make every decision for him
and not allow him to have any input whatsoever.
6. He overheard a CAS worker tell his
sister that the Church her parents went to was no good.
7.
CAS workers would threaten and bully not
only him, but other children in the same foster home.
· The teen confided to the Ontario Child
Advocate about the abuse that was going on with the other children and nothing
was done.
· This teen’s sister ran away from the
same foster home he lived in February 2010. She ran home to her biological
mother and has been living with her since.
· His biological parents would send money
with his sister to school so this teen could have milk during the day for his
medical condition.
· He once arrived at his parent’s home for
a weekend visit and came in such a bad physical state (i.e. shaking, feeling
“bad,” and a terrible headache) due to lack of consumption of milk. His parents
would give him milk, cook him scrambled eggs with milk, and give him one dose
of advil, which made him feel much better. He would be feeling physically well
by the time he had to go back to his foster home.
·
This teens wishes and preferences
included:
1.
Never going back into the care of the
Children’s Aid Society
2.
Not to be threatened and bullied by CAS
workers or by uncaring foster parents anymore.
3.
Not to be forced to live in environments
where “workers don’t listen” and “where workers just cover up bad things inside
the foster homes”
4.
CAS not to threaten he and his parents with
being arrested by the police as they attempted to do when his sister ran away
from the same foster home
5. To live with his mother in her home
where he feels safe, happy and loved. He has his own bedroom at his mother’s
and he feels very cared for (both his parents support this)
6.
Continue the same school he was in
7. Not to have CAS workers harass and
intimidate him at school as they have already done to his sister after she fled
the foster home
8.
Wants his rights to privacy at school to
be respected by CAS.
9.
Wants his freedom and rights back,
especially his right to be happy
10. His
clothing and money returned to him
11. His
health card returned to him
· “The CAS has done nothing to help me be
happy and if anything CAS has only tried to control my life and to treat me like
less of a person I am. I am tired of being like an object and not a person by
CAS workers (Canada Court Watch, 2010)."
· A child advocate reviewed his statement
with him, vidoetaped him reviewing and signing the statement, and his informed
consent was given to the child advocate.
· The teen initialed each page of the
statement for proof the document was reviewed by himself.
· The statement was written on his own and
in the absence of his biological parents.
· He is willing to go to court ad speak to
the judge should this be necessary to get him out of the care of CAS and have
them stop threatening and harassing him.
· “It is my hope that my statement will
assist the truth to be known about how I have been abused while in the care of
the Children’s Aid Society and how other kids are being abused as well while in
the care of CAS. Hopefully my statement will help to put an end to other
children being abused (Canada Court Watch, 2010).
This
article was another example of failure of the Children’s Aid Society to protect
the children and youth they are taking away from their biological families.
How
could CAS allow another youth to be abused so terribly in foster homes that are
supposed to be safe? This boy went to two different foster homes. One in which
degraded his parents and restricted their phone calls. He was mentally,
physically and almost sexually abused. This boy had a metabolic disorder
requiring large quantities of milk to be a part of his diet, which he was deprived
of and would go through physical episodes until milk was given to him. Lastly,
this environment supported minors to drink alcohol, which is illegal”! The
second foster home also prevented the boy from calling his biological parents.
He had no privacy, his belongings stolen and was even forced to give up his
religious faith. He was also mentally and physically abused there. Why did
these CAS workers intervene? Why don’t they listen? This is why as parents we
cannot give up the fight! This is not only the problem of people involved in
children’s aid societies but also society’s problem. We need to fight to make a
change. We need to support Bill 42, so that the government can intervene and
these CAS workers can be held accountable for not doing one of the most
important jobs in our society.
This
teenager had no one to go. He had no one to trust to tell what was going on in
these foster homes he was living in. He felt CAS violated his rights. They
would prevent phone calls to his parents as a form of punishment. CAS wouldn’t
listen to his concerns. He lived in fear of the CAS workers and what they might
do to punish him and his biological family. He was allowed no part in the
decision making process of his life. Lastly, CAS workers would threaten and
bully not only him, but other children in the same home.
I can’t
understand why CAS was not required to return this boy to his mother when his
sister began living with her. If there was serious child protection concerns,
CAS would not allow for her to live there. I know I have not been given all the
information as to why these siblings were taken in the first place, but how can
one child live there and not the other? I feel this has something to do with
money. I feel these workers were abusing their job power and doing this for
funding. Why else? Why would one child return without the other?
There is
a lot of room for improvement in Children’s Aid Societies of Ontario. All CAS
workers should be affiliatedke place in all of these homes at least twice a month to make sure there is
no abuse taking place. These children should be in mandatory counselling
outside of CAS so there is another trained professional watching over their
care. Phone calls to parents should take place at minimum twice a week so
parents can be kept informed of how their children are being treated.
Citations
Teen makes video statement about abuse by
Children's Aid Society 06/28/10 (June 29, 2010). Canada Court Watch. Retrieved
from http://www.canadacourtwatch.com/content/teen-makes-video-statement-about-abuse-childrens-aid-society-062810
Waterton, Willy (n.d.). The Sun Times. Retrieved from http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/04/20140411-181308.html
Questions
1.
How can Ontario Children’s Aid Societies
improve protecting children and youth?
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