Jackson Jambalaya

Well, there are actually 9 kids, and the family gets a $500 check each month for each kid from SSI. What's up with our system????

I think the family "tree" would look more like an invasive vine (with a mutated double helix)!

Could this be the creation of a new species?
evolution

What's up with the system? IT'S COMPLETELY OVERLOADED.

I supervised child abuse investigations for a southern county in this state. We "do not do head lice". We don't do it. We don't have enough rooms in shelters or beds in foster homes to police head lice and a general lack of cleanliness and/or slant eyes and a lack of branches on a family tree.

Inbreeding isn't a concern of DHS unless it happens under the age of 18.

I say this to people all the time, "NO CHILD is guaranteed the same set of parents."

Some of them get suck ones...some get good ones. Now, if they beat the tar out of them, have sex with them under the age of eighteen, or lock them in closets without food? Give DHS a call.

Other than that, how about you provide them with some psychoeducation regarding public health, cleanliness, germs, and the general care and well being of children? Because that is what they will get in the form of a "prevention case" or a social worker who specializes in basically "getting families up to code".

As a side note: If there are nine kids and DHS has suspisions that ONE is being abused or mistreated...they must take ALL NINE. And, since they are siblings, they must do everything in their power to place them together.

Ever tried to find a foster home for nine kids? Do YOU want to provide a foster home to nine kids?

The last time I tried it was only for six...and there was ONE foster home in the state willing to take all of them. It was in Southaven. Southhaven happens to be outside the 50 mile radius of their "town of origination"...therefore, unless they need special treatment this home can provide...they can't get a legal ruling allowing them to be placed there.

There are a ton of factors. Try to understand them before you start talking smack.

DHS does the best that they can on a limited budget and overworked staff.

All I know is they contacted DHS 8 times. They being teachers at the school. I have no idea what the substance of the complaints were. However, I think they have some idea what neglect is.

You raise good points and perhaps this just shows how overloaded and dysfunctional the system really is.

HELLO....'Fish. Have you caught on to the fact that there is a HUGE lawsuit going on involving DHS? There is a REASON for that.

Being an underpriviledged child in MS is almost as dangerous as being in Iraq. Actually, it might be MORE dangerous at this point.

I'm pretty sure that teachers DO understand what "neglect" is. But, more often than not, neglect is a function of ignorance...not pure malevolence. Which is why DHS tries to educate the parents about proper parenting behavior.

You DO NOT just get to "take people's kids away". That isn't how it works.

I once investigated a case where DHS had nine previous calls on the same family.

Here's the problem...the social worker has to be able to PROVE in a court of law that there was neglect.

I love how people immediately scream "TAKE THEIR KIDS" and then don't sign on to be foster parents or really understands what happens to kids mentally when you take them away from their natural parents. Most children, even those being abused, would RATHER STAY WITH MOM. It is traumatic to remove children away from their parents. Its actually MORE traumatic to remove "lightly neglected" children (which is what kids with lice are considered) than just TREATING THE LICE and educating the parents.

But, I could go on forever. My main point? Leave the DHS commentary to me.

I am. You don't get that part.

I left the post up there as is because it is typical of the thought that me and other laymen have when we see cases such as this and wonder what is going on. You know how badly the media explains things and how poorly informed the public is.

SO..... I think your two comments are EXCELLENT explanations of how screwed up the system is and how things happen the way they do.

No, I agree that you should leave the post up because people do not understand.

I will say one final thing...when I was working within that system I realized there is an extremely delicate dance a social worker must do concerning keeping a child safe, and the trauma that removal causes.

The essential question being: IS the child receiving more trauma in the home than the trauma being part of the 'system' will cause them?

The child welfare system in MS is so broken it actually traumatizes children over and over again (in the form of multiple placements...most of them in institutions). This prevents children from forming normal attachments. Forming normal attachments is what prevents people from becoming psychopaths and serial killers.

Right now, the child welfare system in MS is raising a few thousand kids who will probably suffer from major attachment disorders and, as a result, will have no respect for laws and human life.

Hence, let's just go ahead and build more jails. I think that has been the major form of thought by legislatures rather than reforming the system which cares for the children.

You want to take someone's kids? Let's take the kids of those people in Salem who tried to SELL their child for a thousand dollars worth of meth.

Now, THAT is a good reason to take someone's kids away.

Well, I know this much; when I told fish about these kids, it was never with the intent of "taking them away." As a teacher, I see firsthand how many dysfunctional children there are out there. What bothers me is that there are such dysfunctional parents/brothers/sisters who are still reproducing (with each other, no less) and we're having to pay them to keep making more babies who will never be able to function in society and provide for themselves. We are paying them to keep having kids that we are going to have to support. Do I mind teaching these kids? No. Would I take them into my own home as a foster parent? Your damn right I would! But, as an underpaid teacher, I can barely afford to support the three kids that are my own. The parents are not, at this point, being educated on how to take care of their children and function as caregivers. They are being condoned every month on the 1st with a check for $4500. Our entire government is screwed; not just Mississippi!

Look, I never said teachers were paid well or the world was fair. :) I was simply stating how the social service machine cranks.

There are lots of things wrong with lots of systems in this country. But, well, and I'm going to go ahead and say this...what are those people going to do if you cut off that assistance?

Its not like they are educated enough to automatically decide "Hey, we ain't got no more money. Let's stop havin' chil'ren."

They aren't. And, I promise, they aren't having the children for the money. They are having the children because they are ignorant. And, ain't nothing going to change that but education. So, do a good job with their kids. :)

The flip side of that is this...we essentialy get off cheap by subsidising people that are unable to work for one reason or another. Because, without that $4500.00 a month, well, they'd be unable to work and unable to eat. People like to eat. People will do lots and lots of illegal things so that their families can eat.

We pay them $4500.00 a month so they don't break into our houses. Its not that bad of a deal.

It just happens to be the downside of living in a "polite society". You know, ones where people don't blow up cars on the side of State Street and drag burned bodies down alleys in front of children.

I think one thing people need to realize is that there are always trade offs. Always.

I think I totally wandered off point somewhere there in the middle.

Oh well.