Being a DCFS caseworker must be akin to walking a tightrope in a circus act: The scrutiny of all eyes are upon you, anticipating a fateful slip, and yet when you arrive safely back on the platform, the audience simply yawns and says, “Big deal, you’re just doing your job.”
The job is increasingly demanding, impossibly demanding almost. And making several judgment calls a day to determine whether children are out of harm’s way by staying with their parents requires the wisdom of Solomon, the efficiency of a whiz-bang computer, the X-ray vision of Superman and the compassion of a saint. It’s no wonder errors are made, so it is easily understandable why many DCFS workers err on the side of caution these days, ready to throw the cuffs on parents who leave their kids on the front porch for a few seconds while they take out the trash.
The nervousness of DCFS case workers comes from having been at the receiving end of the loaded shotgun of popular reproach when things do happen to go wrong–such as when a case worker is fooled by a little girl whose father tells her to lie about the empty beer cans hidden away in the garage when he comes over to investigate, or to lie about the time she was choked for spilling toothpaste on the sink.
But how can the DCFS defend itself in such scenarios? Many times what goes unreported speaks volumes, and the sad truths contained in those volumes may be locked inside small crypts forever.
What needs to be set in motion are a common-sense system of checks and balances, a hard appraisal of the real dangers posed by out-of-control parents and due consideration to those parents who find themselves incapable of the slightest disciplinary action for fear of hearing over their shoulder the nervous rattle of an overzealous case worker’s keys to the jail cell.
The fact remains (and will always remain) that some children will be in danger of injury-inflicting parents who will forever be untouched by the system, while some parents who commit the most minor of infractions will feel the full force of the law, including having their children taken from them.
This state of affairs will not change unless the core problems as recognized by the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse are adequately addressed: poverty, drug and alcohol abuse and single parenthood. The message is clear: Parents in trouble need to regain the reins of their own lives before they can positively contribute to the lives of their children. When the struggles seem too great, people need to feel comfortable enough to reach out for help without fear of heavy judgments and reprisals. It’s never easy for parents to accept that a situation with their child is beyond their control, and my experience resonates with that; I have witnessed the reluctance of parents to own up to their failings, and when that happens, the escalation to tragedy is sometimes a very short trip.
And in those cases when tragedy befalls a child because no one stepped in on time, the tightrope will once again be stretched taut and shaken, and well-meaning DCFS case workers will once again lose their footing and tumble. And all of society will be diminished.
