Interesting Hearings...

The hearings I observed today were some of the most interesting ones I have attended thus far. One was about a child who was extremely burned, and another was on a teenager who had not taken her psychotic medications for a month. These situations were more intense than many of the other hearings I have attended. The burn case was particularly interesting because it was not the mother who was responsible for the child being burned. The case was taken into CFSA because the mother had reportedly left her child with a neighbor’s daughter for a few days. It was particularly interesting because CFSA did not have a strong case of neglect against the mother, but they still won. They accused this incident as neglect because the mother had left her child with a caretaker that she did not know well enough. She did not know her last name or her address. But, she had left the baby at this person’s house before and he always returned home safely so she felt the person was responsible. One day, the child returned home with extreme burns on his back. According to Tobey, the child had lost all his skin on his back. I was disgusted hearing this because I could only imagine how gruesome this must look and how much pain the baby must be in. At the hearing I could tell the mother loved her son very much and was extremely concerned about getting him placed home again. Even though the mother should have had better judgment about her choice of babysitters, I hope the child returns home soon. The other case was about a teenage girl who has compulsive violence issues. She takes medication to control her moods, and it had been working very well for her. According to some members at the hearing, the child ran out of medicine a month ago and was repeatedly asking that someone fill the prescription for her. The social worker apparently did not take care of this situation for her, and she went a month without receiving her medicine. During that month, she had two violent encounters with her boyfriend. The first encounter, she told the boyfriend to leave the shelter where she is staying. He refused, so she got mad and grabbed a kitchen counter knife to stab him in the eye. She said she would have stabbed him, but he grabbed the knife out of her hands as it was approaching his face. Obviously, this potentially could have been a serious incident where she could have faced criminal charges and jail time if she did stab him. In the second incident, the boyfriend was making her mad, so she punched him in his face. She split open his face and broke her finger as a result of this. When the judge heard about this she became extremely concerned as to why no one attended to getting the medicine sooner. She asked the family and the daughter to step out of the room. Once they were out, she proceeded to scold CFSA, the social worker, and the other members for not being responsible. She said if she ever hears of another incident where a child does not get their medicine when they need it, she will be very mad. I agree especially because the child potentially could have killed or seriously injured him. These psychotic medicines need to be regulated and used properly. It is a miracle that no one was hurt from her actions. The social workers should always be aware and attentive to issues such as this.