MISSISSIPPI News

Under a judge's order, the Mississippi Department of Human Services must
pay $500,000 for failing to protect a child who said he was sexually
abused while in DHS custody.
In 2004, Circuit Judge Winston Kidd found that DHS breached its duty
to protect and care for the youth, identified in court papers only as
S.W. Kidd awarded the youth and his family $750,000.The Mississippi Court of Appeals Court in 2007 upheld
Kidd's findings, but reversed the damage award and ordered a new trial
on damages only, saying Kidd failed to disclose how he arrived at the
$750,000.Kidd
recently amended the award to $500,000. Attorneys for DHS asked him to
reconsider, but Kidd refused and entered the $500,000 as the final
judgment."We will
review the decision by Judge Kidd and will explore our options with our
legal department. Any decision for additional action would be made at a
later date," DHS spokeswoman Julia Bryan said last week.Kidd said DHS failed to
make required face-to-face contacts with the youth, failed to
sufficiently investigate the report of sexual abuse and failed to
provide counseling for the boy when he returned home. The case dates to
the mid-1990s.Cliff
Johnson, an attorney for S.W., said, since the amount awarded by Kidd
cannot buy back his client's childhood, it at least sends a clear
message to those responsible for protecting children in Mississippi."Our client suffered
horrific abuse while under the care of the state of Mississippi, and we
hope that the state will at long last accept responsibility for its
conduct," Johnson said.Since
the matter already has been appealed once, Johnson is urging DHS to end
the case and pay up."We
think the state ought to pay the claim rather than dragging this out
for another year or two by appealing Judge Kidd again," Johnson said.David Lee Gladden Jr.,
an attorney for DHS, said he was not at liberty to comment on the case.In one part of its
decision, the Court of Appeals said DHS' investigation of the youth's
claim was "grossly inadequate."Court statements claimed that one staffer sent the boy
cards expressing his love for him after the boy had been returned to
his home.Then 14,
S.W. was removed from his home in Jackson and sent 150 miles away to
licensed chemical-dependency treatment centers in Ackerman and
Starkville in late 1996, according to court records.After he was returned to his mother, the youth said
he had been sexually assaulted by staffers at the facilities.DHS officials had two
face-to-face visits with the youth during the 14 months he was in the
facilities, but they had other contact through letters or telephone
calls, according to the arguments before the Court of Appeals.Kidd had ruled that DHS
policy required monthly face-to-face visits. The Court of Appeals said
the actual requirement was quarterly face-to-face visits, but DHS didn't
fulfill that requirement.

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Raising children isn't an easy task,
just ask any parent.But stepping in and raising children taken
out of dangerous home situations or who don't have a family to love them
is a special calling.Foster families answer that calling every
time they open their home and hearts to a new child.
"There is a misconception that foster families get into foster
care because of the money," said Joe Mitchell, director of development
at Natchez Children's Home Services, a local not-for-profit agency that
facilitates foster family placements in the region."There is not
enough money in the subsidy that they get every month to cover the
expenses of raising a child, much less to have them profit from it.
Foster families are a special kind of person with a heart for service."Local
agencies need qualified and willing foster families because there is no
predicting when the next child will require emergency placement.Stacy
Havard, a case manager at the Children's Home, said the goal is to
remove children from a threatening home environment and quickly place
them in a stable foster environment. For that to happen, trained and
certified foster families must be available."We never know when
we will get the next phone call," she said.Before a family can
accept a foster child, they must be trained and certified through the
state, Havard said.Training includes home visits, background
checks, pre-service training that includes exposure to the types of
abuse or neglect children might have been exposed to, ongoing training
and therapy services."We always over share," NCHS social worker
Jackie Eidt said. "Often times we don't know exactly what situations
these children have been in, but we can say this is what you might see."It
is not our way to shield families from what children might bring with
them."Foster placement is meant to be temporary and an eventual
placement back with the biological family is the goal, Eidt said. She
said often times, letting foster children return to a biological family
is hard for foster families.In the end, it is what is best for
the children, that has to be the common goal for foster families and
placement agencies."We believe that God hard-wired us to be with
our biological family," Eidt said.For Daisy Gaines, fostering was
her way of impacting the lives of children. She said the most important
characteristic for a foster parent has to be a willing heart."You
have to want to help," she said. "Above anything you have to want to
help those kids."