Saturday, March 17, 2012

Child Fatality Review Team Head For DCS Resigns, Accusing Daniels Adminstration of Rigging Stats To Show Improvement

A highly-respected forensic pediatrician and professor at the IU School of Medicine resigned in frustration as head of DCS's Child Fatality Review Team. Dr. Antoinette Laskey charged in her resignation letter addressed to Gov. Mitch Daniels that DCS Director James Payne's recent claims lauding "record low deaths" from child abuse under the Daniels administration are a fraud. Dr. Laskey charged in her resignation letter that the improvements touted by Daniels and Director Payne recently reflect "no success story" but rather re-categorizing deaths resulting from child abuse as "not the responsibility of the Department of Child Services." I can no longer participate in a process that is unable to work effectively in this state," Laskey said. "Every death of a child is a tragedy and every preventable death is a lesson that must be learned so that other will not have to suffer the loss that so many of our Hoosier families have endured," she continued.

Laskey charges in her letter that Director Payne is "failing to gather objective data about child fatalities." She accused Payne of "not following best practices." Instead, she suggests the data has been skewed by "political interference." Laskey criticized legislation that has been sent to the Governor (SEA 286) that would establish regional teams to review child deaths, which she claims "have not been shown to be effective nationally."  "I cannot continue to serve in a role that is not able to effectively improve the condition of Hoosier children," Laskey concluded. Ouch. The Star's Tim Evans has more on Laskey's departure here. Payne told Evans he was "surprised by the tone of the letter." Members of the Child Fatality Review Team seemed to corroborate Laskey's concerns.

3 comments:

Lynn Fentress said...

It is time for Mitch Daniels & James Payne to man up & admit the failures & cover ups of DCS, instead of bragging about the money they have saved the state. It has always been about the money, not the "best interest of the child". DCS, this includes James Payne & others, are notorious for covering up the imcompetence of nearly all the DCS staff. I do not for 1 sec believe that only 25 deaths were attributed to child abuse/neglect in 2010, and neither does Laskey, according to her resignation letter. Another big failure with the system involves the Guardian Ad Litem (GAL). The GAL nearly always follow what DCS dictates, this assures their assignment to other cases, which means more money for the GAL. For the sake of the children, Mitch Daniels & James Payne must go.

Concerned Taxpayer said...

Gary, I'm only posting this here just to get it to you. Please feel free to not post it public. I just needed a way to contact you.

Have you seen this? Somebody needs to see why the republicans on the CCC are allowing this type of thing to happen.
http://www.thepolipit.com/2012/02/impd-created-in-image-of-straub.html

Thanks!

Bradley said...

"Accusing Daniels Adminstration of Rigging Stats To Show Improvement" could be used for so many examples of what Daniels and company have done to destroy this state. Voting for him in 2004 was the biggest voting error I've ever made. When you have folks like Lynn above and Dr.