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Friday, March 29, 2024

A closer look into the Florida Department of Children and Families reveals a troubling history.

Recently, local authorities were called to Orange River Elementary School in Fort Meyers after the assistant principal was warned of a horrible incident.

Two 12-year-old girls were reportedly arguing about who a male classmate liked better when one girl decided to go up to the boy and kiss him. A teacher spotted the incident and reported it to the assistant principal.

In defense of the teacher and the administrator, local school districts are required by law to call the DCF if they suspect abuse, and according to the Naples Daily News, DCF Sun Coast Region spokeswoman Terri Durdaller encourages these calls.

But the DCF should really not be concerned with a "kissing" incident. It should instead turn its attention to its horrible record on responding to child abuse as well as its inefficient foster care system in the state.

In February of this year, the DCF failed to respond to reports of child abuse, which eventually led to the death of 10-year-old Nubia Barahona at the hands of her foster parents, Jorge and Carmen Barahona. Nubia's body was found in a bag inside a pest control truck on Interstate 95 along with her twin brother, who had acid on his body. The brother was alive.

Carmen Barahona's 7-year-old granddaughter reported the abuse to an adult who eventually tried to report it to the DCF. The adult was told the department did not conduct investigations on weekends, which is not true.

In May, a baby boy was murdered by his mother's boyfriend, who had been suspected of child abuse. Hillsborough Kids Inc., a nonprofit that is sponsored in part by the DCF, contracted a social worker from Mental Health Care Inc. to visit the family. She apparently found no reason to be alarmed by the boyfriend's past record.

But the DCF does not just have a record of putting the lives of children in danger. When Deb and Doug Carlson of Miami adopted twin boys from foster care in 2007, they were told the boys suffered from ADHD. What they were not told by child-care officials was that the boys had other mental health problems and had moved from one foster home to another. The now-teenage boys have stolen the parents' credit cards and threatened to kill them.

From 2008 to 2009, Florida had 3,777 adoptions. During this same time period, there were 200 cases of adoptive parents attempting to return children to foster care after they had been adopted or during the adoption process. The Carlsons have said the DCF has left them completely out to dry in trying to care for the boys' destructive behavior and mental health issues.

Clearly, normal puberty-driven kissing outbursts should be of least concern to the DCF. The DCF has a lot of internal issues that need to be worked out before it can continue its child-care services.

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