DSS in Trouble?

The article I chose to talk about for my second blog was written by Cliff Leblanc in the “State” newspaper titled “On drugs Children at mercy of parents”. The main arguments were the fact of when DSS workers should be punished for not having children out of these homes. One of the statements made in the article was, “At least five children have died and others are in danger unless the Department of Social Services removes children more quickly from homes where parents have drug abuse problems, according to the state’s Child Fatalities Review Committee.” It was also said that the caseworkers have to make sure it is a safe facility before letting the children go back into the home. Even though it is a requirement, I definitely feel this should go without saying.

Throughout the article there are people like the DSS director Kathleen Hayes and one of the children protection supervisors at DSS headquarters, Pamela Rice. Kathleen was discussing that she was upset about the cases and was saying how she hoped none of it was caused by DSS employees. Rice had made a few comments earlier throughout different conversations about the issue like, “She has known people who smoke (marijuana) and other drugs that can still take care of their children.” Even though she did apologize for these statements and does agree about children needing to be taken out of that kind of environment, she was not able for an interview.

As far as the DSS workers not caring about the children’s safety, the statement Richland County forensic pathologist made was that "It’s not that they don’t care, the problem is there are still lapses in judgment or common sense." Others like former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford also agree that no matter how serious this case is, children should be removed no questions asked. According to the article, in the year 2009 (when this article was written), there were 4,000 DSS employees that are also dealing with other issues like well-fare and child support, not including the caseworkers and other employees working on cases like these with their limited budget of 1.2 billion that was cut $229 million in that year. This is definitely a huge social issue affecting many families not just locally but all around, and definitely needs all the support and help it can get.