Yes, CPS workers should report suspected abuse. They didn’t
Many of us are familiar with the Texas law that requires ordinary citizens to report suspected child abuse. And we know there’s a higher standard for teachers, doctors and other professionals, who must report it within 48 hours. Failure to do so is a Class A misdemeanor.
One would assume that the state agency whose primary mission is to protect children would be duty-bound as well.
That was a lingering question — for me and for readers — after Sunday’s column describing a Child Protective Services supervisor’s apparent handling of a horrific accusation.
“If the child was in my office making an outcry that the 3-year-old made to us and I reported that to CPS, it would be actionable immediately,” Angela Sugarek told me in our first interview. “There would be no question. But if a child in our home who is our foster child says the same things, then it’s completely dismissed.”
Sugarek, the principal at Hogg Middle School, and her wife, HISD elementary science teacher Carol Jeffery, were fostering a 3-year-old child, with plans to adopt, when they began to suspect he had been sexually abused by a teen sibling, also in foster care, whom he was required to visit. Sugarek and Jeffery, both of Houston, say they asked CPS staff in Wharton County, which was handling the case, to investigate the teen, but their concerns were ignored. At one point, Jeffery said, a CPS supervisor told her not to report anything unless she saw abuse with her own eyes.
Last month, the 3-year-old attended an adoption fair with a CPS caseworker. His 4-year-old brother and the teen sibling were there. The youngest came back acting strangely, and his foster mothers discovered an anal injury. They reported it to CPS, and the agency responded by taking both younger boys away from Sugarek and Jeffery, who
had raised them for six months, and placing them in another home.
The CPS supervisor has not responded to questions. Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said he couldn’t comment on the case, citing privacy, but he said the agency is investigating the sexual assault allegation, and it’s customary during such investigations to relocate children.
Is reporting optional?
The attorneys I spoke with Tuesday said CPS staffers are not exempt from the reporting requirement.
“You can’t just sit back and say, ‘I don’t really believe it, so I’m just going to let it go,’ ” said former prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney JoAnne Musick, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association.
“That’s not an option, especially when you talk about sexual assault,” Musick said. “The penalties for not reporting sexual assault are even greater.”
Interestingly, while CPS had a duty to report suspected abuse, the agency isn’t required by statute to investigate an allegation of “child abuse or neglect by a person other than a person responsible for a child’s care, custody, or welfare.”
A big brother wouldn’t qualify.
But, Musick and others said, the CPS supervisor and other caseworkers had a responsibility to refer it to a law enforcement agency.
Failure to do so may merit a criminal investigation, but Musick and former prosecutor Shirley Cornelius said it would be highly unlikely for a district attorney to charge a CPS staffer for that or the more serious crime of child endangerment.
In the end, there may be little accountability for CPS staffers who failed to act. But both attorneys suggested there was another way to blow the whistle on suspected abuse.
Sugarek and Jeffery could have called the Texas Abuse/Neglect Hotline: 1-800-252-5400.
It seemed strange to me that foster parents dealing with CPS would have to turn to a hotline for action. But the attorneys say they know CPS caseworkers who use the hotline when they don’t believe an allegation is being handled properly by a colleague.
“You kind of think, ‘God, that’s ridiculous. It’s just one more layer of craziness at CPS.’ But it’s kind of good in a way,” said Cornelius, a prosecutor for 27 years.
She said the call documents the report, complete with a confirmation number, and triggers an investigation. Reports also can be made at www. TxAbuseHotline.org.
How to make a report
Another option for anyone concerned about CPS’ handling of a case is to complain to the DFPS Consumer Affairs Office at 1-800-720-7777.
According to family-law attorney Thuy Le, Sunday’s column suggests CPS’ handling of the boys’ case violated No. 1 on DFPS’ list of “Rights of Children and Youth in Foster Care.”
“I am protected from harm, treated with respect ...” it reads.
The foster mothers in this case did everything they knew of to protect the children in their care, but CPS appears to have failed those kids in the most fundamental way.
That failure should be a cautionary tale as federally appointed special masters and former Texas Ranger Henry “Hank” Whitman seek to overhaul the agency.
Bottom line: None of us is exempt from the duty to report child abuse, least of all the agency created to protect children.