Massachusetts State Auditor Finds Widespread Rape and Sexual Abuse in Foster Care but DCF Officials Won’t Report It (part 2)
Find this report in its entirety here: from Medical Kidnap
by Terri LaPoint
Health Impact News
Sexual Abuse and Trafficking in Foster Care is Common Today – Children Suffer far Worse in Foster Care Than in Their “Troubled” Homes
Tragically, this has been the experience of far too many families. In my research for the Medical Kidnap division of Health Impact News over the past 3 years, I have personally spoken with hundreds of families, including many of the older children and teens who were either returned home or aged out of the system.
In only one of the stories that I have covered were the children sexually abused or molested in their own homes before Child Protective Services got involved under the guise of “protecting” them. In that case, the family reported the rape to police, but police didn’t do anything about it until social services kidnapped the resulting baby from the young mother in the hospital and the story went viral. The family was not responsible for the rape. (Story here.)
However, I estimate that about 75% of the older children and teens that have contacted us were molested or sexually assaulted in foster care, and many of the younger children have been abused as well.
Most of these incidents were reported by the children to the social workers, yet in almost none of the cases did it go beyond that.
Law enforcement was not notified. No reports were filed.
In most cases, the children remained in that dangerous setting even after they reported the abuse. Many times, it was not until much later that the parents learned of the abuse.
The true abusers in the foster homes and group homes got away with it.
Most of the time, we have not reported the sexual abuse. The families prefer to keep it out of the media, understandably. However, among the cases we are familiar with:
- An elementary-aged little girl was raped by the “Christian” foster father. When she reported it to the social workers, she was moved to another foster home. It was never reported to authorities. The foster family continued to be foster parents for many years within the same county where social workers were aware of the rape, and they continued to be involved in children’s ministry at their church.
- A teenage boy was raped by a man in the neighborhood. There were tattoos and identifying features that would have helped police identify his rapist, had the social worker simply bothered to inform the police. She didn’t. And he remained in that foster home.
- A teenager was sexually trafficked by those who were caring for her. It was never reported. Her mother suspected something, but her daughter wouldn’t talk about it. Her fears were confirmed a couple of years later when she finally got some documents in which social services checked the box – “Human Trafficking” on a form listing what the child had been involved in.
- A teenager was gang raped by the foster’s nephew and several of his friends. When the social worker found out, she simply transferred the girl to another facility. The crime was never reported.
- Parents discovered their little boys (really young) who had been returned home performing oral sex on each other. The behavior had to have been learned in foster care. No abuse in foster care had been reported to any authorities.
The audit by the Massachusetts state auditor uncovered many similar stories. In addition, Bump’s office found many other kinds of abuse that DCF failed to report. According to CBS 4 in Boston:
The Department of Children and Families did not know about 260 serious injuries to kids under the agency’s care, including gunshot wounds, burns, broken bones and head contusions.
This is consistent with our findings at Health Impact News, where numerous parents have sent photos documenting injuries to their children that happened in foster care.
These injuries far exceed any that the children ever sustained in their own homes before being removed from their families “in the best interest of the child.”
See:
The U.S. Foster Care System: Modern Day Slavery and Child Trafficking
(to be continued)
