Rutherford County foster care crisis: Cycle of foster care, drug abuse

Children in crisis: An epidemic of neglect
Marchesoni, Lisa. Murfreesboro Post.

Two mothers accused of smoking marijuana with their children, ages 10 and 14, lost temporary custody of their children last week.

One of the mothers was accused of smoking marijuana with two orphan brothers, ages 7 and 6, in her care.

All four children tested positive for marijuana, causing the Department of Children’s Services to remove the children from their homes. Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport placed the children in foster care.

For Davenport, the cases are becoming too familiar.

“We’re in a crisis,” Davenport said simply.

Juvenile Court removed 36 children from their homes through the Department of Children’s Services and 16 children through private means in April.

“That’s constant,” Davenport said. “We’ll reach that or more this month.”

The high-growth Rutherford County doesn’t reflect the state figures.

DCS spokesman Rob Johnson said the numbers of children in state custody dropped by more than 2,000 children in the past three years statewide.

Davenport, who has served eight years as court referee and the only Juvenile Court judge, refers to the people in her court as “my children” or “my parents.”

She heard several cases last week. Four of those cases are outlined below:

• DCS removed a 14-year-old La Vergne girl after she tested positive for marijuana. Her father lives in North Carolina. La Vergne Police Cpl. Jeri Lynn Champion charged the mother with child abuse. The mother also hid a runaway juvenile.

The girl’s mother and stepfather also care for the two orphan brothers whose grandmother gave them custody when she moved to a Florida retirement community.

After hearing from attorneys representing all parties, Davenport placed all three children into foster care. She ordered the Social Security checks for the orphans and child support of the daughter be turned over to the state to pay for the children’s care.

With all three children testing positive for drugs, Davenport said it was one of the worst cases she’s heard.

• A Murfreesboro mother was charged with child neglect after she was accused of smoking marijuana with her sons, ages 10 and 5. The older son tested positive for marijuana. She remains incarcerated.

The father of one son is jailed in Michigan. The father of the second son asked for custody of both boys who wanted to remain together. He’s still legally married to the mother but lives with his girlfriend. The mother indicated her husband has not seen the boys in about one year.

Davenport ordered the children remain in foster care while DCS checks out the father’s living conditions.

Their case will be one of 75 cases set on her DCS docket July 3.

• A 21-year-old homeless mother of two children, ages 3 and 7 months, told a DCS employee she could not care for her children because she didn’t have shelter or a job. Davenport remembered the mother whom she placed in foster care several years ago.

The father, who has a felony record, was accused of physically abusing the mother, throwing a 7-month-old baby on a couch and hitting the 3-year-old in the head in separate events this month.

Davenport noted she knew both the mother and father from being in her court as juveniles.

“It just breaks my heart” to see them both in her court as adults, Davenport said.

Davenport ruled the children will remain in foster care because the mother can’t care for them and the father placed them in harm’s way. She ordered the father, who does not pay child support, to pay $50 per week to the state.

Off the bench, Davenport vows she’s going to “break this cycle of abuse.”

• A father accused his teen daughter of being unruly and disrespectful several weeks ago. During a hearing, Davenport found the girl dependent and neglected after the teen blamed her father’s beatings for her behavior.

After services for the family, DCS and the attorney who represented her interests recommended she return home.

Davenport returned the teen to her father with an order the teen get her high school degree. She addressed the father.

“Don’t expect me to parent your child,” Davenport said.

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When a Child Protective Services officer removes a child who cannot stay with a relative or friend, they contact Davenport or Referee Keith Siskin immediately who must set a hearing within three days.

The majority of parents are single mothers who are trying to manage their children.

Attorneys are appointed to represent the child and the parents. A Court Appointed Special Advocate speaks for the child.

Susan Maguigan, CASA’s executive director, said the advocates have almost doubled the caseload in three years. They have been advocates for 247 children this year, 10 more than last year. Forty-five volunteers represent the best interest of the abused or neglected children.

“These advocates will work to ensure the court recognizes the rights of these children to safe, permanent and loving homes,” Maguigan said.

Maguigan believes substance abuse has become a major problem for parents. When she became a Child Protective Services worker 30 years ago, she experienced some alcohol abuse.

“People (now) seem to be so addicted,” Maguigan said.

Parents are addicted to prescription drugs, cocaine and methamphetamine.

Some parents devastated by the separation from the children work hard to get their children back.

Maguigan said when a child is placed in foster care, some parents don’t comprehend the impact foster care has on their children either.

Children are “suddenly taken away and placed with strangers,” Maguigan said. They don’t understand what happened.

Some parents say they overslept or are too busy to visit with their children.

“It’s is devastating for these children to lose their connection to their parent and their home to think they can just say, ‘Oh well, I don’t have the time…I couldn’t manage visitation.’ It is unconscionable. It’s so very harmful.”

Parents just don’t have a clue about how to manage their own lives, Maguigan said, adding they are unstable and unable to provide for their children’s basic needs.

It’s sad when children have undergone the worst separation from their parents and the parents haven’t visited for several months because they couldn’t pass a drug test, the director noted.

When children are placed in foster care, the parents don’t even try to get a full-time job.

While transportation is an issue for some, Maguigan is interested to see if Murfreesboro’s Rover buses will make an impact for them.

Does she have any answers?

Maguigan said one issue stems from crowded dockets so cases aren’t heard in a timely manner.

Davenport hopes to get funding for a fulltime referee to hear cases faster.

Children’s cases take more time than adult cases.
“If you don’t take the time, unfortunately, you’re going to wind up with them in adult court,” Maguigan predicted. “If we continue to treat them without care, their (parents’) lack of stability is going to show in these children. They are going to wind up in the adult system.”

Gov. Phil Bredesen’s education program offers help for at-risk children.

“If we invest more in the court system, it would pay off in the long run,” Maguigan believes. “We wouldn’t see them again.”

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Davenport said more teens come into foster care through court because parents aren’t being parents.

She’s noticed an increase in parents filing petitions accusing their children of being unruly, complaining their child’s behavior is disrespectful or they won’t abide by the rules. She conducts a court hearing when the teen pleads not guilty.

During the hearing, she learns the fault lies with parents.

“My parents are not taking care of business,” Davenport said.

Although the teen has done nothing wrong, they must go into foster care. Meanwhile, the court system gives the parent services and tools to help them be parents.

In many cases, DCS identifies and offers services for the parents such as anger management, better choices, and alcohol and drug assessment and treatment and in home services.

Davenport orders many parents to parenting classes.

“I have found that this is such an epidemic it’s a standing order for my parents to take a parenting class,” the judge said. “Our goal is to reunify the family.”

She’s also found parents who show a selfish or entitlement demeanor so they want someone else to take care of their child.

Siskin said he, Davenport and referee Adam Dodd are operating at full capacity because of the epidemic of neglect and abuse.

“I think parents are more selfish these days,” Siskin said. “They put themselves ahead of their children.

When it gets to be extreme, where the children totally get shuffled aside, that’s when we see them.

“More and more parents are trying to get rid of their kids,” the referee added. “It’s sad but what changes their opinion in court is when I tell them they have to pay child support to the state. That’s what makes them want to get their child back. That’s a pretty sad commentary.”

Todd Savage, assistant youth services director, said some parents “want everyone else to raise their child.”

Youth Services Officer Greg Shapard said the environment, home life and peers affect their lives.

Assistant Public Defender Ray White said with some kids, “You can’t do a lot with them, not matter what you do.”

Davenport wants to try with each child but realizes she can’t handle the problem alone.

“I’m supposed to be the mother of the county and I’ll take on that responsibility but I expect the parents to help me,” Davenport said.