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Times Advocate, 1992-04-01, Page 2Page 2 Ttrnes-Advocate, April 1. 1992 Faise accusations One man's story ofhis battle with the Children's Aid Society ZURICH - November 29 is a day Graham hasn't for- gotten - the day the police came to his door on allega- tions he had been sexually abusing his elementary school age daughter. After some tense moments, the claims were eventual- ly proven false and the police left, but Graham, four months later, is- still angry at what he says was a "shod- dy" investigation that brought the police to his door and disrupted his family and upset his daughter. Graham is not his real -name.. He doesn't wael. ally more embarrassment tor himself or family, but he does believe he has a story to tell. For the same reasons this article will substitute the name Jennifer for his daugh- ter. Perhaps oVen more frustrating than the initial experi- :eace,,ax u. Grahaoa.-is..how he has.beca gated since,_ incident •fiv a_government agencies in- volved. "I feel they should be responsible. As I progressed through the whole thing, I found they're not," he said. As far as Graham can tell, it all began November.28 with a babysitting seminar Jennifer attended at a local - church. As the seminar was presented by Kids on the lBIock, an organization which weeks :to prevent child Abuse, the volunteer asked if any of the participants knew of an instance of abuse.• When Jerew.ier said.she did, she was questioned later in'the lba"way and said she -knew of a friend and her abler -sister, who was mo- lested by another youth. j Graham then believes this report was forwarded to the Children's Aid Society, where it somehow was "re- written" to imply that Graham was abusing Jennifer. According to Graham, the Children's Aid Society ap- pears to have tried to contact Jennifer at her school the next day, itut:failed, and tried to contact the Kids on the Block volunteer, again with no luck. As far he can sec, Graham said no further informa- .:tion led the Children's Aid Society (CAS) to send a case worker to his home, accompanied by the police, who said Jennifer would have to be taken out of the house to be interviewed about allegations of tapeand _sodomyby her father. Graham refused. The pence -pointed out they would have to take ien- nifer by (creel( necessary. "At that point it was getting pretty dicey. They creat- ed this situation out of the clear blue sky and they're . 'prepared to back it up with, well, militant force," said Graham. "We tell our child not to speak to strangers, but were her 4o out the door with ,two people : nen be t?" asked Jennifer'sxmther. j:: lr an eeentettt was rraohed -to allow Jen- nifer to be interviewed at the'Zurich—Village Office with her grandfather as a silent witness, but frightened, Jennifer did not want to go. • '"She was sitting here crying and bawling and didn't want to go," agreed Graham's father, but added that Jennifer finally agreed to go to her grandfather's house instead. Jennifer said she doesn't remember much of what • happened that night, except that she was very upset by the experience. "I was just watching Star Trek," she said about the evening before the police arrived. "I didn't want to go. They were saying things=about'me..:but they - weren't true." Twenty minutes later, 'Jennifer was returned. The CAS worker apologized, saying he was satisfied the al- legations had bean in error and said the case was closed. T_..�__ _ _ _.._ _ _ . _ "And livid tlur 'wori'rdo"saidth him. Angerrttat the treatment of his family, Graham pur- sued the matter with the Children's Aid Society, want - By Adrian Harte, Times Advocate editor "Jennifer" and "Graham", a daughter and father troubled by accusations of sea ual abuse. ing to find out how they drew their conclusions. He said at a December 3 meeting at the church with their minister and a CAS representative present, Gra- ham was told the agency conducted a "thorough inves- tigation" before sending the police to his door. "Obviously, there was none as we found out later," he said, adding that he thinks documents may have been altered to give an impression the investigation was more complete. However, Graham was also told that even without the original Kids on the Block report, an investigation would have proceeded anyway. He - still doesn't understand why, although he suspects something is in a file that connects him with his older daughter's abuse case of years ago - even though a youth was charged as a result. Graham contacted MPP Paul Klopp and was told that while his office has handled complaints about Chile dren's Aki; it only forwards,them to the ministry. __—_ "It just goes on and on and on," said Graham, Who said he also learned a government ombudsman is no help because the CAS is not a direct government agen- cy and is funded only through transfer payments. Letters to the Ministry of Community and Social Ser- vices, and to the CAS itself convinced Graham he needed a meeting with the officials involved. Tan Knight, executive director of the Huron County CAS, replied to Graham on December 23 saying he was will- ing to meet with him, and said that while complaints of sexual abuse have to be dealt with promptly "there are no present allegations concerning yourself and in hind- sight, it was probably not necessary to have the intake worker be accompanied by a police officer." On January 29 a meeting was finally arranged, at Graham's insistence, in Zurich. Nevertheless, Graham says he was "made to feel like a fool" at the meeting. All his complaints were brushed aside, he said, and his questions would not be answered because nobody brought any documents or files to the meeting. "It was a real lost cause," he said. ' Two months later, Graham says hisdemands haven't changed. He wants to see the original files being kept by the CAS so he can prove nothing untrue or damag- ing is in them. He wants an admission from the CAS that their investigation was shoddy. He wants the min- istry to reform the system to prevent such erras. May- be, he says, it is time to ask families what they would like agencies to do in such situations, rather than let - ung legislators decide. He also thinks parents should be allowed to view ,their children being interviewed by CAS workers, even lhroughsnne-way,mirror if necessary, :. • : • Graham said he can sympathize with c hiidrat senter- tainer Erie Nagler who was accused by a Children's Aid Society of touching a young girl on one of his shows. The charges were later dropped, but only after the publicity caused Nagler's television shows to be cancelled, leaving him to try to rebuild his career. Above all, Graham said he has been left with a sense that the CAS is beyond reproach, an organization that can disrupt lives without answering to anyone. "if you're against us keeping secrets, then you're for child abuse - that's the kind of thing they throw back at you," claims Graham. Quick action needed to protect children from sexual abuse GODERICH - Tom Knight, executive director of the Huron County Children's Aid Society; agrees that changes to the legislation which gov- erns the activities of the CAS may need to be changed. But unlike Gra- ham's charge that the CAS is granted too many powers, Knight says the 1984 revision of the old Child Welfare Act actually took away much of the power of such agencies. The new Child and Family Services Act, he said, is "a much more rights -oriented piece of legislation". His entire agency, he said, is caught up in legislation. He said there are review mechanisms that cannot act on findings, only make recommenda- tions. There is even a review of the review mechanisms, revealing gaps in the whole process. • Knight paints a picture of an agency with a purpose, but fighting legisla- tive tangles all the way. The aaedifor4.a:a inistry overbaul of the Act is there, he said. When it comes to.eases of alleged.rseltttal abusetof-tdlildren, like Gra- ham's, Knight agmen that errors do aceto. --False allegations do arise. In fact, he said, a high number of false reports occur in situations where par- ents are separated and are trying to turn the child against the other parent. Some partners even threaten to accuse the other of sexual abuse to gain custody. "That kind of thing happens, no question about it," said Knight. Consequently, there is 'a set of guidelines that need to be followed to separate false reports from the true - a "step wise" process by which a child is interviewed to find out if he or she has really been abused, or has been coached into lying. The need for protection of children has led to a set of very strict guide- lines that must be adhered to when allegations arise. First, the agency must act on the file within an hour of receiving a report, must check with child abuse register, must interview the child within 12 hours, and then 1 44alre may not. work well" Reforms being considered, mays social services minister CLINTON - Minister of Community and Social Services Marion Boyd addressed an audience March 5 at the Clinton Town Hall about her minis- ; ,'trys work and plans for reform. pales— the meeting, slue was asked about what specific reforms she ;fid for the Children's Aid Societies in the province sad .if Graham's • t.- cern about access to files was on the agenda. -lithe whole child abuse registry iambic( review," confsoladnoyd. -,Also she was asked about how access i c the CAS;pc$o her ministry rad to the public for its actions. Boyd agreed there is a review under way of the accountability of the CAS, but it also canes at the request.pf;$Nte CASataclf and not just the ministry, she explained. "We arc aware the system may not work well for some individuals," she concluded. conduct a medita1 exam within 24 hours if warranted. Those guidelines may soon be extended to adapt than "to the needs of the field", explains Knight. The 12-honir call for an interview might be ex- tended to 24 hours if no hard evidence presents itself. "If you haven't got anything solid, then it gives you more leeway for working with the child and family," said Knight, but declined to say whether the agency had such solid evidence in Graham's case. Knight said the Criminal Code might require a 97 percent certainty in a case before an arrest warrant would be issued "to protect society". But the Child and Family Services Act demands mote immediate action to protect a child, and may need less than a 50 percent suspicion of guilt to allow a child to be taken away from a potentially dangerous situation. It's a great responsibility, he said. If a child is hurt due to inaction on the part of the CAS, the agency and its director, st criminally liable and can be charged. As for Graham's demand to see the file on.him and his family, Knight said he could release the file if he wished. - "Our hands aren't tied. We can show him the records if we want to," he said, but added that a requirement to keep certain information confidential would necessitate a review of the infomnation and editing out sensitive points - a process which his office has not the time nor staff to perform for every request for file access. "We don't have the person power to go through the file and make all the changes," said Knight. A part of the revised Child and Family Services Act guaranteed public access to such records, but it was never enacted, perhaps in recognition of the workload required for editing of sensitive information. Knight would not be specific, butsaid he disagreed with Graham's infor- mation about and perceptions of how the CAS investigation was conduct- ed. He did say there is information in the file he cannot let Graham sec. In Graham's case, the system did work, said Knight. His innocence was proven and the case was dropped. Because I work with the system I'm not afraid of ,ittblitrilpn_ I wit* with it every day," said Knight. But Knight does agree with some of Graham's concerns. A uniformed officer in a cruiser should not have been sent to the house, but in rural are- as, plainclothes officers are often not available. A two-way mirror would also be useful, said Knight, -but noted the county's crown attorney is not in favour of such methods, nor the videotaping of statements. "It's something I would love to see happen, but because of the practice in the county, we don't use it," be said. Also on his wish list for changes is to have an in-house psychologist to recommend and follow through on treatment for abused children. Hc would also like to be able to make more sense out of what he calls the CAS's conflicting mandates. "When you're in court one day saying a mother is an unlit parent and then the next day you're in the home providing counselling to her - there's a conflict there." He would also Wee to see more funding for cheaper, preventative pro- grams, rather than allowing "intrusive" custody and care programs to run debts when prevention is not there. But harsh measures, he said, arc needed to act quickly on suspected abuse cases, however. The agency deals with many, but not enough, notes Knight. "One in two girls is abused before the age of 16. We know that," he said, adding that of the 15,000 children in Huron County, the CAS re- ceived only 170 sexual abuse referrals in 1990. "You know you're missing an awful lot," he said. "Things do go wrong," later added, but said his agency is able to make a positive difference in many children' lives. "But it's always the negative cases that get the publicity." Tom Knight, Children's Aid Society exeCutivR explains his agency is not nearly as all-powerful as WHO like to 4elie►ne.