Wouldn’t we all love to believe that it was the children? This is Child Protection, right? So the priority should be the best interest of the children.
But it really isn’t.
The number one priority is making sure that I (as a professional) don’t get myself into trouble. Covering My Butt has to be my priority. And every professional and every agency and every person in the legal system has the same responsibility.
And if everyone is so busy making sure that nobody gets in trouble, then how do the kids get best served? What if breaking a rule is the only and best way to meet the needs of a child? What if taking a risk might help a kid?
And those who really do care about kids, which I still believe is most of the people in this business, are trapped by having to follow all the rules and knowing they can’t do what is best because if they do then they themselves, and their employers, could get in trouble.
It’s a crazy system.... our legal system has encouraged everyone to cover their butts. I was annoyed after blogging about Erin Brockovich to find that the movie wasn’t the whole story. Of course, there are people like Fumento who have to tell us the rest of the story and point out how the lawyers got rich by taking advantage of the people ...
The irony, however, is that it looks like Fumento is making his money by writing books about how people are taking advantage of the legal system to get money. Think about that for a minute.
So what we have are laws that were designed to protect children and people who chose careers to do so and the whole thing, as viewed on one of my more cynical days, is just a big cover your butt circus and the children are the ones who pay.
And for any of you who might be defensive, I’m one of the people in the system, so I’m pointing fingers at myself.
And I don’t have any answers either. Today I’m just mad.
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