THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 4, 1994 TAG: 9412030145
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
``The public doesn't know the facts. My agency knows the facts.'' In making that statement to explain the inexplicable - the return of yet another victim of severe child neglect to his unrepentant parents - the director of the Virginia Beach Department of Social Services has unwittingly put his finger on both the problem and its solution (``Father in neglect case admitted earlier abuse,'' The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Nov. 17).
The public does not know the facts. The public does not know the facts because child abuse and neglect cases are confidential. That confidentiality, mandated by law, does little or nothing to protect abused and neglected children and to rehabilitate their families. To the contrary, confidentiality all too frequently works to the detriment of these children.
This case is instructive. Confidentiality did not prevent these newspapers from printing the names and photographs of the parents accused of neglecting this child. Confidentiality did not prevent the public from learning in detail the serious accusations against them. Nor did confidentiality prevent us from learning of the appalling return of this child to his parents. Confidentiality merely served to ``prevent'' a paid public official from explaining his actions to justifiably concerned citizens and tax-payers.
Apart from the obvious effect of insulating the public from the workings of its government, which is almost always a bad idea, confidentiality has additional, more pernicious effects. It prevents individuals - neighbors, friends and even family members - from receiving and sharing information about a particular child whose plight concerns them. And it prevents the public at large from realizing how serious and pervasive the problems of child abuse and neglect really are. Consequently, government agencies which deal with this problem remain chronically underfunded and community involvement remains at a minimum.
Do you remember your immediate and visceral reaction when you learned the truth about what had happened to the Smith children in South Carolina - that you should do something, anything to try to save them, but that it was too late? There are any number of children whose parents mistreat them but stop short of death, and for whom it is not too late. There are any number of people who would be willing to be foster parents, advocates and volunteers, who could play some small part in helping these kids.
In the case on which the paper reported, total strangers came forward to help a small child. Neighbors and friends took the child into their home. But all of these decent and well-intentioned people were deflected by a system that claims to ``know'' better than they. It is time to open up that system so that we can judge for ourselves whether or not that claim is true.
Susan B. Potter
Virginia Beach
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SOCIAL SERVICES by CNB