Fornits
General Interest => Tacitus' Realm => Topic started by: Anonymous on June 29, 2004, 12:18:00 PM
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Former child protection chief acknowledges flushing marijuana
Associated Press
ATHENS, Ga. - The former head of the Clarke County Department of Family and Children Services has acknowledged that she was fired after she twice instructed workers to dispose of marijuana to prevent criminal charges from being filed against a teenager.
Gwen O'Looney, who was Athens mayor for eight years, worked in child social services after leaving office in 1998. She was fired May 18.
DFCS officials have declined to say why she was fired, but O'Looney believes the marijuana incidents played a role. She also points to disagreements over the agency's new focus on investigating child abuse reports as opposed to helping families.
An internal investigation by the Department of Human Resources, which oversees DFCS, concluded that O'Looney, 56, handled the matter inappropriately and that she may have violated state law in the marijuana incidents. The district attorney's office is investigating the matter.
State records show that on Oct. 30, the 15-year-old's mother discovered the girl had about $200 worth of marijuana that she was selling. The drugs were taken to the county DFCS office, where O'Looney instructed staff to flush the marijuana down a toilet, the DHR investigative report said. On Feb. 24, seven bags of marijuana were found in the girl's clothing drawers, the report said.
Neither incident was reported to the juvenile court.
Kenneth Bramlett, director of DHR's Office of Investigative Services, said DFCS is required to report knowledge of a child involved with drugs to the court.
A caseworker objected to the way O'Looney handled the second incident. O'Looney said she moved the girl to another foster home and provided her counseling. She said she has done the same when other foster children have gotten in trouble.
"Everyone knows that I try to work with all these children to avoid prosecuting them or turning them over to police," O'Looney said Monday.
"I believe our job is to focus on the child," she said, adding that if children get a criminal record they "get a reputation for being a bad kid, and they live up to it."
Robin Shearer, an associate juvenile court judge in Clarke County, said reporting that a child possesses illegal drugs can help the child.
"The point of the juvenile court is to try and treat, rehabilitate and supervise," Shearer said.
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Judge Shearer needs a reality check. The juvenile justice system in Florida is so messed up kids come out in worse shape than when they went in (if they come out at all, remember the boy found hanging in his cell while a staff member took pictures of him while he was still alive and could have been saved?!)
That's why O'Looney did what she did, to protect kids from being criminalized and mistreated by THE SYSTEM. Ironic she may end up in jail, herself, though I suspect nobody really believes she deserves to be treated worse than the guy who a jury acquitted from raping a woman in Bradenton, only to abduct a little girl named Carlie Bruchia, who he raped and killed.