Children of the damned
September 13, 2006Strong title. But perfectly appropriate when you read stories like this:
A COUPLE who wanted to teach foster children not to take drugs or skip school were accused by bureaucrats of trying to force “middle-class” values on them. Rae and Traill Adams, both in their 60s, quit as foster parents last year after a series of disputes with Queensland social workers over the expectations they had for foster kids. Mrs Adams said a social worker told her: “Rae, you expect every child to be able to eat caviar and some can only have Vegemite.”
Mr Adams said he had asked a social worker whether she thought it was dangerous to send a child back to a home where adults were taking drugs. “She said it wouldn’t really be a risk, not if there were no needles left lying around, if it was the consumption of marijuana or speed,” Mr Adams said.
On another occasion, Mr Adams said he believed a foster child would be “at risk” if she was returned to the home of her drug-addicted mother. He said the child’s caseworker shrugged and said: “We’re in the risk business.”
Mr Adams said bureaucrats were “not interested in promoting education for these children, nor were they interested in the children themselves. They are interested only in returning children to parents because it gets them promoted”.
Unbelievable.
In the same article, Lowitja O’Donoghue describes similar experiences during her childhood in the 1930’s. It’s horrifying to think that nothing has changed in 70 years.
