Local school employees chide CYFD

October 14, 2009

Local teachers and other school employees chided a state agency yesterday for not doing enough to help them protect kids from harm.

The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) held a town hall in Tome to discuss how the department might be failing to support children who are in unsafe family situations, a response to several recent deaths of Valencia County children and the alleged shooting of a Belen father by his 10-year-old son.

“We’re here to listen and we’re here to solve problems,” said Dorian Dodson, the CYFD cabinet secretary.

Dodson and other CYFD staff listened to nearly an hour of complaints, concerns and solutions from local residents, with the most pointed criticism coming from school employees who are on the front lines of efforts to protect children.

School employees said CYFD has made it difficult to report child abuse and neglect because they divulge the names of people who call it in.

“We have hundreds of calls through the year,” school counselor Robin Phillips said. “And I can’t remember one time where it didn’t come out negative because you guys told them who called.”

Phillips said in one case CYFD officials stopped by the school to investigate and then called the parents to return the children — but left her alone with them. She had to handle the parents when they came to pick up their kids.

“This kind of stuff happens constantly,” she said.

Lisa Chavez, a preschool teacher, has had similar problems.

“Many times we ask that our names not be disclosed when we make a report and it often is,” she said. “I have had parents storm in my room, screaming at me while I’m trying to teach my class. I have had people threaten to slash my tires, to follow me home.”

She said the county lacks funding for the programs and processes that work.

“We may not be the worst, but we have problems here and they’re serious,” she said. “There is a terrible lack of resources here.”

Juana Nevarez, a school social worker, said CYFD has a shortage of staff that doesn’t allow quick investigations of serious reports of abuse and neglect.

She also said there are times when CYFD has had a child and his or her parents in the same room during discussions of sexual allegations against the parents.

“I didn’t see the purpose of it,” she said. “I think the child was re-victimized. And then the child ended up going back home.”

She thinks actions like that by CYFD leave kids more at risk.

Dolores Aragon, a former teacher and foster parent, said there aren’t enough social workers to support foster parents who take care of kids removed from their homes.

“When I need to get a hold of my social worker, I need to get a hold of my social worker,” she said.

Janelle Otero, a school social worker, said the community has lost faith in CYFD and the system.

“It seems like calls that we’ve made, as long as the child has food, shelter and clothing, it’s not revisited,” she said, asking for more follow-up on reported situations.

Others weigh in

The town hall fell silent when Bobby Montiel, the grandfather of three-year-old Michael, who was allegedly killed by his own stepfather, stood up to address CYFD officials.

“This we can’t change,” he said, holding up a framed photo of his grandson. “It’s past. We could change other children from ever getting killed, being abused, anything.”

He said Michael’s mother and stepfather were involved in criminal activity prior to Michael’s death “and nothing was done” by CYFD. He asked CYFD to get serious about reports to avoid deaths in the future.

While teachers showed the most concern, the room was also filled with local law enforcement, like Valencia County Sheriff Rene Rivera and Belen Police Chief Mike Chavez, as well as local groups which make up the county’s support network for youth.

Rep. Elias Barela, who participated on the CYFD panel, said the rise in abuse and neglect can be linked to the downward slide in the local economy.

“Right now it’s a tough economy,” Barela said. “Valencia County’s not doing very well. There are a lot of people that are out of work. I think the pressure builds in families.”

Thirteenth Judicial District Attorney Lemuel Martinez, who is responsible for prosecuting crimes in Valencia County, said children are a protected class who are dependent and need the help.

“I was a school teacher for 10 years,” he said. “That’s really focused my attention on prosecuting crimes by and against children.”

One audience member said she was disappointed no school district administrators were present at the meeting, while another pointed out they might not be present because both districts had board meetings later that evening.

CYFD responds to the complaints

Arleen Lucero, the local CYFD office manager, said child abuse and neglect is rising in Valencia County.

“When I first started in this county three years ago, we were seeing a lot of shaken baby,” she said. “And now we’re seeing a lot of fractures, which is a grave concern.”

She said the department has had 462 referrals this year, which goes to law enforcement for action. Fifty-eight of those referrals have been emergencies, requiring a CYFD response within three hours.

“We need your help. We need your eyes and ears to help us identify when abuse and neglect occurs,” Lucero told citizens.

CYFD officials said most of their solutions will be developed over time but immediately offered to come to the local schools to give workshops and training about CYFD and its processes.

The officials avoided getting into explanations of the complex process for accepting and investigating reports of child abuse and neglect but said they had information available for distribution. CYFD follows a strict set of criteria and levels of danger, which include response times required by the department.

“Not everything that’s called in results in a report that’s investigated,” said Linda Cravens-Rodriguez, who works with Statewide Central Intake, which received the reports.

Several times during the meeting a question was deflected by CYFD because they said the answer would be too lengthy. After doing that a couple of times, attendees grumbled at the lack of answers, with Montiel saying CYFD was “hiding” answers from the public.

CYFD officials committed themselves to holding future meetings in Valencia County to solve the problems people are having with the department.

“We’re not here because Valencia County is the worst county,” said Romaine Serna, the CYFD communications director. “We don’t have a worst county. We like to think that all of our counties are the best county because we’ve got a group of people who work really, really hard.”

The goal, she said, is to make Valencia County among the best by protecting children from the unsafe situations that lead to crimes against or by them.

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Posted in: Schools