State employees disciplined in fatal child-abuse case
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edition of The Kansas City Star newspaper:
State employees disciplined in fatal child-abuse case
By DONNA McGUIRE - The Kansas City Star
Date: 11/09/99
At least three Missouri Division of Family Services employees have been
suspended for 20 days without pay for failing to properly handle the
child
abuse and neglect suspected in the deaths of Larry and Gary Bass.
The 8-year-old Kansas City brothers, two of a set of triplets, died
three weeks
ago from infected burns and starvation. Prosecutors charged the boys'
mother,
Mary Bass, 31, with child abuse and two counts of second-degree murder.
State Department of Social Services officials, who announced the
disciplinary
action Tuesday, also ordered further training for employees and a review
of
department procedures.
The Division of Family Services had contact with the Bass family for
years,
according to teachers who called the child-abuse hot line as early as
1995 to
report bruises and other problems. What action the division took after
those
hot-line calls remains confidential under state law.
However, the suspensions are related only to what happened after Family
Services received a final hot-line call about the Bass boys this fall.
Not only
did the person who took that call make mistakes, but so did other
workers up
the line, an internal investigation has found.
"Staff failed to properly review prior reports and base their decisions
on a
growing pattern of abuse and neglect," said Denise Cross, director of
the
division.
Cross declined to elaborate on the mistakes. She previously has said
that a
caseworker who talked to Mary Bass this fall apparently did not meet
with the
abused boys. Under department procedures, abuse and neglect
investigators are
to interview the children, and they should interview them without the
alleged
abuser being in the room.
The hot-line worker no longer is employed by the division. Cross
suspended one
caseworker and that person's supervisors. Citing personnel reasons,
officials
declined to say how many supervisors were suspended, but confirmed the
number
was more than one. All the suspended employees work in Jackson County.
The 20-day suspensions were the maximum allowed without triggering an
appeals
process, said Gary Stangler, director of the Missouri Department of
Social
Services. Family Services is one of the department's divisions.
Stangler, department director for 10 years, could not recall previously
suspending child-abuse staff for failing to properly do their jobs.
The disciplinary action is a good first step toward correcting what went
wrong,
said state Sen. Harry Wiggins, a Kansas City Democrat who last week
called for
Gov. Mel Carnahan to investigate Family Services' handling of the Bass
case.
Wiggins spoke to Stangler Monday.
"He promised me action," Wiggins said. "He certainly came through."
The investigation should continue, Wiggins said.
Authorities say Mary Bass told police that for discipline, she locked
the boys
in a bedroom for up to two weeks at a time, fed them only bread and
water and
allowed them out only for restroom breaks. Larry weighed only 30 pounds
when he
died at their Northeast area home. Gary died two days later in a
hospital.
Both boys also had infected burns on their feet from being dipped in
scalding
water.
The Jackson County medical examiner's office ruled both deaths
homicides.
Mary Bass' boyfriend, Tony Dixon, 36, also faces six counts of various
types of
child abuse.
The system failed the Bass brothers because workers did not follow
department
procedures, Stangler said.
"I cannot emphasize enough how badly the system served these kids," he
said.
"There is no worse day for us, personally and professionally, than the
day a
child dies."
Stangler said the Division of Family Services would take several steps
to avoid
future tragedies:
• Require all child-abuse staff in Jackson County to attend training
sessions
in the next two weeks. That training will reinforce division procedures,
including the need to review prior reports, interview all alleged
victims,
contact relatives and other individuals regarding reports and give
timely
feedback.
• Give hot-line workers additional training, which will emphasize that
all
critical information be collected consistently and passed correctly to
local
Family Services offices.
• Send Jackson County staff to a new training program provided by
Children's
Mercy Hospital. That training will focus on indicators of abuse and
neglect.
• Hire a specialist from the National Resource Center on Child
Maltreatment to
review the state's training. Family Services wants to make sure
employees are
learning necessary skills and competently can fulfill their
responsibilities.
• Build a stronger relationship to deal with abuse and neglect cases
with the
Kansas City School District and Superintendent Benjamin Demps Jr., a
former
social-service director in Oklahoma. Demps said Tuesday that he welcomes
the
opportunity.
The school district is conducting its own investigation into how its
staff
handled the Bass case. A spokesman did not know when that investigation
would
be completed.
Larry and Gary Bass enrolled with their triplet brother, Jerry, to
attend third
grade at Swinney Elementary School this year. Jerry, who now is in
foster care
along with two older siblings, did attend classes. The district is
declining to
say whether the other triplets attended at all this year.
Typically, when enrolled children miss a great deal of school, the
school will
report the problem to Family Services. Child-abuse workers then
investigate the
family for educational neglect.
All the Bass case records, including actions taken as a result of prior
hot-line calls, are confidential under state law -- a law some child
advocates
want changed next legislative session.
A state child-abuse review panel has recommended that case records
become
public when a child dies. The Jackson County prosecutor's office also
supports
a law change that would give Stangler discretion to open records in
cases where
children have died. Wiggins said Tuesday that he would be willing to
sponsor
the legislation.
Stangler agrees that in some cases, records need to be opened.
"We are bitterly criticized for hiding behind confidentiality," he said.
"We
would rather be able to share information and take away that vacuum that
gets
filled by misinformation."
---------------------------------------------------------------
BARBARA SHELLY:
Two more sad entries on a long list
By BARBARA SHELLY - Columnist
Date: 11/09/99 22:15
So now we add Larry and Gary Bass to the Missouri Division of Family
Service's
roll of shame.
Angel Hart, 5, murdered in 1993 by her mother's boyfriend, despite
warnings
from relatives and a doctor that the boyfriend would kill the child.
Steven Golden, 5, killed in 1991 in the home of the parents who'd been
permitted to adopt him, though workers knew the family had serious
problems.
Larry and Gary, 8. Burned, beaten and starved, after warnings from
teachers
went overlooked. Their mother, Mary Bass, has been charged in their
deaths.
The Missouri Department of Social Services, which oversees the child
protective
division, has followed the usual drill.
Announce an internal investigation. Suspend workers. Step up training
efforts.
Call for a community partnership.
But none of these steps will solve the problem of a fundamentally
troubled
system. Once the training is done and the outrage subsides, the Division
of
Family Services and its clients will slip back behind the cover of
apathy.
Until the next child dies.
Talk to people who deal with the division on a routine basis, and you'll
find
deep concerns about everything from the way hot-line calls are handled
to
chaotic management.
Day-care workers say they frequently exaggerate their concerns on
hot-line
calls to make sure somebody pays attention. School principals wonder why
caseworkers aren't as alarmed by situations as they are.
Court-appointed advocates, who keep track of children in the system,
talk about
nights sleepless from worry about children left in potentially dangerous
situations.
The Jackson County office has had three top managers in six years.
Lower-level
workers come and go even more frequently. Poor supervision played a role
in the
deaths of the Bass children, said Gary Stangler, director of the
Department of
Social Services.
"It's difficult," said Ellen Jervis, a lawyer who represents children.
"You're
dealing with massive turnover. I've never understood why they take brand
new
workers and put them into investigations."
Nothing will change until people, including state legislators, start
paying
attention on a sustained basis and start demanding that child-protection
agencies stop operating in secrecy.
It's ridiculous that details of the state's involvement with the Bass
family
are being kept confidential. Who is being protected at this point?
It's absurd that the division gets to investigate its own conduct in the
case.
Who else gets that privilege, when a death is involved?
The Missouri Task Force on Child Deaths is recommending legislation that
would
open a case file if a child dies when the state is, or should have been,
involved. Legislators should support that proposal.
It's true that people on many levels failed Larry and Gary Bass. Their
extended
family didn't protect them. Their mother's boyfriend is accused of
standing by
while they starved. Their school system couldn't give them continuity;
they had
attended at least three schools before the third grade.
Yes, the blame can be passed around. But it stops in the lap of the
Division of
Family Services. That is the final line of defense, and it looked away.