LilMtnCbn
01-11-2004, 06:43 AM
http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/110531-9624-009.html
Ruth Holladay
In wake of child's death, racial questions linger
January 11, 2004
Did race play into the decision by Family and Social Services Administration
staff to remove little Anthony Bars from the home of his foster mother and
place him with distant relatives, who tortured and killed him? It's a sensitive
question. But since a child is dead, and since everyone from outraged readers
to the governor is demanding answers, let's go ahead and get this card on the
table, and play it out.
Besides, it's already out there, on minds and lips. The issue has been raised,
off the record, by some public officials, as well as others who have tried to
make sense of this child's four short years on earth.
It's a major concern for Florence Hurst. She is the white, 63-year-old foster
mom who spent 15 months of her life caring for Anthony and his twin sister,
black children in her charge since they were 3 days old.
Hurst has three biracial grandchildren. She lives in a racially mixed
neighborhood on the Far Eastside. The schools there are a racial hodgepodge.
She badly wanted to adopt Anthony and his twin. They would have fit right in
with her family, she says. "Anthony was just a big, happy baby," she says.
"(His sister) was the little woman."
Hurst's plans were shot down in the fall of 1997. That's when the children's
caseworker, Denise Moore, informed Hurst that a stepcousin was interested in
the kids -- that would be L.B. Bars and his wife, Latricia, parents of 11
biological children. L.B. also was a convicted child abuser, but apparently,
amazingly, nobody knew that -- even though criminal background checks are
supposedly part of the process when children are placed in any home.
So Moore -- a black caseworker with more than 10 years' experience at FSSA --
gathered the kids from Hurst and took them to meet their "family."
That experience alone was a red flag for Hurst. "Denise told me it would only
take an hour or so. She wanted to see how everybody acted. But they were gone
for hours, because Latricia was two to three hours late. It worried me. I know
they weren't my kids, but they were my responsibility."
And even though the Barses supposedly wanted the twins, they didn't want them
then -- another red flag, says Hurst. "They had won this trip, a cruise or
something. They wanted to take that first."
That was in November. In June, "Denise called me one week prior to removing
them from my house. She told me the adoption staffing had decided they would be
better off in that home than mine."
Hurst was new to the system then, but she is convinced of one aspect. "I know
it was a racial thing. Those people were no more relation (to the kids) than I
was. But they were black."
In fact, during the trial on Anthony's death, Latricia Bars was asked why she
wanted the children. She gave two answers: She had always wanted twins. And the
kids belonged with a black family.
This is where this issue gets sticky. According to the FSSA's Stephanie
Beasley-Fehrman, child welfare policy and program manager, the adoption process
is complicated, and the decision is made by a group -- hence Moore was not
calling the shots. And while Moore is black, her supervisor at that time was
white.
The agency does "give consideration" to relatives in adoption, notes
Beasley-Fehrman. But according to the Federal Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of
1994, "We cannot deny or delay placement on the basis of race, color or origin
of the child or parents." Race, she says, is not a factor in adoption.
Still, it is not unusual for black families to be sought for black children,
says Peggy Burdsall, director of foster/adoptive/kinship care training at the
Children's Bureau of Indianapolis. She works with Marion County FSSA case
managers regularly.
So why would the system favor one race over another in adoption?
"We try to match the child and the child's needs with the family and the
community the child is going into. That is one way to make the child feel more
comfortable. It (race) is one of a whole string of things to look at. It is
about the issue of bonding -- the more familiar a child feels, the better."
Nobody can deny that these are sensitive issues -- and perhaps raising them
will leave some people scratching their heads at their validity or even angrily
questioning their merit.
But until we have answers -- regarding why Anthony and his sister were removed
from a safe home and put in one where he died -- all aspects of the adoption
process are open to public scrutiny. Including race.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
Ruth Holladay
In wake of child's death, racial questions linger
January 11, 2004
Did race play into the decision by Family and Social Services Administration
staff to remove little Anthony Bars from the home of his foster mother and
place him with distant relatives, who tortured and killed him? It's a sensitive
question. But since a child is dead, and since everyone from outraged readers
to the governor is demanding answers, let's go ahead and get this card on the
table, and play it out.
Besides, it's already out there, on minds and lips. The issue has been raised,
off the record, by some public officials, as well as others who have tried to
make sense of this child's four short years on earth.
It's a major concern for Florence Hurst. She is the white, 63-year-old foster
mom who spent 15 months of her life caring for Anthony and his twin sister,
black children in her charge since they were 3 days old.
Hurst has three biracial grandchildren. She lives in a racially mixed
neighborhood on the Far Eastside. The schools there are a racial hodgepodge.
She badly wanted to adopt Anthony and his twin. They would have fit right in
with her family, she says. "Anthony was just a big, happy baby," she says.
"(His sister) was the little woman."
Hurst's plans were shot down in the fall of 1997. That's when the children's
caseworker, Denise Moore, informed Hurst that a stepcousin was interested in
the kids -- that would be L.B. Bars and his wife, Latricia, parents of 11
biological children. L.B. also was a convicted child abuser, but apparently,
amazingly, nobody knew that -- even though criminal background checks are
supposedly part of the process when children are placed in any home.
So Moore -- a black caseworker with more than 10 years' experience at FSSA --
gathered the kids from Hurst and took them to meet their "family."
That experience alone was a red flag for Hurst. "Denise told me it would only
take an hour or so. She wanted to see how everybody acted. But they were gone
for hours, because Latricia was two to three hours late. It worried me. I know
they weren't my kids, but they were my responsibility."
And even though the Barses supposedly wanted the twins, they didn't want them
then -- another red flag, says Hurst. "They had won this trip, a cruise or
something. They wanted to take that first."
That was in November. In June, "Denise called me one week prior to removing
them from my house. She told me the adoption staffing had decided they would be
better off in that home than mine."
Hurst was new to the system then, but she is convinced of one aspect. "I know
it was a racial thing. Those people were no more relation (to the kids) than I
was. But they were black."
In fact, during the trial on Anthony's death, Latricia Bars was asked why she
wanted the children. She gave two answers: She had always wanted twins. And the
kids belonged with a black family.
This is where this issue gets sticky. According to the FSSA's Stephanie
Beasley-Fehrman, child welfare policy and program manager, the adoption process
is complicated, and the decision is made by a group -- hence Moore was not
calling the shots. And while Moore is black, her supervisor at that time was
white.
The agency does "give consideration" to relatives in adoption, notes
Beasley-Fehrman. But according to the Federal Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of
1994, "We cannot deny or delay placement on the basis of race, color or origin
of the child or parents." Race, she says, is not a factor in adoption.
Still, it is not unusual for black families to be sought for black children,
says Peggy Burdsall, director of foster/adoptive/kinship care training at the
Children's Bureau of Indianapolis. She works with Marion County FSSA case
managers regularly.
So why would the system favor one race over another in adoption?
"We try to match the child and the child's needs with the family and the
community the child is going into. That is one way to make the child feel more
comfortable. It (race) is one of a whole string of things to look at. It is
about the issue of bonding -- the more familiar a child feels, the better."
Nobody can deny that these are sensitive issues -- and perhaps raising them
will leave some people scratching their heads at their validity or even angrily
questioning their merit.
But until we have answers -- regarding why Anthony and his sister were removed
from a safe home and put in one where he died -- all aspects of the adoption
process are open to public scrutiny. Including race.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
