Number of Florida foster kids, who are vanishing, is skyrocketing

[seafan]

Number of Florida foster kids, who are vanishing, is skyrocketing

CAROL MARBIN MILLER
June 6, 2006

MIAMI - When the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl from her Miami foster home four years ago went unnoticed for months, the ensuing scandal that engulfed Florida's child-welfare agency led to recriminations and promises of beefed-up efforts to track down children who went missing from state care.

A few months later, Gov. Jeb Bush and his social-services chief declared "success," saying the state had found all but 102 of about 400 foster children who had gone missing.

That was Dec. 17, 2002.

Yet as of Monday, the number of kids missing from the state's troubled child-welfare system has skyrocketed to 652, most of them runaway teens and youngsters snatched from foster care by their biological parents. The number of missing kids has risen even as the number of kids in state care has declined.

snip

[soothsayer]

1. Failure is the bush family's hallmark of success

[acmavm]

2. You phrased that very well.

[noonwitch]

3. I agree, but..

Runaway teenagers should be separated from that statistic. Teens run from foster care all the time, because they are not the most stable bunch of kids, overall. Plus, if they've been moved around a lot (the runaways usually have), they are master manipulators of adults. You can't lock them up, because they're not criminals. You can't make them stay, because that would mean using physical restraint, which is not allowed.

[seafan]

4. More from the article:

Child advocates say the state continues to fail miserably in efforts to safeguard or return missing kids - even neglecting to register the children with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the national clearinghouse for abducted and runaway kids.

snip

Of the children currently missing from the custody of the state Department of Children and Families, more than 170 are from South Florida - 72 from Miami-Dade, 67 from Broward, 31 from Palm Beach and three from Monroe - said Zoraya Suarez, DCF's spokeswoman in Tallahassee.

The list includes children who are only infants or toddlers. Among them: one-year-old Destiny Booth, one-year-old Geraldo Duarte, two-year-old Angelica Rodriguez, 18-month-old Sheena Ruiz-Lopez-Meeks, two-year-old Mackenzie Spears-Bennett, one-year-old Noah Samuel Varble-Rhoads and one-year-old Louanne Wise.

The list also includes scores of "endangered" teenaged runaways, such as 17-year-old Brandee A. Adams of Naples, 16-year-old Jessica Dumas-Shore of Shalimar, 17-year-old Jennifer L. Gledhill of St. Cloud, 17-year-old Bianca L. Peralta of Key West and 16-year-old Nikkia Shaver-Keefer of Bradenton.

snip

And the list still includes Rilya Wilson, who would be 10 in September. Rilya's disappearance from her Miami caretaker's home when she was five years old sparked national outrage, leading the governor to appoint a blue-ribbon panel to investigate what was wrong with Florida's foster-care system. Since then, Geralyn Graham, Rilya's DCF-approved caregiver, has been charged with killing her.

snip

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/breaking_news/14752222.htm

[gratuitous]

5. Ban gay marriage!

That will fix the problem. These kids are obviously running away so they can go gay, get married in Massachusetts or Holland, and settle down in non-God ordained sin!

I'm so glad the Republicans are in power, and focusing on the real problems of this great nation!

[DBoon]

6. Are they being raptured?

Is this the start of End Times?

[BlueInPhilly]

7. It's them homos!

They are eating the children!!! :sarcasm:

[DBoon]

9. No they are recruiting them to "satan's lifestyle"

Introducing them to show tunes, weaning them off mother's milk in favor of cosmopolitans, all so the homos can claim their free toaster!

[TNOE]

8. There's more to this

Jeb Bush - The Bush Family - The Franklin Templeton Affair - Jeff Gannon. Coincidence this happens in a state run by a Bush? I think not.

[Ian David]

10. Is Jeb Bush selling Florida's foster children into sexual slavery?

Are children from Florida's foster care program being sent to factories and brothels in Saipan?

Abramoff/DeLay links to forced abortions, sex tourism
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/111729/353

[Sadie5]

12. Is Jeb Bush selling Florida's foster children into sexual slavery

It's always a possibility someone is selling these kids who are missing. If it were any other Governor but a Bush who had misplaced these kids heads would roll. But since it's Jeb he gets a pass.

[neuvocat]

15. You have to wonder.

I doubt that the disappearance of so many children is an accident.

[midnight]

11. Yes!!!!!!

What a coincidence?

[fooj]

18. Pure evil.

:grr:

[eppur_se_muova]

13. "found all but 102" counts as a SUCCESS ?? THEY LOST 102 PEOPLE !!

It's the same mentaility that enabled the BFEE to cast a blind eye at the casualties of Hurricane Katrina, and still enables them to ignore the tens of thousands of dead Iraqis. "Dead or missing don't count if they ain't our type."

[lonestarnot]

14. Are you kidding? They're still finding bodies in NO. Think FL gives a

fuck about some kids.

[alittlelark]

16. Disappearing from such a porous port state...

Surprise, Surprise, Suprise...........................

No sex trade $$$$ to be gained here.

[w4rma]

17. The Republican Party is evil. (nt)