Bullshit Alert!!!

L.A. County's leak investigation is about the law, not publicity

Your Aug. 21 editorial, "Leaks don't kill kids," and Tim Rutten's Aug. 18 Op-Ed column, "When children die," erroneously implied that the focus of the county's inquiry into illegally disclosed confidential case information is to mitigate bad publicity or improve social worker morale. This is simply untrue. It is also wrong to imply that child-specific case information is kept confidential at my own, or any other public employee's, whim. It is confidential according to state law. As director of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, I have a duty to the county, the state and the children and families we serve to uphold state law by taking reasonable measures to protect confidentiality while sharing any and all information that can be legally shared.