- You know you have seriously flawed laws when government agencies are scrambling to find a way around them.
N.C. Sen. Debbie Clary appears to have the best grasp on these problems.
Sen. Clary, who is known for speaking out on tough issues, told us that while confidentiality is the cornerstone of child protective services, that should change if a child dies.
"You're no longer protecting the child, you're protecting the system. This child has died," Sen. Clary told us. "When a child dies, then information should be released to the public to the extent that it doesn't damage the court case. There should be changes in the law to allow the public to discover what has happened and why that child died."
Her colleague in the N.C. House, Rep. Tim Moore, also appears willing to look at these laws.
"In a case where a juvenile has died and where either family members or relatives or some other interested parties wanted to know who knew what and who knew it when, I think there's a right for those folks to know, to get answers," Rep. Moore said.
Frankly, we're heartened by what these lawmakers have to say on this issue. We would ask them to take this issue to the next level and propose changes that will offer all communities mandatory answers when tragedies such as these occur.
- Jeremiah has died. It's a heartbreaking loss to this community. Protecting his confidentiality at this point was clearly absurd. Hiding behind a flawed law is no way to honor the memory of someone who couldn't protect himself. Fortunately, that didn't happen in this instance. But what about other cases, other communities, other counties?
- You know you have seriously flawed laws when government agencies are scrambling to find a way around them.
ReplyDeleteN.C. Sen. Debbie Clary appears to have the best grasp on these problems.
Sen. Clary, who is known for speaking out on tough issues, told us that while confidentiality is the cornerstone of child protective services, that should change if a child dies.
"You're no longer protecting the child, you're protecting the system. This child has died," Sen. Clary told us. "When a child dies, then information should be released to the public to the extent that it doesn't damage the court case. There should be changes in the law to allow the public to discover what has happened and why that child died."
Her colleague in the N.C. House, Rep. Tim Moore, also appears willing to look at these laws.
"In a case where a juvenile has died and where either family members or relatives or some other interested parties wanted to know who knew what and who knew it when, I think there's a right for those folks to know, to get answers," Rep. Moore said.
Frankly, we're heartened by what these lawmakers have to say on this issue. We would ask them to take this issue to the next level and propose changes that will offer all communities mandatory answers when tragedies such as these occur.
- Jeremiah has died. It's a heartbreaking loss to this community. Protecting his confidentiality at this point was clearly absurd. Hiding behind a flawed law is no way to honor the memory of someone who couldn't protect himself. Fortunately, that didn't happen in this instance. But what about other cases, other communities, other counties?
*(We are talking about Alberta, Canada too!)