Post by Dean Robinson on Dec 4, 2007 9:46:08 GMT -5
Who Mourns for Baby Sara?
BY CLAUDIA CORNWAL
And for the other murdered children we failed to protect?
BABY SARA'S fate was sealed the day her father came home from prison. Michael Podniewicz, 30, of Toronto, had served three years of a five-year sentence for child abuse when he was paroled in February 1993 and he returned to his common-law wife, Lisa Olsen. He'd been imprisoned after shaking his ten-week-old son so violently that the infant was left blind, deaf, partially paralyzed and brain damaged.
Born in October following her father's release, baby Sara would die only six months later, a victim of brutal abuse and a child-protection system that failed her.
The Catholic Children's Aid Society (CCAS), which briefly monitored the family in 1986 and again starting in December 1992, shared responsibility with the parents for the children's safety. But Podniewicz's parole conditions also specified that he cooperate with Mothercraft, another social agency.
In the months following his release, none of the professionals who dealt with the family expressed any concerns about Sara or the three other children at home.
Then, on April 5, 1994, Sara was taken to St. Joseph's Health Centre because of a broken arm. It was a spiral fracture, typically caused by an abuser violently twisting a small limb. An orthopedic surgeon ruled the fracture accidental.
According to Dr. Charles Smith, director of Canada's only pediatric forensic pathology unit at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, spiral fractures are red flags that should arouse alarm. This one didn't.
Furthermore, in X rays taken at the time, there was evidence of an earlier arm fracture and broken ribs. But they were missed.
Sergeant David Perry, a police officer with the Toronto homicide squad at the time, says: "The Children's Aid worker knew about the broken arm. She had notes on it. Everybody had notes on it; everybody was watching the situation, but nobody pushed the button. They believed the parents' story that another child knocked Sara over.
"If the police had been called, there's a very good chance that Sara would be alive today."
Early in the morning of April 25, Sara was rushed to St. Joseph's Health Centre, but she had stopped breathing and couldn't be revived.
Dr. Smith performed the autopsy. He found that Sara had had 15 rib fractures, three arm and two leg fractures, and bleeding in her lungs. The broken ribs were the result of attacks on two occasions, possibly three. He concluded that Sara had died of pneumonia caused by the damage to her rib cage. The parents were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
ACCORDING to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS), 59 children under age 12 were murdered in Canada in the year Sara was killed, a typical year. Twenty-seven were under one year old -- the age at which a Canadian is most likely to be a homicide victim. Indeed, the murder rate for Canadian infants (5.6 per 100,000) is more than twice the homicide rate for adults (2.7 per 100,000). Equally shocking is that three quarters of these infants are killed by their parents.
These figures don't tell the full story. They do not include deaths caused by neglect or preventable accidents due to a lack of supervision. They do not even include all homicides. According to Nico Trocmé, a professor of social work at the University of Toronto, "Estimates indicate that between 50 and 85 percent of child homicides go undetected."
Why are these murders happening? "We have to sharpen up," says Dr. Charles A. Ferguson, director of Manitoba's Child Protection Centre at Winnipeg's Children's Hospital. "Everybody in this business has to be a honed investigator, a skeptic." Many people making decisions about children at risk fall far short of this standard.
Martha McKay, an infant therapist from Mothercraft, was instructed to visit Sara Podniewicz's family once every two weeks. When Lisa Olsen assured her she was taking Sara to the family doctor for check-ups, McKay tried once but didn't confirm whether it was true.
When CCAS social worker Susan Demelo-Grant learned that a relative of the family was concerned about the parents' drug use, she discussed it with the couple. But she didn't ask the police to investigate and didn't check to see if the neighbours knew anything. Demelo-Grant and McKay also never examined the children for bruises.
The skill and judgement of social workers is critical and the quality of their training extremely important. Yet a 1995 investigation by provincial court Judge Thomas Gove into child protection found that only 47 percent of social workers in British Columbia had a degree in social work.
Even social workers who obtain degrees may be unprepared for the job. Dr. Betty Carter, a professor of social work at University of British Columbia, says, "In a degree program we offer a generalized course -- broad areas such as poverty or violence against women -- relevant to any kind of social work." Graduates are expected to get specific training about child protection on the job.
But often that training is woefully inadequate. In British Columbia, orientation takes 20 weeks. Nine three-day seminars in child protection are required in Ontario. But New Brunswick offers only four two-day training sessions; Manitoba, a one-week orientation.
"Sometimes," says Wayne Govereau, children's advocate for Manitoba's Family Services, "we just throw them to the lions."
Social workers often cannot do their job properly because caseloads are too high. British Columbia workers struggle with an average of 35 to 40 families each, rising to 80 or 90 when they cover for colleagues on holiday. The Child Welfare League of America, a U.S. federation of child-care agencies, recommends a maximum caseload of 17.
Family doctors and emergency-room physicians are often the first to see victims of child abuse. Unfortunately, many are not knowledgeable enough about abuse. In July 1992 Matthew Vaudreuil, not yet six, was beaten and tortured to death in Vancouver by his mother, Verna. Matthew had made some 75 visits to doctors, but only twice did a physician write to the Ministry of Social Services expressing concern.
Abused children usually see many professionals with different areas of expertise. If the experts don't communicate well with one another, and if no one shoulders responsibility for the child's safety, the consequences can be tragic.
In May 1994 three-year-old John Ryan Turner died of starvation in Miramichi, N.B., after a lifetime of abuse. Several doctors, public-health nurses and other professionals came into contact with him between 1991 and 1993, but nobody raised the alarm.
An Ontario coroner's jury investigating a child murder at the time said medical professionals often don't seem to know that their duty to report abuse takes precedence over their duty to keep medical records confidential.
Social workers should treat the well-being of the children as their premier concern, says Dr. Ferguson. But many don't. "So often the guardians are given yet another chance."
In the case of baby Sara, the CCAS accepted Olsen's guarantee that Michael Podniewicz would never be alone with the children -- a condition of his parole. It was a tragic error.
Mary McConville, executive director of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, blames child-welfare laws that fail to clearly put the children's safety first. Legislation differs in detail across the country, but it is all based on the same idea -- that the least intrusive approach is preferable, that children are better off in their families if possible. However, it doesn't make sense to preserve every family.
After 17 months in a loving foster home, 22-month-old Shanay Johnson was returned to her crack-using and uncaring mother, Patricia. The social worker had asked her if she was still taking illegal drugs. When she said no, he called her doctor, who told him the one blood test he had done was negative. There was no further follow-up. Four months later, on October 26, 1993, Shanay died, brutally battered. As well as bruises, her body showed whip marks, burns and missing teeth. Some of her injuries were weeks old.
"Our governments talk about preserving families, but what they seem to want is to save money," says Barbara Chisholm, a Toronto social worker. When, for example, the Metro Toronto Children's Aid Society provides preventive services for a family in the home, the average cost is $1,300 per year. For a child in foster care, the cost is $18,000.
WHAT MUST be done to reduce the incidence of child abuse and murder in Canada?
Many experts believe that federal legislation needs to be changed. Says Judy Finlay, Ontario's chief advocate for children: "Section 43 of the federal Criminal Code gives permission for the use of 'reasonable' force in disciplining children. But there are no standards on what is reasonable."
Corinne Robertshaw, a retired lawyer in Toronto, heads a committee working to repeal Section 43. She has found that judges across Canada are ruling that hitting children -- even as young as two years old -- with straps, belts, sticks, extension cords and rulers is permitted under an 1892 section of the code.
Sweden had legislation similar to Canada's until 1979, when it was repealed. By 1989 the number of referrals to St. Göran's Hospital in Stockholm, which received all child-maltreatment referrals, had declined to one sixth of the 1970 rate.
Canadians are not being fully informed about the successes and failures of the child-welfare system. Manitoba's Chief Medical Examiner lobbied for years for public access to his recommendations on child-abuse investigations before the Ministry of Family Services finally responded by saying they would be included in their annual reports. The province joins British Columbia in now routinely making public the findings of such investigations. Judge Gove adds: "It would be a welcome addition to the development of child welfare in Canada if there was a national office to assist provinces and agencies." He believes the federal government could play a role in gathering and distributing information. "The public must be assured that the system can learn from its mistakes."
Health Canada took a step in the right direction last October when it launched a three-year study of child abuse. The study will examine rates of reported child abuse and neglect across the country. It will also use standard definitions of what constitutes child abuse, thus facilitating interprovincial comparisons.
A child at risk of abuse needs a dedicated individual to be his advocate. "Ultimately, somebody has to be accountable for developing a comprehensive integrated plan for the child," says Judy Finlay. "In every death you read about, there's a lack of communication, a lack of integration, a lack of plan. I think the assignment of a single case manager to every child throughout his lifetime of care would make a big difference."
WE ALL have a responsibility to our country's children. "We must be alert to signs of abuse," says Bruce Rivers, executive director of the Metro Toronto Children's Aid Society. "Tips from neighbours, teachers and relatives can save a child's life."
Bonnie's classmates at her elementary school in Scarborough knew that things were not right at home. They were aware that the pale, withdrawn and unkempt six-year-old often came to school without having had breakfast and with no packed lunch. Frequently they shared their sandwiches with her.
One afternoon when Bonnie's father came to pick her up after school, the mother of one of her classmates saw he was so drunk that he staggered. She told the school principal. He phoned the Children's Aid Society, which immediately called Bonnie's mother. She turned out to be as drunk as Bonnie's father. The agency decided to immediately take short-term custody of Bonnie.
When the father learned that his daughter would be taken from their home, he was so belligerent that the police were called. Soon after, however, the parents acknowledged the justice in the agency's action. They joined Alcoholics Anonymous and sought help from their family doctor. Two weeks later the social worker allowed Bonnie to return home. Today she is a different girl: happy, sociable and cared for.
Senator Anne Cools, a former social worker who established the first women's shelter in Toronto, is a passionate defender of children's rights. "Child abuse is the heart of darkness," she says. "It is so terrible, we can hardly bear to look at it. But if we don't look at it, if we don't speak about it, it will continue."
BY CLAUDIA CORNWAL
And for the other murdered children we failed to protect?
BABY SARA'S fate was sealed the day her father came home from prison. Michael Podniewicz, 30, of Toronto, had served three years of a five-year sentence for child abuse when he was paroled in February 1993 and he returned to his common-law wife, Lisa Olsen. He'd been imprisoned after shaking his ten-week-old son so violently that the infant was left blind, deaf, partially paralyzed and brain damaged.
Born in October following her father's release, baby Sara would die only six months later, a victim of brutal abuse and a child-protection system that failed her.
The Catholic Children's Aid Society (CCAS), which briefly monitored the family in 1986 and again starting in December 1992, shared responsibility with the parents for the children's safety. But Podniewicz's parole conditions also specified that he cooperate with Mothercraft, another social agency.
In the months following his release, none of the professionals who dealt with the family expressed any concerns about Sara or the three other children at home.
Then, on April 5, 1994, Sara was taken to St. Joseph's Health Centre because of a broken arm. It was a spiral fracture, typically caused by an abuser violently twisting a small limb. An orthopedic surgeon ruled the fracture accidental.
According to Dr. Charles Smith, director of Canada's only pediatric forensic pathology unit at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, spiral fractures are red flags that should arouse alarm. This one didn't.
Furthermore, in X rays taken at the time, there was evidence of an earlier arm fracture and broken ribs. But they were missed.
Sergeant David Perry, a police officer with the Toronto homicide squad at the time, says: "The Children's Aid worker knew about the broken arm. She had notes on it. Everybody had notes on it; everybody was watching the situation, but nobody pushed the button. They believed the parents' story that another child knocked Sara over.
"If the police had been called, there's a very good chance that Sara would be alive today."
Early in the morning of April 25, Sara was rushed to St. Joseph's Health Centre, but she had stopped breathing and couldn't be revived.
Dr. Smith performed the autopsy. He found that Sara had had 15 rib fractures, three arm and two leg fractures, and bleeding in her lungs. The broken ribs were the result of attacks on two occasions, possibly three. He concluded that Sara had died of pneumonia caused by the damage to her rib cage. The parents were convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
ACCORDING to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS), 59 children under age 12 were murdered in Canada in the year Sara was killed, a typical year. Twenty-seven were under one year old -- the age at which a Canadian is most likely to be a homicide victim. Indeed, the murder rate for Canadian infants (5.6 per 100,000) is more than twice the homicide rate for adults (2.7 per 100,000). Equally shocking is that three quarters of these infants are killed by their parents.
These figures don't tell the full story. They do not include deaths caused by neglect or preventable accidents due to a lack of supervision. They do not even include all homicides. According to Nico Trocmé, a professor of social work at the University of Toronto, "Estimates indicate that between 50 and 85 percent of child homicides go undetected."
Why are these murders happening? "We have to sharpen up," says Dr. Charles A. Ferguson, director of Manitoba's Child Protection Centre at Winnipeg's Children's Hospital. "Everybody in this business has to be a honed investigator, a skeptic." Many people making decisions about children at risk fall far short of this standard.
Martha McKay, an infant therapist from Mothercraft, was instructed to visit Sara Podniewicz's family once every two weeks. When Lisa Olsen assured her she was taking Sara to the family doctor for check-ups, McKay tried once but didn't confirm whether it was true.
When CCAS social worker Susan Demelo-Grant learned that a relative of the family was concerned about the parents' drug use, she discussed it with the couple. But she didn't ask the police to investigate and didn't check to see if the neighbours knew anything. Demelo-Grant and McKay also never examined the children for bruises.
The skill and judgement of social workers is critical and the quality of their training extremely important. Yet a 1995 investigation by provincial court Judge Thomas Gove into child protection found that only 47 percent of social workers in British Columbia had a degree in social work.
Even social workers who obtain degrees may be unprepared for the job. Dr. Betty Carter, a professor of social work at University of British Columbia, says, "In a degree program we offer a generalized course -- broad areas such as poverty or violence against women -- relevant to any kind of social work." Graduates are expected to get specific training about child protection on the job.
But often that training is woefully inadequate. In British Columbia, orientation takes 20 weeks. Nine three-day seminars in child protection are required in Ontario. But New Brunswick offers only four two-day training sessions; Manitoba, a one-week orientation.
"Sometimes," says Wayne Govereau, children's advocate for Manitoba's Family Services, "we just throw them to the lions."
Social workers often cannot do their job properly because caseloads are too high. British Columbia workers struggle with an average of 35 to 40 families each, rising to 80 or 90 when they cover for colleagues on holiday. The Child Welfare League of America, a U.S. federation of child-care agencies, recommends a maximum caseload of 17.
Family doctors and emergency-room physicians are often the first to see victims of child abuse. Unfortunately, many are not knowledgeable enough about abuse. In July 1992 Matthew Vaudreuil, not yet six, was beaten and tortured to death in Vancouver by his mother, Verna. Matthew had made some 75 visits to doctors, but only twice did a physician write to the Ministry of Social Services expressing concern.
Abused children usually see many professionals with different areas of expertise. If the experts don't communicate well with one another, and if no one shoulders responsibility for the child's safety, the consequences can be tragic.
In May 1994 three-year-old John Ryan Turner died of starvation in Miramichi, N.B., after a lifetime of abuse. Several doctors, public-health nurses and other professionals came into contact with him between 1991 and 1993, but nobody raised the alarm.
An Ontario coroner's jury investigating a child murder at the time said medical professionals often don't seem to know that their duty to report abuse takes precedence over their duty to keep medical records confidential.
Social workers should treat the well-being of the children as their premier concern, says Dr. Ferguson. But many don't. "So often the guardians are given yet another chance."
In the case of baby Sara, the CCAS accepted Olsen's guarantee that Michael Podniewicz would never be alone with the children -- a condition of his parole. It was a tragic error.
Mary McConville, executive director of the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies, blames child-welfare laws that fail to clearly put the children's safety first. Legislation differs in detail across the country, but it is all based on the same idea -- that the least intrusive approach is preferable, that children are better off in their families if possible. However, it doesn't make sense to preserve every family.
After 17 months in a loving foster home, 22-month-old Shanay Johnson was returned to her crack-using and uncaring mother, Patricia. The social worker had asked her if she was still taking illegal drugs. When she said no, he called her doctor, who told him the one blood test he had done was negative. There was no further follow-up. Four months later, on October 26, 1993, Shanay died, brutally battered. As well as bruises, her body showed whip marks, burns and missing teeth. Some of her injuries were weeks old.
"Our governments talk about preserving families, but what they seem to want is to save money," says Barbara Chisholm, a Toronto social worker. When, for example, the Metro Toronto Children's Aid Society provides preventive services for a family in the home, the average cost is $1,300 per year. For a child in foster care, the cost is $18,000.
WHAT MUST be done to reduce the incidence of child abuse and murder in Canada?
Many experts believe that federal legislation needs to be changed. Says Judy Finlay, Ontario's chief advocate for children: "Section 43 of the federal Criminal Code gives permission for the use of 'reasonable' force in disciplining children. But there are no standards on what is reasonable."
Corinne Robertshaw, a retired lawyer in Toronto, heads a committee working to repeal Section 43. She has found that judges across Canada are ruling that hitting children -- even as young as two years old -- with straps, belts, sticks, extension cords and rulers is permitted under an 1892 section of the code.
Sweden had legislation similar to Canada's until 1979, when it was repealed. By 1989 the number of referrals to St. Göran's Hospital in Stockholm, which received all child-maltreatment referrals, had declined to one sixth of the 1970 rate.
Canadians are not being fully informed about the successes and failures of the child-welfare system. Manitoba's Chief Medical Examiner lobbied for years for public access to his recommendations on child-abuse investigations before the Ministry of Family Services finally responded by saying they would be included in their annual reports. The province joins British Columbia in now routinely making public the findings of such investigations. Judge Gove adds: "It would be a welcome addition to the development of child welfare in Canada if there was a national office to assist provinces and agencies." He believes the federal government could play a role in gathering and distributing information. "The public must be assured that the system can learn from its mistakes."
Health Canada took a step in the right direction last October when it launched a three-year study of child abuse. The study will examine rates of reported child abuse and neglect across the country. It will also use standard definitions of what constitutes child abuse, thus facilitating interprovincial comparisons.
A child at risk of abuse needs a dedicated individual to be his advocate. "Ultimately, somebody has to be accountable for developing a comprehensive integrated plan for the child," says Judy Finlay. "In every death you read about, there's a lack of communication, a lack of integration, a lack of plan. I think the assignment of a single case manager to every child throughout his lifetime of care would make a big difference."
WE ALL have a responsibility to our country's children. "We must be alert to signs of abuse," says Bruce Rivers, executive director of the Metro Toronto Children's Aid Society. "Tips from neighbours, teachers and relatives can save a child's life."
Bonnie's classmates at her elementary school in Scarborough knew that things were not right at home. They were aware that the pale, withdrawn and unkempt six-year-old often came to school without having had breakfast and with no packed lunch. Frequently they shared their sandwiches with her.
One afternoon when Bonnie's father came to pick her up after school, the mother of one of her classmates saw he was so drunk that he staggered. She told the school principal. He phoned the Children's Aid Society, which immediately called Bonnie's mother. She turned out to be as drunk as Bonnie's father. The agency decided to immediately take short-term custody of Bonnie.
When the father learned that his daughter would be taken from their home, he was so belligerent that the police were called. Soon after, however, the parents acknowledged the justice in the agency's action. They joined Alcoholics Anonymous and sought help from their family doctor. Two weeks later the social worker allowed Bonnie to return home. Today she is a different girl: happy, sociable and cared for.
Senator Anne Cools, a former social worker who established the first women's shelter in Toronto, is a passionate defender of children's rights. "Child abuse is the heart of darkness," she says. "It is so terrible, we can hardly bear to look at it. But if we don't look at it, if we don't speak about it, it will continue."