REPORT TARGETS PALMETTO STATE’S CHILD “WELFARE” AGENCY
ABC World News Tonight aired a special investigative report over the weekend alleging more than six dozen South Carolina children died last year as a result of mismanagement at the state’s welfare agency.
According to the report, case managers at the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) were “pressured to create a false appearance of success” – resulting in children being returned to dangerous homes.
Four of those case managers spoke with ABC News on condition of anonymity – their faces blurred out and their voices altered.
“We would start looking at returning children home faster than what they should be returned to,” one of the case workers said.
FITS exclusively reported on one of these tragic cases – the brutal murder of four-year-old Robert Guinyard – back in 2013. It wasn’t until February of 2014, though, that the state’s mainstream media picked up on the story and started taking a closer look at the agency.
That process that eventually resulted in the ouster of S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS) director Lillian Koller.
Neither Koller nor the woman who appointed her – S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley – provided comment to ABC News.
In case you missed it, here’s the report …
(Click to play)
(Video: Via)
“I thought (the report) made South Carolina look awful,” one state lawmaker told FITS.
In addition to breaking the Guinyard story, FITS has reported on other instances in which SCDSS has allegedly manipulated data – including its administration of the federal food stamp program as well as its so-called “welfare to work” initiative.
Haley is running for reelection in 2014, and not surprisingly her gubernatorial challengers wasted little time in pouncing on the report.
“Governor Haley turned her back on our most vulnerable children and her leadership failure continues to threaten those under the care of South Carolina’s Department of Social Services,” self-styled independent Republican Tom Ervin said in a statement. “Governor Haley knew about this crisis but failed to act until the public outcry was deafening. We can do better for our state and our children.”
Ervin said he would bring “immediate reform” to SCDSS if elected, redirecting “human capital from management into case workers.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen was not immediately available for comment regarding the report.
44 comments
Shameful and falls squarely on Haley.
NIKKI HALEY ONLY CARES ABOUT NIKKI HALEY!
I’m still curious about the peculiar bond between Nikki and Lillian….
Of course you are, pervert.
:)
Darling, that’s exactly why you are my favorite waitress. That special perfume you dab on your vagina drives me crazy – especially when you are pressing it against my shoulder when serving me my order. You love me, too, because I am a huge tipper!
Well her appointee bears some of the blame, don’t you think?
“Governor Haley turned her back”….
‘traitor’ Tommy Ervin actually said this in a statement? A guy that has ‘turned his back’ (except for political contributions to dem candidates and SC dem party?) on the dem party and the Republican Party because the people that know him best in BOTH parties won’t elect him to political office and according to a FITS article this weekend his campaign has apparently tried to sabotage T-Rav’s campaign for senate-just as he is trying to elect dem Sheheen for gov.
His wife has apparently given THOUSANDS to dem candidates (INCLUDING the dem party candidate for gov Vincent Sheheen) and the SC dem party.
ERVIN ONLY CARES ABOUT ERVIN! Trust who?Not ‘traitor’ Tommy.A vote for Tommy is a vote for the Obama regime and its policies.
Just my opinion.
Is Haley going to expense the gasoline cost for your trip to meet sparklecity? Or is that outside of your pay grade?
lol! I don’t work for Haley. I work for God!!!! :-)
In regards to the ‘sparklecity’ invite, I am sending a ‘proxy’ to find out if he is as nuts as you , ‘twinkletoes’.
I will report back. :-)
I work for God!!!!
“Hey, God, I’ve been doing everything you’ve asked, but the landlord said I have to have the rent by Friday. Can you please, please send me my paycheck now?”
Gee. If God existed, he might have helped out the kids who died. He surely would have told you to take a hike.
God makes sure the 50 MILLION children the Democrat Party and Planned Parenthood have murderd since Roe v.Wade are welcomed into Heaven so don’t doubt that these poor children you are trying to use and disgrace their memory, are in God’s arms.
50 million free tickets into Heaven sounds like a wonderful thing. If we had stopped abortion, how many of those 50 million kids would have gone to Hell by not getting a ticket the hard way?
Sandi wants to send children to Hell!
…and be with YOU? Na.
How is that ‘full-time’ job going today? :-)
Uh no. I am attempting to disgrace your memory, as you and your ilk continue to keep this state at the bottom of everything.
Stop with that BS, only way to heaven is through accepting Jesus. Those babies are in hell forever.
Wrong, Rev Jerimiah Wright Jr.
Put them tapes away. They ain’t healthy.
We are talking about children dying in SC? Fits, stop posting crap .. sparklecity, twinkletoes.. Children are dying in SC on government care. Fits, are your advocating violence against children and women?
Need to explain more. I do not understand the trip to sparkle city. and outside my pay grade. Please explain.
Tommy Ervin actually is making a lot of sense. T-Rav’s campaign is sabotaging by itself. Sheheen needs to get going.
Nikki Haley – making South Carolina First in Worst one miserable failure after another…
So what is the answer ? Take the children out of a abusive household, then what ? Put them into another abusive household, aka foster care ? One of my wife’s friends tried the DSS foster care program but after she went through all the BS and all the rules said to hell with it and didn’t go through. Sounds like this is an org. that needs revamping from the top down. Some of these situations are no win no matter what. That should also be taken into consideration. Everything can’t be blamed on Haley.
Social agencies like DSS are infected with liberals. Do a poll of social workers that work for the state and I bet you would find 100% of them voted for Obama.
Add the fact that millions of federal and state $$$ are poured into these agencies with little or NO accountability and it is easy to see why the children suffer the consequences of poor care.
You are correct. 99% of DSS employees are Democrats.
Lies Republican 99%
That was the woman in questions problem. She had children of her own and was required to treat the foster child at a level no higher than it had in the birth home. That meant the foster child couldn’t have things or go to places taken for granted by the woman and her child. The woman couldn’t bring herself to treat the foster child like that and had several run ins with the brass before telling them where to go. Like you say they are all Dims and that means the soft bigotry of low expectations. (heard that before ?)
Hell no jackass….South Carolina is a republican state many STATE EMPLOYEE VOTED FOR HALEY BE CAUSE SHE WAS A FEMALE AND SHE PROMETING RAISES AND MAJOR OVER HAUL CHANGES. STATE AGENCIES HAS MORE FEMALE THANK MALES. OBAMA HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HALEY MESS.
“So what is the answer ? Take the children out of a abusive household, then what ?”
I wonder if they would be happier roaming trash piles like in India versus being dead.
Maybe we should ask them and see what they choose. Everyone likes options:
1. Being abused in various ways at home
2. Being homeless surviving off SC dumps until they find an alternative
3. Being dead
So far, the #1 and #2 seem to be the better option….but it’s all a matter of perspective I suppose.
The “roaming trash piles” statement reminded me of something a businessman told a do-gooder once. The do-gooder was complaining about the poor people working 12 hrs. per day 6 days a week in a sweat shop and how terrible that was. The businessman said it was indeed bad but before that they worked 16 hrs. per day 7 days a week in a trash dump to get enough food to live. I guess it has something to do with perspective. There once was an Indian man who said “he wanted to come to a country where poor people were fat.” What can I say ???
Wrong.
Each county DSS office produces an annual report describing in detail — typically 30 – 35 pages — the problems it has managing its caseload.
The Haley administration, including senior DSS management, never read these.
The Senate oversight committee read them for the first time this year: some 1,500-odd pages.
“Everything can’t be blamed on Haley” is like saying “NASA can’t be blamed for the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster” when Morton-Thiokol (manufacturer of the famous “O Ring”) warned NASA, “Do not launch in temperatures near freezing.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know something is seriously wrong, with lives at stake.
“One of my wife’s friends tried the DSS foster care program but after she went through all the BS and all the rules said to hell with it and didn’t go through.”
——————————————
Bureaucracies can’t raise children. Bureaucracies don’t want Foster parents who care. They become too involved and create problems when they decide to reunite the family.
Dead on. see below. Bureaucrats want bureaucrats. Mind numbed robots that ” follow the rules.” No thinking or common sense allowed.
Your wife’s friend or spouse may have had something show up on the DSS background check that ruled them out.
Trust me, idiots can get through the DSS foster parent training. They used to have a pre-test and a post-test during training. You were not required to show you learned a bless-ed thing after completing training.
Of course, last time I heard, foster parent training has been privatized out to the private therapeutic foster home companies that somehow were licensing people 20 years ago who had not a clue that they would be dealing with emotionally disturbed children. That’s what happens when people don’t understand the definition of ‘therapeutic.
The Office of State Inspector General (created by the legislature in April 2011) revealed in his FY 2012-13 Annual Report that of the 205 “telephone hot line” tips / complaints about state agencies, DSS was at the top, with 1/4th (exactly 50).
One can expect that Haley would cover this up or ignore it.
But shame on the rest of us for not jumping on this like white on rice.
http://oig.sc.gov/Documents/SIG%20Annual%20Report%20FY%202012-2013.pdf
page 10
Government doing what it does best, killing people.
Republicans only care about fetuses.
So…why are we appropriating tax dollars to the SC Legislative Audit Council to do audits (like their DSS audit that started back in January 2013 and still isn’t finished) when the local news stations can do their work in a fraction of the time and will address issues that people actually care about?
This sort of near-criminal management by the Haley administration is what I’ll have in mind in the voting booth in November.
LMAO!!!Only thing you will have on your mind is whether the dems will BUY your vote with booze , cigs or cash.
GT…………get a life. We are talking about children. Too bad you don’t have any of your moniker……………….morals. Same old BS going on @ DSS in Cola with Kollers Managers and Regional Directors still in place.
1. Again…That’s NOT the DSS state office.
2. “self-styled independent Republican Tom Ervin”…are we going to see the cokehead Ravenel referred to as a “self-styled independent” any time soon? And, if not, is it because he is a RINO Libertarian?
South Carolina is tied with 4 states at 30th in lowest child mortality(ages 1-14) with 20 deaths per 100,000 according to the Kids Count Data Center in 2010. Connecticut was first with 9 and Montana was worst with 30. The National average is 20. Two states were unranked.
http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/22-child-deaths?loc=1&loct=2#ranking/2/any/true/133/any/287
Let’s set the record straight. FOSTER PARENT application and recruitment was do by the county office by a license foster care worker four years ago under former state director Lillian Koller the process was change to a private agency.
(2).
Human Services worker pay band was deceased under Governor Haley Appointee Lillian Koller and the State budget and control board reduce the pay band by $4000 to $5000 to privatization of contact. Starting salary 4 years ago 31,000 now 25,000 to 29,000. A year.
(3) Haley and Koller were on every local channels celebrity the success of returning children home and adoption. With this story on ABC Dateline and the Senate sub committee hearing how many of those adoption were legally done correct.
(4) visit the state Web site for job placement you will see how many attorney and human services workers have left the agency in 4 years. License attorney and license social have left the agency because they are scare of losing their license for ethical violations. Trying to meet a number.
Instead of OBAMA OR Democrats talk to some state dss employee or other state employee. Haley administration is about intimidation for all state agencies. .. many State employees now qualified for food stamp and Medicare/medicaid of the current reduce salary.
These systems and others have been manipulated for years… including guardians and attorneys… more than 20 years ago. This, however is an atrocity beyond my comprehension. People knew and did nothing! Including the caseworkers that didn’t step up! No excuses… I would have given up my job to save a life. That’s the problem with society. Sad that someone wasn’t YELLING about the first child’s death! …. in my opinion.
The case worker said it makes South Carolina “look awful” and the governor turned her back on the children – THIS is what we have come to expect from the republican, conservative, christian south…..they are so sickened by their hatred of the poor and underprivileged they would just as soon see them die. They are disgusting as an example of Americans, human beings and have created a new persona of what a christian truly is.