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Wilkes DSS ‘deficiencies’ identified

bluebird1

Posted 9:25 pm, 04/28/2014

This will eventually be another cover up by the local officials.the state will let them make a couple changes and then move along nothing to see here.The JP will not cover the story.

blessedbychrist

Posted 9:19 pm, 04/28/2014

So did anyone hear that Sonya Freeman resigned after the news hit about the sex abuse children. She was totally abusing her power and using her power as lead supervisor for financial gain and services from business. She ran the show and Bill Sebastian let her do as she wanted.

I know that there are a few social worker that the goal is protecting children and helping the family. I had a social worker help me and my family, she came in and helped when I was having issues about getting my trash to the landfill . She took it own her own to help us, get back to normal and our life back on track since our truck had torn up. I would have never though that a social worker would help us load trash and take it to the dump and then help all away around. How may can say they have every had a social worker do that in this county. I wish I could recall her name.

shilo

Posted 11:14 pm, 04/26/2014

This is the only proof that I have. http://www.yadkinripple.com...=302189981 No judge is mentioned as being responsible for placing these children in the home of a convicted child molester.

nwnc08

Posted 10:00 pm, 04/26/2014

Do you have proof that the placement was not ordered by are a judge or are you just blowing gowilkes smoke?

shilo

Posted 11:59 am, 04/26/2014

Moving 101: No, just anyone can not be a foster parent. Foster parents are licensed by the state and Children are placed in foster homes by a court order. The yadkin/wilkes county case was not ordered by a judge. They were placed in a kinship placement. Recommend by the family and approved by Wilkes Dss "Child Protective Services". No money is paid to these families that keep these children in a kinship placement. This whole investigation is focused on the CPS side of DSS not foster care. We are now seeing the blame game being played between The director of DSS/ The Dss board of Director's and the County Commissioners. After all these children were put through; watch and see how money is thrown at this situation just like our public education, teenage pregnancy, unemployment and on and on. Watch and see which Commissioners vote to spend more money to pay for more supervisor's positions. We need doers not watchers. Remember the investigation report stated that it was a leadership problem. At one time not so long ago in wilkes county, a child could not be placed outside of wilkes county without the director of DSS's approval. That was when we had leadership at DSS. That was when the director had concern for the children's welfare in the county. You lead from the front not behind a desk.

moving101

Posted 9:39 am, 04/26/2014

I'm wondering how either Wilkes or Yadkin could even have those particular people on their list of potential foster parents. Might lord, can just any body walk in to DSS and become candidates for such a crucial job?

empowers

Posted 1:13 pm, 04/25/2014

When very small we lived in two rooms. I slept at the foot of the bed and my two brothers slept at the head of the bed and we slept on straw ticks (mattresses) as they called them back then. My mom and stepdad slept in the living room/kitchen. Then he built on two more rooms later.

jerrydl03

Posted 12:55 pm, 04/25/2014

When this story first broke, Sebastian tried to put them blame on Yadkin County DSS. As it turns out Yadkin rejected the placement of the kids in this home. Wilkes ignored the rejection and placed them there anyway. After Wilkes ignored Yadkin's rejection, it was Wilkes' responsibility to handle supervision. Sebastian needs to be fired.

http://www.elkintribune.com...-miserably

mr.metaltrucker

Posted 11:09 pm, 04/24/2014

moving101 (view profile)

Posted 4:13 pm, 04/19/2014

Quack, we all know that family would be better off in a more spacious place, but, I can remember a time when very large families lived in a 2 or 3 room shack and they all managed to fair pretty well and all turned out OK. Sadly, not everyone can afford to do better than a tiny place to live and personally I don't think that alone is grounds for DSS involvement. JMO


bravo!!!! standing ovation. not everybody has money for a large house. we do the best we can with what we have by god!
so eat some poop count quackula!

shilo

Posted 3:48 pm, 04/24/2014

Ok Wilkes County tax payers get your pocket books out, here it comes. We are now going to pay someone else to do Bill Sebastain's job for him at DSS. Per the Elkin Tribune "the Dss board of directors ordered the fulfillment of a program services manager position to ensure that policies are followed to the letter." Is this not the Director's job or how about the Asst. Director Kevin Brown? "The cost to taxpayers for the new positions are unknown, but Sebastian said he would release those figures in a few weeks. http://www.elkintribune.com...te-changes. Don't you just love the way government fixes problems with money. MONEY is not the answer; its that nasty word called WORK is the answer. It would be nice if someone would show the numbers and case loads at DSS for the years 2007- 2009. Might just be a shocker.

Like2Laugh

Posted 8:08 pm, 04/19/2014

The report is very disturbing. NO CHILD should be placed with someone that has not been through background screening; this is absolutely unacceptable. It is almost as if these children have been treated like second-class citizens.

shilo

Posted 7:57 pm, 04/19/2014

"The report also revealed that Child Protective Services workers in Wilkes County interviewed and did background checks on all adults in the child's home in only 35.3 percent of all cases. Ongoing visits to make sure the child was safe only happened in 11.8 percent of cases." Lack of manpower? I don't think so. Just sorriness How could they sleep at night? This is criminal in my book.

Absher3

Posted 4:54 pm, 04/19/2014

Quack ... If everyone has a safe place to sleep,have enough food for the household,the place isn't in total disarray,the children are clean ,and in a safe environment . Where's the abuse or neglect ? I know of a family that has 8 kids 2 adults in a tiny 2 room house . 1 room is the kitchen ,living room area ,the other is the bedroom . They are very well taken care of . Are they lacking a lot of space ,yes ,but that's not reason to remove children from homes . Years ago it wasn't uncommon to have a 1 room home with 10 kids and parents with 4-6 kids in one bed .

Quackquack

Posted 4:21 pm, 04/19/2014

2 or 3 bedrooms is ok. You can seperate the 4 Adults and the 5 Girls and Boys. Even the Waltons had girl and boy bedrooms. jmo too.

moving101

Posted 4:13 pm, 04/19/2014

Quack, we all know that family would be better off in a more spacious place, but, I can remember a time when very large families lived in a 2 or 3 room shack and they all managed to fair pretty well and all turned out OK. Sadly, not everyone can afford to do better than a tiny place to live and personally I don't think that alone is grounds for DSS involvement. JMO

Quackquack

Posted 4:07 pm, 04/19/2014

DSS is aware of a person living in a 1 bedroom Apt or House that has 4 Adults and 5 kids living in this horrible condition. DSS will do nothing but tell them they need a larger 3 bedroom house.

Good job DSS.

moving101

Posted 3:58 pm, 04/19/2014

A couple of points to consider.

1) There are people that will and have called DSS to report parents that are not abusing/neglecting their kids, because the caller has a personal axe to grind and it's their way of stirring up trouble for the other adults that they are mad at.

2) What Standing for Truth said is very atypical of how government agencies do operate. But, if enough people will take the extra steps to keep the focus on a problem, change can occur and sometimes heads will roll. From the JP article, it is obvious that what the DSS suffers from most is poor leadership. In my personal opinion. the one at the top that oversees all others has some serious explaining to do. And I don't want to hear a bunch of excuses about understaffed and underfunded. If the main duck is allowing employees under his/her supervision to get by with less than adequate performance then the main duck needs to be replaced and all others put on a probationary period for later review to see if they are doing what they must do and in a timely manner. There are counties in NC with far greater population, and bigger case loads than what Wilkes has that ARE handling their duties better. So can this bunch. It is despicable to know that some of the kids in the cases that were reviewed have had open cases for 300+ and 400+ days.

3) There truly are situations were children must be removed from their parents/homes for the well-being and protection of the children. But, there are cases where DSS and the DA are not using plain old common sense, and, allowing children to be uprooted and placed in DSS custody when it is not necessary. Times when they could be placed with a close relative that meets all the requirements, but, instead, the authorities seem to prefer placing the kids with strangers. Money seems to be at the root of the problem.

4) For the record, I do not have a dog in this fight, personally. Until recently it was not an issue that was high on my priority list. But within the past few weeks I became aware of a particular situation that got my attention, and, since then, I have spent a fair amount of time digging in and getting familiar with how the process works, how the local agencies seem to operate, and how damaging false allegations can end up being. It seems much could be done to avoid financial ruin and the breaking up of a family if people in a position to do so would just use some common sense and not be more concerned with their own reputations and making a name for themselves.

All the above, just my opinion.

Absher3

Posted 10:26 am, 04/19/2014

Dss would be up the creek either way you look at it .... The article said they do not have enough help . If parents would take care of the children they create ,instead of what drug they can poison themselves with next . What can I sell or what utilities should I not pay so I can get high . And btw while I'm high I will let every man and woman into my home to do their drugs . And give them free access to my children to use as sexual toys, and if I find out I will dismiss it and keep quiet so I can still get high . .and when we are high we will fight ,scream,cuss and hit each other in front of the kids . I won't buy food because the drugs I do make me not hungry so the kids can't be hungry either. and when the kids cry about it lets beat them because their crying and messes upy high .but when my obstetrician offers to do something like tie tubes or a vasectomy (that the state pays for) oh no can't do that either ,that may limit my benefits,instead I will keep creating as many children with as many different men and women as I possibly can . I will go on methadone treatment while pregnant ,have to go to a high risk pregnancy OB and my baby will be born addicted but still gets to go home with me ......WHY IS CPS TO BLAME . Why not the sorry sacks of crap that procreate children into these situations . THE FACT IS THERE IS A REASON THAT CPS SECTION OF DSS EXISTS ,THAT IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE ANGRY AT. I'm pretty sure in any given audit of any business /or public agency "deficiencies" would be found .....I am not saying that our CPS doesn't need what seems to be some weeding out and retraining ,.but statements like "babyblueflashes" put Ion a different thread and then specifically calling social workers out by name ,would lead us to believe that CPS has had an intimate Involment with her and her family and well she was found to have done something inappropriate therefore she hates them . And thinks they should be fired . I see a lot of comments like this ... If you properly cared for yor children there would be no reason to hate them . MY STEP SISTER SAYS THEY ARE ALL "CROOKED" but she's the one who chose her path for herself and her children . They have her a list of things to do... She had a year to complete the following, and was granted a 6 month extentsion ..Get a job ,attend parenting classes,anger management classes, drug treatment , submit to random drug screens,stay out of jail ,don't do drugs , don't show up to supervised visits drunk or high ,for that matter show up to supervised visits . Find a safe drug free environment to reside , her abusive boyfriend could not drive her to or attend supervised visits . No new legal charges. Come to the meeting at Dss that regard the care of your children ... She did 2 (sort of )of the above mentioned . She came to 2 supervised is its soberand without her "man"she entered drug treatment and left after 3 days. ...SO THAT WAS NOT CPS FAULT WHEN THWY TWRMINATED HER RIGHTS TO HER KIDS. When do the people who are responsible for the maltreatment of their children be held responsible instead of just Dss . While I don't always agree with some of the ways they place children . My step sisters first "kinship placement choice ,yes she was given a choice as to who got the kids ) her first choice was her yet to be caught and convicted drug dealer. And since they were willing Dss was willing to place them . We had to suggest that a drug screen be conducted on every adultber of the home. Not one passed ! Now that part I do not understand about the system ,or the repeatedly returning kids time and again to the same situation. Every office /agency from lowes hardware down to Dss could use some suggestion and review . Remember the people who work there are just that people

foggymorning

Posted 9:18 am, 04/19/2014

I am blaming the sorry parents!!! Those are the cases dss needs to take seriously! I have never had dss investigate my family because there has never been a need! I think dss needs to forget about keeping kids with their parents when abuse and molestation has occurred. Instead they give them right back and the poor kid has to go through **** because of it. And if you make a complaint about the abused kids, dss just schedules an appointment, the parents deny abuse and they say case closed. No investigation needed.

killmeone

Posted 9:09 am, 04/19/2014

IF PARENTS WERE STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE(so to say) AND BEING REAL PAARENTS AND START TAKING CARE OF THEIR CHILDREN THEN ALOT OF CHILDREN WOULDN'T BE IN THIS SHAPE! STOP BLAMING DSS, FIRST BLAME THE SORRY PARENTS!

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