My local paper has been running a series of articles on DCFS and how it's failing to protect children in the area.  I've been reading with horror about children who were left with abusive parents and who were subsequently either killed or damaged for life by these monsters posing as parents - but what horrified me even more was the fact that NONE of the DCFS workers who fell down on the job were fired.  NONE.  The worst that happened to one of them was a 9 day suspension - and that particular worker had been suspended SIX times before. 

The following is just a sampling of the tales of horror that were in the paper the past few days:

Boy, 6 weeks old. Died before 2003 after being shaken by his father

A DCFS child protection investigator used an incorrect birthdate when running a criminal check on the father. This resulted in a false "clean" report. The father actually had two convictions for drugs and domestic violence and arrests for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice. The caseworker determined the boy was not in danger. "She based this belief on the mother's self-serving statement that when she told the father to stop hitting the child, he stopped," the inspector general's report stated.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: The caseworker and investigator received counseling.

Boy, 21/2 Died prior to 2003 after being shaken by his mother's boyfriend.

Patrons in a bowling alley witnessed the boyfriend kicking the boy, who cowered under a coat. Police arrested the boyfriend. But a DCFS investigator closed the case as "unfounded" without checking the police report from the bowling alley episode, failing to obtain medical records from the hospital or interviewing anyone from the bowling alley. He relied on the mother's word that no abuse occurred.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: The agency suspended the investigator for five days. His supervisor received a five-day "paper suspension."

Boy, 1. Died prior to 2002 of a beating from his mother's boyfriend.

A DCFS child protection investigator reported that drug addiction was not an issue in the family, even though the inspector general later found the mother had been arrested 48 times, including several drug arrests and three felony convictions. At one point, the boy, who suffered from asthma, was choking. The inebriated mother flagged down a motorist to take the boy to an emergency room, then wandered off, leaving him there. The DCFS investigator interpreted this as a positive sign -- that she sought medical help -- and ended the investigation. The boy died of a beating about two months later.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

Boy, 9, and girl 16.

Died prior to 2002

These children died after acute asthma attacks while living in separate foster homes. Private agency caseworkers failed to make any mention of asthma in either child's case file. Caseworkers did not have an Asthma Action Plan, even though the boy had been identified by the Department of Public Aid as one of the top 200 users of asthma medication in the state.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

Boy, 1. Died prior to 2002 of blunt force to the head by an unknown assailant. After a call to the state child abuse hot line, a DCFS child protection investigator and his supervisor spoke to friends and relatives but failed to confirm the mother's address so that the boy and a sibling could be located and examined. They ended their child abuse investigation as unfounded "without having observed the children."

DCFS DISCIPLINE: The investigator and his supervisor received discipline.

Girl, 4 months old, Cook County. Died in February 2002

The girl died after her father stuffed a washcloth down her throat. The DCFS became involved with the family earlier after the child was scalded. But DCFS workers closed the case without assessing the danger in the house by properly investigating the father's statement that the scalding was an accident -- a claim that officials later proved false. A DCFS investigator told the inspector general the water temperature could not be measured because he wasn't provided batteries for his state-supplied thermometer.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

Boy, 5 months old. Died prior to 2001 of a beating by his father.

An inexperienced therapist employed by a private agency used by DCFS found nothing wrong, despite the boy's bruising. But at a staff meeting the next day, a supervisor told the therapist to immediately re-examine the boy. When the therapist got to the house, the father said his son was sleeping. "Concerned about upsetting the father," the therapist left without seeing the child. An hour later, the father called 911. The boy was pronounced dead in the emergency room.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

Girl, 11, of Cook County. Died in February 2001

A supervisor told a DCFS child protection investigator to take a number of steps to make sure the child received her medication for seizures. Instead, she ignored the case for 48 days and then closed the investigation after talking to the mother once on the telephone. The investigator never contacted the girl's doctor or a local police officer who responded to the home when the girl had collapsed earlier. The DCFS investigator also took the mother's word that she could not always afford the girl's seizure medication, although the inspector general later learned that insurance covered the entire cost. The girl suffered a seizure and drowned in a bathtub eight months after DCFS ended the investigation.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: The investigator received a 10-day suspension. The investigator's supervisor received counseling.

Boy, 2 months old, Cook County. Died Jan. 1, 2000

On New Year's Eve, while smoking crack, the mother took refuge from celebratory gunfire by hiding in a kitchen cabinet with her son, where she continued to smoke crack cocaine. The baby died from cocaine asphyxiation. The mother received a 10-year prison sentence. Previously, a DCFS caseworker broke regulations when she informed the mother of the dates of "random" drug testing. "The worker did not understand that the advance notice she gave rendered the tests useless," an investigative report stated.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

Boy, 5 months old. Died prior to 2000 at home of undetermined causes.

The baby's mentally ill, drug-addicted mother left the baby boy alone for two days. She had given birth to three children, all of whom tested positive for cocaine and syphilis. The mother had attempted suicide at least three times, including one attempt to self-abort her first child by drinking bleach. Rather than developing a plan to assure the 5-month old's safety, DCFS accepted the mother's statement that she "intended to rely upon a casual network of relatives to ensure her son was cared for," the inspector general reported. Authorities placed the mother in an independent living program with limited supervision, where the boy died. "The agency's lack of critical thinking points to the problem of a 'one size fits all' approach to independent living programs," the report concluded.

DCFS DISCIPLINE: None

Girl, 17, Cook County. Died prior to 2000 -- Someone raped and killed this mentally handicapped girl from a rural area after authorities sent her to an independent living program in Chicago. After officials discovered that she was having sexual relations with numerous men, they decided she needed a worker with her around the clock. On the night she was killed, the girl left the group home without the worker. The inspector general determined "she should never have been placed in an independent living program."

DCFS DISCIPLINE: Two caseworkers received counseling.

Two metro east children are the subjects of pending office of the inspector general reports that are expected to be published in January. They are not included in the 53 deaths examined by the newspaper:

Natoria Mickens, 2 months old, Cahokia, Died Dec. 1, 2002

Christopher Mickens shook his daughter, Natoria, to death. The DCFS had been involved with the family since 1999 after the father was suspected of causing serious injury to his then 33-day-old daughter, Christyuna. State workers allowed Mickens to remain in the home. In 2004, Mickens pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Natoria's death and received nine years in prison.

Lausandra Davis, 2 months old, Carlyle. Died January 2002

Lausandra choked to death on a ribbon tied to a pacifier. However, an autopsy showed an unreported and healed fracture of the tibia, the largest bone below the knee. Police investigated but brought no charges. The mother first came to the attention of the DCFS in 1998 when she left her children unattended in a locked car.

I sat and read these stories with tears in my eyes.  I am just disgusted, not only with the parents and abusers of these poor little souls, but with the people who were paid to protect them.  It seems that DCFS are either sticking their noses in where they are not needed and removing children unneccessarily or they're letting kids go back to abusive families and, ultimately, to their deaths.

It's sickening.  Truly.