Parental Right

Sunday’s editorial recounts the sad saga of Johnny Smith’s fight to reclaim his abused daughter and laments the state of affairs that made it a fight in the first place.

 

It’s impossible to say whose tragedy is more devastating: the little girl beaten and savagely abused while under her mother’s care, or her father, who has been confined by cruel bureaucracy for two years from coming to his daughter’s aid.

The girl’s injuries were nothing short of monstrous, allegedly inflicted by the sons of her mother’s new boyfriend: hair torn out, bones broken, reset and broken again as the abuse continued. The trauma she suffered was so severe that, at 3, her speech reverted to baby talk, and being found wandering half-clothed in a busy New York street by passing motorists was actually a high point for her.

That was two years ago. Since then, her father, Horry County farmer Johnny Smith, has had to sit helplessly by, unable to retrieve his daughter from a foster home in New York through no fault of his own. Because of an arcane accident of bureaucracy called the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, New York will not return the girl to Smith, even though he is her father and had nothing to do with the abuse she suffered.

As columnist Issac Bailey reported in six heartbreaking pieces in The Sun News, Smith’s financial status was deemed “fragile” by a local caseworker, and that finding was treated like a conviction. New York accepted that Smith’s home was not a good fit for the girl to return to, and placed her in foster care. Unlike in an in-state case heard before a family court judge, Smith had no legal recourse to appeal. Even the simplest of turns of the screw – a request that his home be evaluated, for example – took an appalling four months to complete as it wound its way up one state’s bureaucratic ladder and down it again across state lines.

What Smith’s story tells us is that the reports and studies that find South Carolina so consistently poor in its protection of children all have meaning. When we read that our state places 45th on a list of 50 states, when we read of deep cuts to the Department of Social Services, when we read that our state fails federal benchmarks designed to see children protected from neglect – what we are reading is the formula for the Smith family tragedy.

In so many ways, this case is a story of what might have been good intentions, gone sickeningly awry through the labyrinths of government. The caseworker who initially described his home as unfit may have been acting in good faith, but the fact that Smith had no way of refuting her conclusions made them into damnations. The ICPC process itself was put into place to protect children taken from their homes from being put into worse situations elsewhere – and surely has done that in many cases – but its intransigence has likewise become a trap.

Who, through this process, was Johnny Smith’s advocate? Who was acting on his daughter’s behalf? As the system has suffered terrible cuts in its funding, as caseworkers have become more and more overworked, the laws intended to protect the child have turned instead to a mechanism designed to protect the system itself. Even now, after Horry County has reversed its own decision and deemed him a fit father, Smith still has no assurance that this will be enough to convince authorities in New York.

Advocates who have dealt with similar situations are demanding changes that should be implemented. Clearly, an appeals process is needed. Birth parents, such as Smith, ought to be given special consideration. Though the process crosses state lines, state lawmakers can make some of these changes in South Carolina on its own – and after reading Smith’s story, we hope that they will.

 

 

That was two years ago. Since then, her father, Horry County farmer Johnny Smith, has had to sit helplessly by, unable to retrieve his daughter from a foster home in New York through no fault of his own. Because of an arcane accident of bureaucracy called the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, New York will not return the girl to Smith, even though he is her father and had nothing to do with the abuse she suffered.

As columnist Issac Bailey reported in six heartbreaking pieces in The Sun News, Smith’s financial status was deemed “fragile” by a local caseworker, and that finding was treated like a conviction. New York accepted that Smith’s home was not a good fit for the girl to return to, and placed her in foster care. Unlike in an in-state case heard before a family court judge, Smith had no legal recourse to appeal. Even the simplest of turns of the screw – a request that his home be evaluated, for example – took an appalling four months to complete as it wound its way up one state’s bureaucratic ladder and down it again across state lines.

What Smith’s story tells us is that the reports and studies that find South Carolina so consistently poor in its protection of children all have meaning. When we read that our state places 45th on a list of 50 states, when we read of deep cuts to the Department of Social Services, when we read that our state fails federal benchmarks designed to see children protected from neglect – what we are reading is the formula for the Smith family tragedy.

In so many ways, this case is a story of what might have been good intentions, gone sickeningly awry through the labyrinths of government. The caseworker who initially described his home as unfit may have been acting in good faith, but the fact that Smith had no way of refuting her conclusions made them into damnations. The ICPC process itself was put into place to protect children taken from their homes from being put into worse situations elsewhere – and surely has done that in many cases – but its intransigence has likewise become a trap.

Who, through this process, was Johnny Smith’s advocate? Who was acting on his daughter’s behalf? As the system has suffered terrible cuts in its funding, as caseworkers have become more and more overworked, the laws intended to protect the child have turned instead to a mechanism designed to protect the system itself. Even now, after Horry County has reversed its own decision and deemed him a fit father, Smith still has no assurance that this will be enough to convince authorities in New York.

Advocates who have dealt with similar situations are demanding changes that should be implemented. Clearly, an appeals process is needed. Birth parents, such as Smith, ought to be given special consideration. Though the process crosses state lines, state lawmakers can make some of these changes in South Carolina on its own – and after reading Smith’s story, we hope that they will.