I’m writing in response to recent media coverage regarding the horrible death of local teen Jeanette Maples. While this tragedy highlights systemic problems within our child welfare system, we should pause and reflect before we blame individual caseworkers. Accountability is vital, but this is far bigger than one staff person.
Blaming individuals overlooks addressing structural issues that played a major role in this young woman’s life. Terminating the employment of a person dedicated to helping children doesn’t mean you’ve taken action to address the problem of child abuse.
Firing a person willing to take on child abuse in their daily work doesn’t solve the national problem of overburdened caseworkers. Losing this employee does nothing to improve Oregon’s case load situations, which stand at double the national recommendations. The media demand accountability from a system that is well-documented as being far short of the staffing levels needed to do the job. Ranting about the death of a child by her parent’s hand and searching for a responsible individual working in government is more noteworthy than looking at the Oregon public’s ongoing distaste and refusal to fund child safety at an acceptable level.
While I applaud voters for passing recent tax measures, avoiding tragic outcomes will take more. My sincere hope is that we as a state can learn how to respond to such tragic situations instead of reacting, placing blame, and feeling any comfort in thinking one fired staff member moves us any closer to more child safety. The caseworker erred and some supervisor signed off on it. But ultimately, we failed this child as a community. The system that failed is our system. Blaming one individual does not address the issue nor allow for a reasonable method to problem solve and find answers to child abuse.
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