Activists say social workers are too quick to place kids into care

Parents and social activists gather in Tel Aviv to spotlight what they call "the heavy-handedness of the authorities."

By RUTH EGLASH
stegman 224.88 (photo credit: Courtesy )
stegman 224.88
(photo credit: Courtesy )
Social Welfare Services are too quick to remove children from their homes, according to the hundreds of parents and social activists who gathered Thursday evening in Tel Aviv to spotlight what they call "the heavy-handedness of the authorities." They suggest changes to the current legislation that they claim affords social workers free rein in deciding the fate of thousands of Israeli children. "Social workers are a law unto themselves," social activist Ayala Stegman told The Jerusalem Post ahead of the conference. "The law works in their favor and there is no way for families to appeal these ultimate decisions. They decide who is a child at risk, who needs to be taken out of their homes and whether an appeal is justified." According to Stegman, an educator who was inspired to fight the system following a television expose on the subject two years ago, Israel leads the world in the number of children per capita removed from their homes and placed into care. Official figures from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services show that roughly 6500 children are placed into care each year. "When there are serious cases they [social workers] are nowhere to be found," said Stegman, referring to several cases over the past year where young children had been seriously abused or even murdered by their parents. "But when families are easy targets, then the social workers are too heavy handed." She criticized the authorities for being too quick to remove children from divorced parents - some 50 percent of the children taken into care come from broken homes - and from poor families. "These problems can be treated via alternative means," maintained Stegman, suggesting mediation for divorce cases and financial aid for those who live in poverty. In response, Hannah Slutzky, the national supervisor for child affairs at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, told the Post: "When we are not quick enough [to remove a child] we are criticized, but if we take the children out of potentially dangerous situations then we are accused of being too heavy handed." "I am very disturbed to hear that this conference is taking place," she added. "They like to criticize our methods but fail to give us alternative solutions to rescuing children who are at risk. "Are we supposed to leave children suffering in the hands of parents with drug or alcohol problems or with those who cause their children to suffer through ugly divorces?" Slutzky said that the process used by social services to treat children at risk was very intricate and that removing a child from his or her home was "the last resort." "We have to prove to a judge in a court of law that we have done everything else possible to help this child and that putting him into care is the only option left," she said. Some of those involved aren't convinced, though. Nina, whose 8-year-old daughter was forcibly taken into care a year-and-a-half ago, said the process was unfair and biased against those don't comply with the social workers' methods. "I was threatened by social workers on more than one occasion that if I did not follow their rules then my daughter would be taken away from me," said Nina, a kindergarten teacher who asked to remain anonymous for this article. Caught in the midst of a divorce with her ex-husband - who she had accused of sexually abusing her daughter since the age of four - Nina was told by her social worker that her daughter must be allowed to meet with her father. "She told my daughter to 'forgive and forget,'" recalled Nina bitterly. When Nina and her daughter refused to meet with the father, the child welfare officer on her case "came and kidnapped her from her school without my knowledge," she said. Today, Nina's daughter lives in foster care with "little love and warmth. She has difficulty relating to people and is neglected there. It's a terrible situation, I brought a child into this world and now I am forbidden from even seeing her," she said. Nina is currently involved in a lengthy appeals process to have the social services decision reversed. Stegman, who runs a day care in the Tel Aviv area, has been working together with MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) to formulate legislation that would demand that child protection officers - social workers specifically trained to work on cases involving children - present any recommendations for removing children from their parents to an impartial, non-partisan committee before such an act is taken. "I call the current process the system of silence," summed up Stegman. "Social services have the law on their side, the media is not allowed to report details of individual cases because of censorship banning information on children and there is almost no public awareness of this unfair process."