WELL-BEING OF CHILDREN FROM GROW-OP HOUSES WORRIES SOCIAL WORKERS

VANCOUVER -- The B.C. Association of Social Workers is calling on the
province to show the public how it deals with children taken from
marijuana grow operations.

The appeal follows the Dec. 11 removal of three children under the age
of 12 from an Abbotsford grow op that had dangerously high levels of
carbon monoxide.

The children were put into the care of the Ministry of Children and
Family Development.

According to a BCASW news release, there is no way to evaluate if
children from drug houses are being properly protected or if the
ministry has provided sufficient guidance to its child protection
social workers.

The association wants transparency when it comes to what criteria are
applied by social workers conducting commercial grow-op child
protection investigations and how marijuana grow-op children are kept
safe by the child protection system beyond the initial investigation
and response.

BCASW spokesman Paul Jenkinson said that vague generalities such as
every situation being "unique" don't build confidence in the
child-protection system.

Minister of Children and Family Development Tom Christensen was not
available for comment, but a ministry spokeswoman said there is a
clear policy for social workers to follow: the Child, Family and
Community Service Act.

She said the act gives social workers a broad mandate and there are no
plans to change it.

"One set of circumstances shouldn't be treated differently from any
other," she said. "Front-line workers will determine the risk to the
child based on the situation and act accordingly to make sure the
child is protected. It's the social worker's obligation to determine
if the environment is harmful to the child and determine if the child
is in need of protection."

The spokeswoman said the ministry receives and responds to more than
30,000 child protection reports across B.C. in any given year. The
ministry doesn't track what kind of situation each child comes from.