DRUG WAR ENSNARES CHILDREN

Utah County Task Force, DCFS Pulling Kids From Homes

PROVO - A 9-year-old girl sketches a marijuana bong for her social worker,
saying she found one beside her bed.

A young boy shows the social worker a cigarette burn on his hand given to
him by his dad.

Stories like these are heart-wrenching. And unfortunately they're all
too common, say Utah law enforcement officers and social workers who
pull babies, toddlers and school-age children out of drug houses and
meth labs. During the six-month period between last July 1 and Jan. 1,
Utah's Division of Child and Family Services removed 631 children from
homes due to drug and alcohol problems. Not unexpectedly, the Salt
Lake Valley had the most: 223.

In the state's Western region, which includes Utah, Wasatch, Summit,
Juab and Millard counties, workers removed a total of 158 children
from homes during that same period. Drug and alcohol abuse was a
factor in more than 60 percent of those cases, or 94 of them.
Forty-five of the latter children were pulled out specifically because
their parents or guardians were involved in the use, sale or
production of methamphetamine, according to DCFS statistics.

The Utah County Major Crimes Task Force, a group of officers that
targets drug dealers in Utah Valley, serves an average of four search
warrants a week, Task Force Lt. Mike Forshee said. His worst fear?
Finding children in the homes among the marijuana plants and meth
pipes. "The thing that frustrates me and makes me personally the
maddest is when we serve a search warrant ... and I hear kids
screaming," Forshee said. "That just turns my stomach every single
time." In a lab raid in January, one SWAT member said, the team found
the chemical ingredients to make meth on the same shelf as baby food,
with a crib only feet away from the meth-cooking table.

When they encounter such situations, the task force refers the case to
DCFS to investigate if removal would be the safest option. Bill Duncan
is the social worker who watched the girl draw the bong and listened
to the little boy describe his burn.

Despite the perception that the DCFS is full of "jack-booted thugs who
steal your kids away," Duncan insists that he's there to protect and
serve children who may be in danger.

That starts by having a Child Protective Services worker on scene
during a raid - if the task force knows ahead of time there's a need.
While there, the worker can ask the parents about the child and if
there are any relatives who could take custody. If there aren't any
responsible family members available, the children are taken to
temporary housing and given physical, dental and mental evaluations,
Duncan said. "I've never had a case where I thought the parent didn't
love the child," Duncan said. "But how do you tell someone, 'You've
hurt your child?' All we're trying to do is protect ... the kids."
Duncan is also working to protect children from abuse, abandonment and
neglect. And neglect is the first thing DCFS case worker Abel Kanigan
notices when he's called to the early morning search warrants where
drugs are involved. "You've got someone on meth, and everything else
is secondary - kids, food, dishes," he said. "The parent is someone
other than who they used to be." Kanigan gets the child to a safe
house or temporary shelter then monitors the case for 30 days. He also
must defend in front of a juvenile judge the decision to remove the
child from the home. Then, he'll pass the case to folks such as Emily
Helm, a DCFS permanency case worker, who helps parents begin the
process of rebuilding their families. Helm connects parents with
substance-abuse programs, parenting classes or anger-management
workshops and helps them devise a service plan - a structure to help
them stay drug-free and productive. Parents also go through the 4th
District juvenile drug court, a system that monitors families through
weekly check-ins, to regain their children. The program, with about 40
participating families, is successful, officials say.

"We know ... drug courts work," said Brent Platt, DCFS Western
regional director. "They've been proven to work and definitely
increase the chances of kids going home."

In 2006, statewide, 36 percent of children pulled from their parents'
care as a result of substance-abuse issues were reunited. Twenty-seven
percent were placed with a relative.

Helm has eight months to work with parents whose children are younger
than 3, according to federal mandates. If the child is older than 3,
she has a year to help the family reunite.

Those families able to reunite did so in about 10 months on average,
according to DCFS data. Judges can also grant extensions if they see
signs of improvement, Platt said.

It's a tough job, Helm says, and some days are definitely better than
others - for her and the parents.

"Some days it's real rare you would ever see a positive outcome," Helm
said. "Even the kids that go back, you always wonder what you're
sending them back to. It's a very bittersweet thing."