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Jennifer HemmingsenI'm a columnist and member of The Gazette's editorial board. I live in Iowa City. Twitter: @jhemmingsen, or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hemmingsenyah |
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“They were just suspicious of me from the beginning”
When Victor Rodgers heard that his baby had been born, he headed to the hospital.
Even though he and the child’s mother weren’t together anymore, he planned on being an involved dad.
It was February 2009 — five weeks before her due date — but his ex’s new boyfriend had beaten her so badly that doctors had to deliver the baby. That’s how the Iowa Department of Human Services got involved.
Rodgers wanted to take his daughter home with him, but the DHS worker said he would have to go through the agency. She placed the baby with a foster family.
It took three months for DHS to confirm Rodgers’ paternity. Again, he asked to take his daughter home. Instead, the agency allowed him to visit her. Twice a week. With supervision.
Even though Rodgers had no history of child abuse or neglect, DHS would make him jump through more than two years’ worth of hoops to prove he was good enough to keep her.
He’s not alone. A recent third-party analysis of Linn County DHS, conducted by the non-profit Center for the Study of Social Policy, cited a concerning, widespread confusion between child safety and the potential risk of future harm among Cedar Rapids child welfare workers. The confusion was further compounded by “stigma, labeling and negative inferences drawn based on a family’s history.”
The analysis noted a “culture of caution” that leads to excessive intervention, coercion and monitoring of families, particularly black families. It found “the child protection system and its partners intervened with some African-American families in extensive ways with no clear reason or rationale.”
As Rodgers, now 48, tells it: “They were just suspicious of me from the beginning.”
Over the next few months, DHS records show, Rodgers worked his way up from supervised to unsupervised visits, meeting every personal and parenting goal the agency laid out for him. In October 2009, he even had his girlfriend, Molly, who had an extensive history with DHS, move out of his apartment because his caseworker told him to.
Rodgers agreed to take his daughter, Karee, to a safe place and call police, if Molly or Karee’s mother showed up at his apartment. By December 2009, he was consistently having weekend-long visits with his child. Social workers would drop in unannounced twice a day just to monitor his care. Things were going fine.
By Jan. 13, 2010, DHS gave him full-time custody of Karee on a trial basis — the last step toward reunification.
That month, when Molly showed up at Rodgers’ place, he took Karee to his cousin’s house, in accordance with the safety plan.
Yet when police arrived, Molly told them she lived there, and it was Rodgers who was forced to leave. When he returned later that night, Molly stabbed him in the shoulder. The next day, a DHS worker showed up at Rodgers’ home with police, demanding Karee.
Rodgers refused to hand over the child without a court order. Instead, police stunned him with a Taser and took Karee. DHS moved him back to fully supervised visits.
Still, caseworkers were positive about his progress, noting that Rodgers had maintained stable housing, employment and school throughout the case. He had everything needed to care for Karee and was showing good parenting skills.
“Victor has been able to do what DHS wanted done and progress to getting Karee home,” a February 2010 note reads. “Victor is very conscientious in moving forward in his life for himself and Karee.
“Victor did a lot of things right in the incident with Molly in attempts to keep Karee safe, including removing her from the situation,” the caseworker wrote. “She was kept safe.”
Perplexingly, though, just a few lines later: “Victor needs to be able to show he can protect Karee.”
Rodgers had planned on moving back to Illinois to be close to his sister once he got custody of Karee. He never got the chance.
On May 10, 2010, police again found Molly at Rodgers’ apartment. The state filed a petition to terminate Rodgers’ rights.
Rodgers continued to visit his daughter, under supervision. The worker’s notes are poignant: “Victor was very appropriate.” … “Victor was calm and relaxed during the visit, but did seem to be sad when this worker took Karee to his vehicle and drove off.” … “Karee never wanted her dad to let go of her.” … “Karee was very content sleeping in her dad’s arms for the majority of the visit.”
At Rodgers’ termination hearing that August, the social worker testified she didn’t believe Rodgers ever would harm his child. She was just worried he wouldn’t be able to keep her safe.
On Nov. 16, 2010, Rodgers’ parental rights were terminated. He appealed. He lost.
Karee would later be adopted by an unrelated family.
“Still to this day, I don’t have an allegation of child abuse or child neglect or anything,” he said. “I’m a good parent. They said I did a great job.”
That wasn’t good enough for a system that demands parents not only prove they’ve kept their children safe but judges their fitness to parent and rights to their children based on a theoretical future harm.
Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net
DHS workers have resons for removing a child from a home. Please research your story… there is more information if you look deeper. (Here are a few easily found bits of information.)
Tuesday Oct. 26th, 2010; Cedar Rapids Gazette; The Log; Assault Charges
Victor Rodgers , 47, of 111 30th St. Dr. SE; for assault causing bodily injury; accused of striking a woman Friday.
Tuesday June 22nd, 2010; Cedar Rapids Gazette: The Log; Assault Charges
Victor Rodgers , 47, of 111 30th St. Dr. SE, for assault causing bodily injury (domestic abuse); accused of striking and scratching a woman, Friday.
4/30/2010; Iowa Courts Online
HARASSMENT / 1ST DEG. – 1989 (AGMS)
1/19/2010 Iowa Courts Online
INTERFERENCE W/OFFICIAL ACTS (SMMS)
Man walks to CR store to report stabbing Jan. 18th 2010:
http://thegazette.com/tag/apartment/page/8/
Cedar Rapids Police Investigate early morning stabbing Jan. 18th 2010:
http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/81988307.html
4/3/2009 Iowa Courts Online
POSSESSION OF A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE (SRMS)
1/2/2009 Iowa Courts Online
CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 3RD DEGREE – 1978 (AGMS)
What is truely disturbing is that only part of the story was reported. The courts have a legal responsibility to look at all of the facts in a case and then make a ruling. My guess is that through the legal system, they had the facts of the case, which Mr. Rodgers would have testified to as well.
Dear A: Thanks for your note. I did run a criminal history of Victor while researching the story.
The stabbing and interference were referenced in the story (Victor was the victim of the stabbing, the interference charge was from the day he refused to hand his daughter to DHS without a court order). The domestic abuse charge was dismissed, as were several harassment complaints his daughter’s mother and ex-girlfriend Molly made to police at this time. Interestingly, in the DHS paperwork, the fact of those dismissals was sometimes included, sometimes omitted, although the complaints were mentioned frequently.
The drug charge is another interesting point — it was a minor posession charge (Victor paid a fine) that dates (along with the criminal mischief) before his daughter’s birth. Because of that charge, Victor successfully completed drug treatment and took random drug tests throughout his involvement with DHS. He never tested positive for any drugs.
Victor’s daughter was not present during any of the above incidents.
In addition to the charges you mention, Victor does have more serious charges in his distant past. He spent a year in prison for a sexual assault conviction when he was 17, and was sentenced to five years in prison for selling drugs in 1995.
The institutional analysis has some interesting things to say about how past criminal history plays into DHS decisionmaking in Linn County. You should check it out.
Jennifer, I value your point as saying that a lot of these charges were a very long time ago and others were dismissed. I really think that you have opened up a door for parents to be aware and to be cautious with dhs. Also I like your point about how his daughter was not present during any of theses situations. I myself as a parent do things i wouldnt do in front of my kids. Such as going out to the bar, or smoking a cigarette. He shouldnt have been held liable by dhs if she wasnt present during these times. Also has dhs been able to comment or can they ? What about the worker themselves? I would just like to ehar the other side of the story
I put the links to the articles about the stabbing so that others could see that in the previous Gazette article Victor states that his girlfriend who lived with him stabbed him… not like your article that says something totally different. Please remember this story is written from Victor’s point of view and does not give all the facts.
How sad that this would happen to what sounds like a perfectly capable parent. Would the same thing happen if it were the biological mother who jumped through all the hoops? My gut feeling is no. I am very surprised his parental rights were terminated, even after an appeal.
This is such a sad story. Dhs never seems to actually want reunification with parents.They say they do but don’t follow through. Parents need to also understand thier rights and what the state laws are or what the county laws are. I have heard many stories from various people I know about hoe coercion has been used to try to “trick” the parent into giving thier child to dhs or to find out misleading information. My opinion in the matter is I think that there should be harsher punishments for workers who knowingly lie or have conflicting information in their reports. Also I think there should be a third party evaluation of the company and its policies along with if its following them and if not a type of violation record..etc.. things such as these. It is not fair for some workers to feel they have a “power” over parents. The problem that you run into is everyone has a opinion of what is the correct way to parent a child or provide for that child. Some parents spank their children, some don’t. Some parents believe that the house needs to be spotless at all times , while others clean their home after children have gone to bed. Some parents believe that they should be friends with their children while others clearly do not agree with that and believe they need to maintain a bondary that they are the parent. Everyone is different. Dhs should not be able to base parental skills on opinion but ONLY on fact. It seems this is not the case most of the time. However to one of my original points. Parents know your rights!! Here is a link to a good website for rights against dhs or what to do when they come to yur house and accuse you of being a bad parent. http://www.fightcps.com Thanks for listening all !
Wow. I guess Mr. Rodgers is guilty until proven innocent, huh? How can a father do what DHS tells him to, do everything (or at least nearly everything) right, and have this happen to him and his daughter? And how is it that Molly stabbed him in January and four months later isn’t serving some time for that crime? Unbelievable.
Mr. Rodgers, I do not know you, but I applaud you for making the effort, jumping through all the hoops, and doing right by your little girl. Keep the faith; maybe someday the system will work in favor of deserving parents and the children who love them. I pray that you and Karee are reunited soon, and forever.
What Kevin said. Parents like you should be held up as an example of good parenting, not have their child taken away from them.
Good parenting would include: Getting away from people who are a possible threat or have committed violence. He may want to keep her safe but has not shown the willingness to make life changes that would keep her safe. He may not be harmful to her directly but there have been several noteworthy incidences of children being place back with people and then the child is injured or killed by acquaintances of the parent. Then the public yells at DHS and the courts for not keeping the child safe.
What is truly interesting about all of this is that people are taking the comments of this disgruntled father — who, I’m sure wants his daughter over the rulings of two court judges who have seen things on the records that were not available or at least not mentioned by Mr. Rodgers or the writer. The DHS does not remove children at random and DHS does not take them away from parents, the courts do this with years of trials, of research, of evidence.
“The DHS does not remove children at random”
Correct, it wasn’t at random. DHS took the child due to the mothers situation. That said, DHS has also proven it does not respect father as parents, as it won’t even contact the father in some 50% of cases where the father is known, and only attempts to place the child with the father in 15% of those case. So, yes, DHS may have had reason to take the child in the first place, it overstepped it’s bounds making the father jump through hoops, simply waiting for him to slip up so they could take the child.
Do you deny the DHS agencies get financial compensation for each child they are able to provide an adoptive home to? Do you deny they don’t get this same compensation when the child is reunited with it’s parent/s?
I agree with you 100 percent mark. I have seen wiht my owns eyes dhs not work for the fathers and also there is no financial aid for a lawyer for a father who wisehes to get his kids. Iowa legal aid when only help if the woman (mother) beat him up or he beat her up . How sad is that??
What was the gazette thinking as they published a photo of the child in the paper without the permission of the legal parents? Is that legal? Is that safe?
If anything happens to that child or the family, part of the blame will be on the writer’s shoulders as well as the Gazette’s.
I personally have seen dhs abuse thier power. My sisters kids were removed form her care when she was in a shelter. Her husband at the time was abusive to ehr and the children. She escaped him by going to the shelter. Even after graduating from the program and succesfully completing EVERYTHING SHE WAS ASKED TO, the worker still claimed that she wasnt. She had a nice apartment a good job and provide a stable home. Her rights were terminated 2 years ago and she is still fighting with lawyers to appeal and do everything she can to reunite with her children. come to find out the same worker was fired for falsifying records and lying under oath. I should mention this was in polk county not linn. However I still believe that most of the workers are trying to help children who are abused but there is quite a few who abuse the power and they should be punished. It’s not fair for poeple to not be given a chance . remember folks we can only control our actions not others . Im sure mr. rodgers didnt want to get stabbed or assulted. on another note everyone im sure has done something htey are not proud of my husband is a felon from 15 years ago. Hes a totally different person than he was when he was young. I think the past should be taken into account but not soley factored on how safe a child is
Lynda-
I know that’s how it’s supposed to be, but in practice, they make decisions based on too little information, notes get jotted down, facts left out, cases pass from worker to worker, so by the time I lost my kids, I don’t know if anyone involved in the case even knew that it started with my reporting my ex-husband for assaulting me. You have spent way more time with me than anyone involved in my case, you know what kind of person I am, you know the kind of people I chose to associate with, and you know we all have the potential for good. I deserved a chance that I never got.