This afternoon, Nikki Haley presented a proclamation for Child Abuse Prevention Month at the Statehouse. Meanwhile, she continues to stand by her failed agency head as investigations show that children are dying and being kept in dangerous situations because the Department of Social Services is more focused on meeting quotas and lowering numbers than they are on child safety.
South Carolina deserves better than a governor who will stand by as this kind of devastating dysfunction occurs, then issue a ceremonial proclamation about preventing abuse. It’s time for a change.
Haley’s DSS fails to protect children in order to meet quotas. “Sens. Katrina Shealy and Joel Lourie are part of a subcommittee that heard Wednesday about an alarming number of child deaths where the Department of Social Service was already involved. The lawmakers also heard about a system of goals that encourages social workers to keep children out of or remove them from foster care even if it isn’t the best thing to do…. The goals deeply bothered both Lourie and Shealy. ‘They are talking about wildly important goals. Let’s get the numbers down?’ Shealy said. ‘These aren’t numbers. These are people.’” [AP, 1/15/14]
At least one child died after DSS placed them back in an abusive home. “A four-year-old child who was brutally murdered by his parents last week was placed in the home by the S.C. Department of Social Services (SCDSS), sources close to the family tell FITS. The young boy – son of 28-year-old Robert Antonio Guinyard and 25-year-old Courtney Shante Thompson – was killed last Monday by blunt force trauma to the head and body. According to WLTX TV 19 (CBS – Columbia, S.C.), Richland County Sheriff’s deputies say ‘the child was beaten throughout the day, and when his mother came home, she did nothing to help the child.’” [FITS News, 7/9/13]
Haley admin was aware of putting children at risk, did not step in to save them. “Heidt reached out to Shealy while her granddaughter was in state care. The senator, an ally of Gov. Nikki Haley who chose Koller to head DSS, said she spoke to the director and other agency leaders. ‘I tried to get them to fix that problem,’ Shealy said. ‘They wouldn’t help me. … They kept saying, ‘We’re working on it.’ ” [The State, 1/15/14]
Child Advocates Raise Concerns About DSS Injuries, Deaths. “We’re repeatedly told by case workers who work at the Department of Social Services they’re fearful of their jobs, that they can’t take a child into foster care or they have to push that child to leave foster care because they have to get their numbers down,” said Greene. “These are some of our most vulnerable citizens, and it’s our job as a state to protect them and I think that the policies that Ms. Koller and the governor have implemented have failed the children greatly,” said Lourie. [WLTX, 10/3/13]
Nikki Haley is standing by her failed DSS head…. “Haley loves Koller. In fact she’s repeatedly referred to her as a “rock star,” praising her earlier this year in the 2014 State of the State speech.” [FITS News, 2/25/14] “Haley is standing behind Koller’s leadership. Her spokesman cited numbers showing a decrease in deaths, increase in adoptions and more people moving from welfare to work since Koller took the agency’s helm in 2011.” [AP, 3/19/14]
…And uses the lower numbers that came at the detriment of children to defend her embattled appointee. “’All the numbers that I worked with her on have improved. Let’s be clear, one child death is one death too many,’ Haley said. ‘Our job is to make sure we constantly improve those numbers. … Every member of that agency is committed to that under the leadership of Lillian Koller.’” [Columbia Free Times, 3/19/14]
(Editor’s Note: The above communication does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of FITSNews.com. To submit your letter, news release, email blast, media advisory or issues statement for publication, click here).
14 comments
Haley is a fool and must go!!
Standing by her “Rock Star”, while the most innocent and vulnerable amoung us are brutalized and murdered!
Haley stands by her incopetent appointments! We the people MUST NOT stand by Haley!
She does not deserve re-election! VOTE HER OUT of office.
With all of Haley’s lies, hypocricy, malefience and incomptence in office, if she had a shred of decency, she would resign!!!!!
Trikki Nikki Haley needs to be evicted she has overstayed her welcome…vote in the primary stop her madness there folks.
Great, so we need to get rid of Nikki Haley. I agree completely.
SCDP, please run someone who hasn’t already lost to her once before.
Gov. Haley. When are you going to put an end to the disaster you have created @ DSS? Koller, Hanak-Coulter, and their Regional Managers continue to promote their “Numbers” and “Practices” while children and families suffer. Do politics mean more to you than children and families? Absolutely sickening and disgusting.
How about requesting enough case workers from the General Assembly to do the job. This environment will never be risk free but appropriate staffing can go a long way toward improving child safety. What’s the matter, afraid to request money for DSS because it violates some political credo? Then you are going to have to get used to more child deaths. Simple.
To blame Haley- because she was elected to office- for the actions of bad people…who are most likely liberal – and empowered by a system devised by liberals…is ignorance, based in FITS’ political gamesmanship.
Haley’s department head is responsible for running the department and for the employees. Funny, you bash Obama for every goddamn thing his administration does, but you can’t apply it to your Repug Queen?
Haley’s DSS is likely not much different from Hodges’ or Sanford’s…And it’s an almost impossible task, dealing w/ people so disgusting, they do these things to their own children…
Obama is making a HORRIBLE mess of the country. Good people are suffering because of his incompetence and contempt.
And Obama directed the IRS to Persecute Conservatives (Why do you think they all want to take the fifth?) Obama told his idiots to vote for REVENGE (I heard him) against Americans he hates. Obama lied about Benghazi, himself. Obama is the king of Obamacare…the agents are acting directly on his demands…The Disaster is Obama’s vision for America. He admits that….
Hypocrisy Alert is a great headline…especially for every single one of your posts. Take your meds, Dwight Schrute.
The problem with your comment is that DSS is responsible for protecting children and is not responsible for the actions of the parents who abuse them. Children cannot protect themselves and do not belong to any political party. DSS must insure children are safe once abuse/neglect has been reported. Lillian Koller is obviously not protecting children once they enter the system………….she, Hanak-Coulter, and the Regional Managers are insuring this is not happening because they are more interested in numbers, statistics, and bolstering their salaries as high as possible because they know they will not have jobs much longer. If you cannot understand that DSS must protect children once they have been reported and that DSS is not responsible for the parents who abuse/neglect these children, then you are much dumber than everyone knows you are. How Gov. Haley sleeps @ night is baffling. She must be one cold-hearted bit&&. She and Koller are cut from the same cloth and are interested in their own personal gains.
You have to understand Teabaggers they only see what they are told to see….Haley is a disaster.
So maybe we should just do away with DSS and allow these people to kill their children. Is that your position? Who would miss them anyway? Wow, you are deranged. Koller has abrogated her responsibility. Haley needs to replace her.
So we stand by waiting for the powers that be to make the right call??? That’s laughable really. All the while front line staff are working to stay afloat. Since the last hearing, suddenly there are changes in which cases are referred out to appropriate response even more insulting is that those in charge suddenly have amnesia about their original directions and stated criteria to refer cases. Slippery bunch of weasels! Oh so they’ve shelled out millions and slowed hiring of state employees, which marches to Nikki’s demands. So now as predicted the counties are left holding the bag, understaffed and enundated with the onslaught of cases that were originally designated for assignment to the private providers. Sounds like success and improvements to me…. Don’t you think?
The Haley failure continues..
Another Hack ; More South Carolinians Potentially at Risk
Columbia, SC
(WLTX) — South Carolinians were put at risk when the SC Department of
Revenue was hacked two years ago. Now the company hired to help was
hacked as well.
The state hired Experian to monitor
taxpayers credit reports after almost 4 million South Carolinans’ social
security numbers were breached in 2012.
It cost the State of SC
$12 million dollars for the monitoring. Experian says the hack of a
subsidiary of the company is an ongoing investigation, and they do not
know if information from the state of South Carolina was taken.
Court
records show that a Vietnamese national pleaded guilty last month to
running a site that offered clients access to American’s personal data.
He had tricked the company into giving him direct access to personal
and financial information on more than 200 million Americans.
A number of states are investigating after a subsidiary of Experian was hacked.
Experian has denied to comment, saying it’s an open investigation.