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I have a 14v yr old female placement we will call Suzie. She was endured sexual abuse at the hands of her Uncle starting when she was 9. She was just a few weeks away from going back home to Mom. She has had an increase in behaviors in recent weeks. Too many to go into right now. I emailed her therapist to make her aware of these behaviors. During their last session she was really pressing Suzie on some of these behaviors, All of a sudden she blurted out that my bio daughter (we will call her Mindy) who is 5 was being molested by her Daddy. (my Dh) She said that Mindy had been telling me and telling me this & I refused to believe her and wouldn't do anything about it. This is something she always claimed about her own Mother. This is Suzie's story not Mindy's! She also said that Mindy had the same rash she did when she was being sexually abused. Mindy has ezema. She has been to the Dr and it is not on her private parts! The therapist didnt believe it. (Suzie has made false allegations in the past) but had to report it. She felt that Suzie was saying anything to deflect off herself. I get the call that evening that I had to bring M & S in to be interviewed because there had been allegations made against my Dh regarding M. I asked if these allegations came from M herself? No, they were a 3rd party. I was told to only bring M & S to this interview. Well I had other children in the home so that told me right away this came from S. At the interview S was all over the place. Not credible & made no sense. Said that M told her she was being molested. Yeah 5 yr olds use that word all the time. Mindy on the other hand was very credible & made perfect sense. Of course they couldn't ask her specifically about Daddy. But she was steadfast that no one had ever touched her in her private areas. She was asked what she would do if she were? She said she would tell her Mommy! I was told the allegations had no merit & was going nowhere. They would still have to come to the house & see my other children & talk to Dh. They asked how I felt about taking S back home with me. I refused to do it. My Dh told me not to bring her back in to his home. THey called my CW and she asked if I could handle taking her to her Moms for the night. I told them yes I could be an adult and take her to her Mom. Like I said she was a few weeks from going home anyway. They decided to just speed it up. Suzie's Mom was outraged that she said such a thing & apologized profusely to me. She likes me a lot. The next day the Mom text me & said that S admitted it was all a lie. Mom has even told everyone on the case that she recanted. Today the CW who interviewed S came to my home to see other children & talk to hubby. She assured us this was going to be a closed case. Nothing to worry about. Before she left she gave us a paper that stated my Dh had been an alleged perp in child abuse. This freaked Dh out and he asked if although this was unsubstantiated would it still show up in a background check? She said she honestly didnt know which I found strange. So Im asking all of you. Would this still show up in a background check?
No--I was told by a Childline worker that if allegations are made that are unsubstantiated or proven false it will not show on a background check. However CYS also keeps a 'file' on you stating that allegations were made but were unsubstantiated or proven false. They keep this for 5 years.
I am speaking from experience-- I had a kid who said I allowed the other kids to beat him up and stab him with a pencil. The truth of the matter is HE was the one who was hitting, kicking, punching and biting and tried to stab someone else with a pencil. But he reported it to someone who he knew was a mandated reporter BECAUSE he knew they had to report it and it gained him attention. He had a history of making false reports and in fact did it at least 15 times that I am aware of. He reported me, his counselor,and the school staff multiple times just to name a few. He enjoyed the attention and the chaos that it created--that was his big payoff.
Unfortunately some kids use false allegations as a way to control people and situations and gain attention at the same time. They know if they make the allegations to a mandated reporter what will happen--- schools now have assemblies to make the kids aware of what a mandated reporter is and if 'someone does something you are uncomfortable with, report it to a teacher or the counselor or another mandated reporter and the person who did it can get in a lot of trouble".
Just two days ago there was an article in our local newspaper where a girl in a juvenile facility made allegations of sexual assault toward a nurse--- months later she admitted that the allegations were fabrications and that she did it because she didn't like it there and wanted out of there. She thought if she accused someone of improperly touching her and sexually assaulting her she would be able to go someplace else. But she only admitted this when she was confronted with the evidence on the security video which proved that no assault ever occurred.
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What makes me so angry is she goes on as if nothing ever happened. I think when it is proven without a doubt that it was a lie. esp when the kid admits it was a lie, there should be some punishment!
justnotsosure
What makes me so angry is she goes on as if nothing ever happened. I think when it is proven without a doubt that it was a lie. esp when the kid admits it was a lie, there should be some punishment!
Of course she is going on as if nothing happened-- because for her, nothing really did. She made the allegations knowing they were not true. She wasn't affected by the allegations really- she just ended up going back to her BP sooner than expected. That is something she was aware would be happening.
I felt the same way when it happened to me. When I talked to the Childline worker I said I didn't feel that the accused should have their life turned upside down for however long the investigation takes and the accuser gets no repercussions whatsoever. Especially when the accuser is someone who repeatedly makes false accusations, as in my case. The response I got was that would never happen because if there are 100 allegations, if even one of those allegations were true they would not want the person who truly was abused to be afraid of getting in trouble and therefore not report the abuse.
I know of people who have lost their jobs over allegations that ended up proven to be fabrications. It really is a difficult situation-- I do agree that we don't want kids to be afraid to report abuse. But we also don't want to encourage kids to make false allegations because they are angry at someone or they want attention or have some other motive.
I don't know how long you have fostered but frankly you have to have a really tough skin to be a FP. False allegations are just one of the things some of us have had to deal with and they are never
easy. The law says 'innocent until proven guilty' but I know speaking from experience that FPs and others who are the accused are made to feel as if they are regarded as guilty until they can prove their own innocence.