Beacon Hill Hears from Girl Raped by DSS

Others Relate Terrifying Stories to Public Safety Committee

By Ed Oliver
March 22, 2001

A Beacon Hill committee heard testimony on Tuesday from a girl who was raped while in DSS custody. Her story was told in Massachusetts News last year and she was shortly thereafter released from custody after being five years in DSS control.

“They had guys holding me down,” Tarri Peterson told the Public Safety Committee. “When you have a fourteen-year-old girl who had been raped by men, you cannot hold her down and not expect her to flip out. They are telling us teenagers that our parents abused us, then they’re putting us in a situation ten times worse than a kid would be abused in their home. You guys are supporting that and I don’t see how you guys can live with it.”

The hearing was held concerning a bill written by Nev Moore of Justice for Families which would establish a “hot line” for children in the custody of DSS.

Moore testified that children in foster care often have no contact with the outside world and no access to a telephone if they are in danger. Even if they did have contact, the police are required to refer all incidents of abuse back to DSS. “They are a self-investigating agency. We know for a fact that they ignore 51A abuse reports against their own foster homes. The analogy is if I was raped by a police officer, and you told me I would have to file a report with that officer and he would investigate it.”

Moore’s husband Tom testified that “Justice for Families” has turned into a hotline about abuses in foster homes and facilities. “We get letters, we get telephone calls seven days a week that people are being beaten, hurt, and there’s no one to help.” 

The chairman of the committee Senator James Jajuga sided with the witnesses when he said at one point, “We have a Disabled Person’s Protection Bureau which is staffed by the State Police, which we created here several years ago. I’m wondering out loud if maybe we need a bureau of state police officers independent of DSS, a similar type of bureau.”

The Senator cautioned, however, that the problem obviously goes way beyond installing a hotline. “We will convey what we hear today to others that have jurisdiction and find out what the heck is going on here,” he said.

Terrible Abuses Are Told
Many other witnesses told of terrible abuses suffered at the hands of DSS.

Dana Raymond told how his daughter was locked in a room with a mattress on the floor with no sheet at Germaine Lawrence acute residential treatment center in Framingham. He had a list of incidents reported to the police at the Germaine Lawrence facilities in Arlington and Framingham while his daughters were there.

Heidi Palanza testified about physical abuse of her daughter Tara in DSS care, which was also reported by Massachusetts News and which resulted in the release of Tara. The mother said that even though there is documented evidence, the police, EMS and Children’s Hospital could only turn it over to DSS to investigate. “If my daughter had a hotline that she could have called and asked the state police to investigate, just like if somebody attacked you on the street. Senator, then I believe that things could change. The police have told us they would like to do things differently, but their hands are handcuffed.

“The power of investigation in these matters needs to be turned over to law enforcement. They are trained to investigate crimes. Social workers are not. Social workers need to protect their office, their supervisor, themselves, their jobs and the reputation of the department. Police officers are there to find out whether a crime has been committed or not, and they do that without any axes to grind.”

Irene Just testified about bruises and cuts on her two daughters who were put in a foster home by DSS. Her daughters are back with her now. She testified about the girls being sat on, cut and bruised. She filed a 51A against the foster parent. She said the social worker said on the stand under oath, “We do not have to investigate 51As filed against our foster homes, because we approve those foster homes.”

The mother asked the Committee, “And they say this is in the best interest of the child? With a hotline, my daughter would have been able to call somebody and get help. The biological parents can’t help them. They are told to sit there and shut your mouth and deal with it.”

Marie Higgins testified that she called DSS to ask for help with counseling after her husband’s untimely death. Her children were promptly taken. Her son put up a fight, so DSS hospitalized him at Pembroke. She visited him and found choke marks on his neck.

Had her son had a hotline, she said, he could have called for help. She said she called a DSS hotline, it was dismissed. DSS paid her a visit and threatened if she did that again, her children would be put up for adoption.

Melanie Martinez said her daughter was locked in a basement for three days with no food in a foster home. Her two sons were bruised in a foster home. “If they had a hotline, my kids could have called and asked for help. My children are scarred.”

Stacy Hevener works as a part-time secretary for Justice for Families. She said she gets calls every single day from kids and parents who need help. “I don’t know what to tell them, I don’t know where to send them. This hotline is very important. I’m certainly not going to tell them to call the very people who are abusing them.”

A young man named Alexander who spent time in a psychiatric hospital briefly testified, but was difficult to hear.

A woman named Tania said her two sons were abused in foster care. Her three year-old had needles stuck in his feet for punishment, and her older son had facial bruises. The police referred her complaints to DSS who told her it was a good foster home.

Azizza Nails, Dorchester, who said she runs a specialized foster home, testified that while there are excellent foster homes, a lot of foster homes are in it for the money. She said nobody is watching DSS. Her daughter testified that everybody is accountable except DSS and a hotline could help make them accountable.

A woman from Fall River said she is a survivor of repeated rapes in foster care. She reported it to DSS, but it continued. She said a hotline to the police could have stopped it.

Her twins were taken from their father and her son’s face was burned with an iron. There wasn’t any investigation. Her daughter was put in a body cast, and nobody did anything.

Judith Sweeney testified that her daughter was running away from a group home. She said kids are running away from those homes for a reason, they need a hotline.

Earl Sholley from the Fatherhood Coalition suggested to the committee that the money for the hotline should come from DSS, which he said spends a good deal of money trying to improve its tarnished public image. “This agency needs accountability. I think a good step in the right direction would be a hotline so that these children would have some place to call, because right now the only organization out there really helping them is ‘Justice for Families.’”

Nobody testified in opposition to the bill. Nev Moore told Mass news she gave affidavits to the committee from other people who were too afraid to testify publicly. Many who did testify and still have family in the system expressed their nervousness.