Lorain/Elyria, OH
Caseworker visited home week before kids` removal
Print this story
Read comments and discuss this story
ELYRIA — A Lorain County Children’s Services caseworker visited the apartment of Melody Reed just a week before police charged her with endangering her four children after finding them alone in squalor.
“The caseworker out there felt at the time that the environment was typical of folks living in that situation,” said Gary Crow, executive Director for LCCS. “The conditions the police described didn’t exist when (the caseworker) was there. If you leave children unsupervised for an amount of time, conditions can deteriorate rapidly.”
Reed, 23, told police she was “around the corner” from her children — who are ages 7, 6 and 2 years and 7 months — when a neighbor alerted police Tuesday to the screaming of a child at her White Court apartment.
Officers said they could hear the child screaming when they were 75 feet away.
When they got to the house, police said, they found the front door of the apartment open and spoke with the 6-year-old, who told them that she and her siblings had been alone since their mother had gone to the store.
Police entered the bug-infested, garbage-filled apartment and found dirty dishes in the sink, several large kitchen knives on the table, and other hygiene and safety hazards, the report said.
Crow said the children were taken from the apartment because they were left alone, not because the place was a mess.
“I don’t think they were living in squalor either — poor people have difficulties keeping their apartments clean.”
LCCS caseworkers are required to see each of their families at least twice a month. State law only requires a single visit each month, Crow said.
LCCS spokeswoman Patti-Jo Burtnett said the agency worked with Reed from June 2007 to February 2008. During that time, Reed’s children were not removed, but the agency became involved with her again in May, she said.
Burtnett wouldn’t speculate on what a caseworker would have done if they found the apartment as police described it, but said caseworkers generally work with families and help set up a cleaning regimen to address a situation.
“We check on our children and work with their caregivers to make sure they take care of their needs,” Burtnett said.
The Elyria police had been to the complex on another matter the day before.
That day, police also found the children alone, but Reed’s 19-year-old sister, Meinyoun Reed, popped out of her apartment and said she was watching the children.
Elyria police Lt. Andy Eichenlaub said officers observed the living conditions of the children, but didn’t feel they were in danger.
“The officers wouldn’t have left them there the first day if there had been a safety issue,” he said.
Crow wouldn’t comment on who currently has custody of the four children.
Contact Stephen Szucs at 329-7129 or sszucs@chroniclet.com.
Print this story
Report an innappropriate comment
In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement
and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered,
click here.
If you are registered, click here to log in.
Need help? Email Us.
What a demeaning comment made by Gary Crow. “Poor people have difficulties keeping their apartments clean”. I have been in many middle and upper class homes and would not eat there because of cleanliness. Maybe he needs to switch careers!
(Report comment)
I find it rediculous that Gary Crow even thought that “Poor peaple have difficulties keeping their apartments clean” 1. How politically incorrect 2. I don’t have a lot of money but I sure as h*** keep my home clean and there’s no excuse not to.
Gary Crow should be punished and should have to publically appolagize for what he said!!!!!
(Report comment)
Quit stereotyping the poor. Being Poor is not an excuse for being dirty, filthy and living in squalor. There are truly poor countries that I have visited and I tell you their shanty homes (tin, cardboard) were neat and tidy. These homes did not have running water and yet somehow you don’t see filth. Every morning you see them sweeping with home made brooms, children going to bring water home from the nearest water spout. Please don’t use being poor as a reason to say it is okay to be dirty, smelly and just plain gross. There are plenty of people in this area who don’t clean themselves, smell, refuse to clean their houses, themselves or their children and they are not poor. Please Mr. Crow and Children services if a home is filthy, dirty and smells that is not normal. You are the professionals and you need to teach that and not offer up a common stereotype of the poor. Frankly, it is rude and shows the lack of concern for the children that you serve.
(Report comment)
“the environment was typical of folks living in that situation”
“I don’t think they were living in squalor either — poor people have difficulties keeping their apartments clean.â€
10 years ago when I was struggling to get back on my feet after my a**hole ex left our family with nothing, my 4 children and I lived in wilkes and let me tell you that neither me or any of my neighboors lived the way this girl did. How dare you classify all poor based on this irresponsible and trifling young woman. Most of the poor people I’ve known throughout my life didn’t have a lot, but they appreciated and took care of what they did have.
(Report comment)
Anyone out there a lawyer? Want to make some money?
I do believe that Mr. Crow just violated the confidentiality of his office.
Besides his very insensitive comments, who really needed to know that Children’s services had been involved and found the conditions ‘typical’. Right…an apartment becomes bug infested and garbage filled in a week.
I don’t quite think so…I think that the caseworker and CSB is covering their oh so condescending butts.
(Report comment)
that Director needs replaced immediately, how stupid of a comment, also policy should be updated if children are permitted to live in these conditions and what about a supervisor tagging along with the caseworker, does that ever happen?
(Report comment)
Looks like LCCS, is just another welfare program for idiots with degrees in sociology.
Crow is a total f’-in’ idiot who shouldn’t be responsible for anything requiring more care than a dead goldfish.
(Report comment)
Dan,
Actually, LCCS requires it’s caseworkers to have either a Masters in Social Work or be on the way to earning one.
There is a reason I don’t work for LCCS, they wouldn’t tolerate me yanking kids from situations like this.
Wasn’t LCCS on the hot seat for that situation in Norwalk with the caged kids? Seems as if they didn’t learn anything about reasonable expectation of parent, legal or foster.
(Report comment)
Gabby–that was Erie or Huron County that took care of the case with the caged kids.
(Report comment)
I think it needs to be remembered that the Chronicle might have talked to Mr Crow for 20-30 minutes and then took a couple of his statements & printed them out of context of the entire situation.
In addition, there are all types of people whose homes aren’t clean, but perhaps what Mr Crow was trying to say, and which he might have said but didn’t get printed, is that poor people, even if they want to stay clean, might not have the $ to purchase the necessary cleaning products. What often happens is people get sanctioned from their cash assistance because of some sort of noncompliance. They then only receive food stamps which cannot be used to purchase cleaning products. I have known people who live in the projects and have piles & piles of dirty clothes everywhere because they “can’t afford” laundry detergent, $ to wash the clothes, etc. What they do wash, they do in the tub with water allone. Your shoes stick to the floors because they never sweep or mop. They “can’t afford” dish soap and every dish in the house is dirty. Something spills in the fridge and it doesn’t get cleaned up and the door sticks when you try to open it. Need I go on? It DOES NOT take that long for bugs to come along in an apartment complex if you are leaving food and wet clothes out as a source of food.
I’m not saying ALL poor people aren’t clean but I can assure you it’s more than just this incident. Caseworkers CANNOT take children due to housekeeping unless the conditions are EXTREMELY EXTREME, feces, etc. First of all, they have cases of abused rather than neglected and those cases are going to come first. Second, the ACLU would be on those cases in about TWO SECONDS if they did. Third, who’s going to take the kids? Are you? At least 1/2 the time their grandparents and aunts, etc homes aren’t much better. People learned this behavior somewhere, you know.
Finally, why doesn’t everybody on here get a Master’s of Social Work so they can go into people’s filthy stinking homes, see unbelievable atrocities done to children, be threatened and sometimes harmed by angry parents every day and NEVER be thanked, but only criticized when not you but a parent screws up, and then after you’ve all walked in their shoes, come back with your opinions.
Yes, caseworkers make mistakes LIKE THE REST OF US. But there are rules, and not just LCCS, but local, state, federal guidelines for their profession that do not allow them to take every kid out of every situation that they’d love to. And when something like this happens, they’re the ones who can’t sleep at night because of all the “what ifs” not you.
(Report comment)
Concerned Mom: I know that Huron was involved, my mind keeps mulling that LCCS had some kids placed with them too and therefore had to monitor that situation.
My biggest beef with this whole thing is the fact that the director spoke to reported, apparently without legal counsel, and said that, yes indeed, LCCS has been involved with the family. His correct response should have been “no comment’ or “I’m not at liberty to discuss ANY LCCS case, open or closed”. He has violated her rights to privacy.
Just another mom: The reason ” I ” don’t get a MSW is that I don’t have $35K to spend on it and I’d probably be in jail if I actually did children’s services because I don’t agree with their policies. If the mother did have a case worker through LCCS, why didn’t the CW help her get cleaning supplies? A 23 year old with 4 kids probably didn’t have a lot of experience or training with how to maintain a home. She was probably 15 or 16 when the first child was born.
There are a lot of great LCCS workers out there. I disagree with Mr. Crow’s comments that basically put down ALL parents in poverty with multiple kids. If HE believes that those conditions are typical, I’m sure his employees believe that too and aren’t willing to really fight the boss to say “we need to do better”.
(Report comment)
Mr. Crow didn’t say anything legally wrong. Becuase he didn’t give detailed information — he gave a vague, and biased statement. His comment is guilty of being stupid and making assumptions that just because one poor person may live like that that all of them must.
I also think that there is a difference in a house being dirty and a house being lived in. My house is far from being spic and span. It is clean. I wouldn’t be embarrassed for someone to just drop by, but I also have toys scattered throughout my house.
I applaud the comment left by justanothermom …. I agree completely. If you don’t have laundry detergent or dish soap — and lack the resources to buy them — then how are you going to clean them?
It is easy for people who have NEVER had to struggle or pinch pennies to judge others. I love to tell people to walk in my shoes before you judge me.
It was Huron County who handled the case with the caged children.
This comment is in regards to Gabby’s comment about taking kids out of their situation: As justanothermom said …. There are rules and regulations that workers must abide by — they just can’t take a kid because YOU/THEY feel that it should be done. The proper channels have to be followed. Sad as it is — this is the way of the government.
Realistically — people say to take the kids away. Where are they going to go? Obviously, her family doesn’t care enough to help. Look at the case where the JDH wouldn’t take that kid because they are over crowded. Take the kids from one bad situation and put them in a foster home that is just as bad at the situation that was just left. And yes, there are *some* foster homes that are BAD. Ask any kid who has grown up “in the system”.
I think the key is getting the family help — in any way that they can.
Judging others by making stupid comments just makes you look ignorant. There are ALWAYS two sides to every story. Judge this woman — only when you walk in her shoes. Live her life for a week — bet most of you couldn’t.
(Report comment)
HOW DISGUSTING! I can’t believe that a public official would say something like this!
That’s like saying that ‘poor people’ have problems keeping ‘themselves’ clean- a question I’ve often pondered.
One can buy both cleaning AND grooming supplies at DOLLAR TREE or DEALS for a freakin’ DOLLAR apiece.
Uncleanliness is a result of laziness, NOT lack of income.
Just the fact that he even said that makes me horribly angry! What a close-minded, assinine comment!
I WILL judge this woman if the story is true. YOU DO NOT LEAVE KIDS UNATTENDED IN AN APARTMENT. YOU DON’T!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t care if you’re poor, rich, black, white, fat, skinny, old or young. It does not take a GENIUS to see that. There are NO EXCUSES for not keeping your LEGS CLOSED and realizing that you do not have the EDUCATION, INCOME OR ABILITY (and apparently a brain) to raise them. CONDOMS ARE CHEAP, GUYS. USE THEM.
(Report comment)
Leamull, I agree with you 100%
Dollar Tree sells EVERYTHING for a dollar. You can buy your dishsoap and laundry detergent there.
Condoms, if you can’t afford those… go get FREE birth control from Family Planning Services. Thats what they are there for… people who cannot afford health care. There is a sign posted right inside thats states they “CANNOT refuse anyone services due to inablility to pay”
Bottomline, dont have children you cannot afford. Simply ridiculous!!! If you cant afford ONE what the hell makes you think you can afford FOUR. Get serious, people!
(Report comment)
“Actually, LCCS requires it’s caseworkers to have either a Masters in Social Work or be on the way to earning one.”
I didn’t realize that “Covering your a** at all costs” & “How to look important, while doing jack s**t” wasn’t taught in the undergraduate curricula…
(Report comment)
From Confused: “This comment is in regards to Gabby’s comment about taking kids out of their situation: As justanothermom said …. There are rules and regulations that workers must abide by — they just can’t take a kid because YOU/THEY feel that it should be done. The proper channels have to be followed. Sad as it is — this is the way of the government.”
I may be reading what you are saying incorrectly but I haven’t suggested removing the children. I have suggested that the mother needs some help learning to manage her home and her children.
“Mr. Crow didn’t say anything legally wrong. Becuase he didn’t give detailed information — he gave a vague, and biased statement. His comment is guilty of being stupid and making assumptions that just because one poor person may live like that that all of them must.”
Actually, he may have. It certainly violates confidentiality which is wrong on many levels. If you call in to ask if your neighbor has an open LCCS case (or getting services from any social services), they are not to be telling. There was a situation many years ago in another county where a case manager almost lost their job because they indicated to a reporter that a family who had a fire in their home would continue to receive services with the county welfare agency (which, at that time in that county, administered childrens services). If Mr. Crow is an LSW or LISW or LPCC, he certainly violated his ethics.
EK8805: I know people who cannot afford the dollar store cleaning supplies. It’s why I keep a few extra bucks on me when I’m doing home visits. I have had to purchase them for people to get them through until other long term plans can be put into place. I was fortunate to have people in my life to provide some of those things for me when I was a young single mom. I’d help clean my dad’s house, he bought me toilet paper and dishsoap and let me wash our clothes with his.
(Report comment)
I hear people saying it’s not poor people, just lazy ones. I agree, but I can pretty well guarantee you that if you go into the apartment complex in which she lives you will find similar situations (both in cleanliness & childcare) MORE OFTEN THAN NOT. This is the truth. Try walking door to door if you don’t believe it.
(Report comment)
Justanothermom-
I do agree. This is a somewhat sad, and perhaps biased- statement, but it can also be true that people that are so desolately poor are there because they CHOOSE to be that way. Sounds like a strange concept, but a single mom with four kids that works full time at Burger King may be making $300 dollars a week, but she’s also getting help from the state if she’s got 4 kids, for sure. Food stamps and medical are givens. She’s also probably receiving help with her rent from LCMHA and getting discounts on gas and electric bills. If they alotted what money they do have in a better way, they wouldn’t be living like that.
Many ‘poor’ people may not choose directly to be poor, but their actions make them that way. If the chick was working full time, even at a minimum wage job, she should have enough money to purchase three bucks worth of cleaning supplies once a month. Even if she wasn’t buying cleaning supplies, she could still clean with water and a wash cloth. She could have PUT THE KNIVES AWAY. That does not take ANY money.
If people are resourceful, even on minimum wage and with help, they CAN live somewhat clean lives. I’m sorry, but if you carry a few dollars with you to give to clients to buy cleaning supplies, MOST of them would not end up buying those supplies.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood in line at Giant Eagle or Wal Mart behind an indiviual or family that looks like they haven’t bathed in months, (and I’m sure their homes are no better), and are buying cigarettes.
If you’ve got money for that, you should have money to buy soap.
Even if things get THAT desperate, you could buy ONE BOTTLE of dish detergent and use it to clean other things besides dishes. I understand the ‘you do what you gotta do’ mindset, but that does NOT EVER mean neglecting your kids or the environment in which they live.
It also means that, if you couldn’t afford one child, perhaps you could be intelligent enough not to bring three more into the world. It disgusts me that these people are so ignorant that they are willing to ruin the lives of their children, who, statistically speaking, will most likely end up as teen parents and back on the welfare system themselves.
That being said, even if she couldn’t afford a dollar for dish soap, they have a freakin’ program at LCJFS that gives away FREE cleaning and hygeine products to clients and the poor. All you have to do is contact your caseworker and they will direct you to it. It’s a matter of asking.
It’s a matter of being MOTIVATED enough to get the products to CLEAN your apartment.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE. I do not care how poor this woman is.
Bottom line, there is also NO EXCUSE that she should have four kids. Again, Family Planning. It’s FREE for gods sake!
PENIS + VAGINA = BABY.
Did it take her four pregnancies to figure that one out? I’m sure she’s not getting child support either, because I can’t imagine someone with a steady, decent paying job would be willing to impregnate a girl that’s got filthy kids that she already doesn’t look after. (I wonder how her personal hygeine is?)
Anyway, it doesn’t matter. People need to learn that it’s selfish and disgusting to bring a child into the world when you can’t afford basic necessities for them.
It’s cool though, let her continue to reproduce and leach off the welfare system and my tax dollars. What the social workers REALLY need to do is sterilize these ignorant people before the kids are ever conceived.
She was too lazy to clean her apartment, too stupid to not leave her kids alone, and too ignorant to use a condom.
It’s a big snowball of bad smelling, bug infesting, tooth decaying, stupid people FUN.
(Report comment)
ok so the place was a mess no one was saying that a baby was sitting in 6 inches of water can we say drowning and the knives on the table what is wrong with this woman. Gary Crow is a blind director I think they should get a new director that can see the the problems that he says it was ok come on people these children are our future this woman was to lazy to to feed her kids for 12 hours thats why the baby was crying why would you leave a baby in water so you can go to the store for what more crack?I cant believe children services thought this was ok leave it to Lorain county
(Report comment)
about having a clean house….It’s not that hard and really it shouldn’t matter if you have money or not! Do they have running water???? Thats all it takes to wipe up counters and stuff…running water and a rag!! It may not be dissinfected but hey looks better then food and crumbs and sticky messes, and will prevent bugs!! Having a dirty house is pure laziness!
(Report comment)
So she can’t afford the dollar tree cleaning products. Big deal, the woman gets food stamps and can buy a big bottle of vinegar and a big box of baking soda. It takes a little more elbow grease and doesn’t have those “lovely” artificial scents. Add a bit of vanilla extract or boil some vanilla and cinnamon on the stove for some smell. What the heck do people think our grandmothers did before there were dollar trees and pinesol?!?
She needs to be in jail for leaving those kids alone. Living in Wilkes is no excuse! I was a divorced, single mom for years and I lived in Wilkes. My children were always supervised and our house was clean!
Mr. Fox was an idiot for what he said. Someone said it was a “vague” statement, well what if he had said something like, “most black people find it hard to keep a job” or “people from the south are not as intelligent as we are here”, or “young parents generally make bad parents”. Those can be construed as vague statements, but they are still wrong! The man is a public figure and his mouth should not be tolerated!
(Report comment)
I have been to affluent homes where the “trash†was just as bad, I didn’t go back. But the kids were grown and it was their parents. So this issue is not poor/rich issue its a hygene issue.
I think you should end up paying more in taxes if you have kids. Who uses the schools? who pees in the public pools if they are opened? The parents are the ones who are responsible for their kids and if they had to pay for having kids, then maybe they would be more active in their lives….
As far as the social worker, they have a job to do, probably under staffed etc…. So if you take the kids away, where you going to put them? Foster Care, if there is room.
Beside Social workers are the ones eveyone blames if a child is not removed, but was anyone there to take that child…. recently a set of young parents and her father took their revenge on a social worker who was doing her job. Just recently a 51 year old social worker went missing and Her body was found two days later inside her car, which had been moved to a wooded area and burned.
but then again what job doesn’t have its problems…
(Report comment)
Funeral services for a murdered social worker will be held Tuesday at Koontz Funeral Home in Hamlin.
The death of 51-year-old Brenda Yeager has prompted safety advocates and state officials to discuss ways to protect social workers.
State Police say the Hamlin woman was killed on July 30 while on an official visit to a Huntington-area home. Her body was found two days later inside her car, which had been moved to a wooded area and burned.
Twenty-three-year-old Steven Anthony Foster Jr. and 22-year-old Rosemary Forney are charged with Yeager’s murder. Foster’s father, 51-year-old Steven Anthony Foster Sr., is charged with third-degree arson, conspiracy and disposal of a body.
(Report comment)
I’ll bet Brenda Yeager took her job seriously and was doing it to the best of her ability.
When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in Hamlin visiting relatives. I don’t know if it was big enough to be called a town, way back in the hills, but it was thick with Yeager’s, all kin to Chuck who was raised there and has a statue of himself in front of the high school…
One summer when I was much older and took my Asian wife there, my aunt told us that the people aren’t being mean when they stare, they just probably never saw an Asian before. We met a few Yeager’s and they were beautiful people.
They were tearing down the home that Chuck Yeager spent his youth in, so my aunt and I filled my trunk up with some of it’s lumber, for later projects.
I remember the old woman who was in her late 70’s by then, trying to figure out how to get the bathtub from then second floor and onto the top of my gigantic Pontiac.
What we couldn’t understand was, why they were ripping down a historical house, so that they could put low income housing on the site. This was in the middle of nowhere West freaking Virginia! There was only about a million undeveloped acres all around the house they could have used…
But no, they, whoever “they” were had to tear down Chuck Yeager’s home, and we were all, WTF?!
(Report comment)
so… he’s got an airport named after him….. if the house was such of a historical fixture why didn’t someone try to save it before the last minute… if they didn’t… oh well . Yeager was a good kid who did well in the air force and for WV… he was a great test pilot but he wasn’t president, etc
(Report comment)
I don’t understand why Crow would comment about “folks living in that situation.” I felt that was very sterotypical. Although, it is my opinion that the caseworkers are overworked and I often question if they even do the required visits each month. That is based on my personal discussions with other caseworkers. It is like the one from Huron or whatever. The caseworker was there about a week before the parents were arrested for caging their kids. If these visits are unannounced, it would lead me to believe they didn’t do the visits. How could you miss a darn cage in the living room?
(Report comment)
“…but he wasn’t president, etc”
You write that, like it’s not a *good* thing.
As far as why didn’t they do more to save the house…
From what I gather, they never saw any reason to have it registered a historical home.
They were given very little notice, and while trying to get HUD or whoever was in charge to reconsider, half of the house was torn down.
I don’t know if the citizens of Hamlin could have done more, but apparently they didn’t do enough to keep the house standing.
(Report comment)
“Although, it is my opinion that the caseworkers are overworked and I often question if they even do the required visits each month.”
It seems that, usually a few weeks after we hear about some kind of horrific case of child abuse dealing with the foster care system in various parts of the country, we again read about two other related situations:
#1 Distraught mother sues foster care system
#2 Caseworker and supervisor are fired over falsified documents recording home inspections.
“bring back the orphanages”
(Report comment)
Those kids are probably just a tax write off for her. Everyone has a choice. You can choose to clean your apartment, or you can choose not too. You can continue to have unprotected sex, or you can choose to use birthcontrol method(s). You can choose to make a decision and get off of welfare, or you can not do anything and stay on it.
IT’S WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR DECISIONS THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
I think it’s sad that we as tax payers have to pay for a “statistic”. I feel bad for the children. The only “role model” they have, leaves them alone, and has them living in unsanitary conditions. It’s a shame that you need a license to own a dog, but anyone can have a child.
Some people who want children can’t have them, while others won’t stop making them.
(Report comment)
I suspect that Mr.Crow thoughts extended past what was in the paper and makes more sense when the thought is completed. This reporter’s don’t mess up quotes? Ask Tom Kelley at Lorain County Emergency Mgt about that one
(Report comment)
Meant to say ” Think reporter’s don’t mess up quotes?”
(Report comment)
Right…
I’ll bet Mr. Crow is just a big ol’ softie and a real push-over, when it comes to demanding that any misquotes, that could be damaging to him and his career, be retracted and corrected!
The guy probably has such a low regard for the poor, he’s suppose to be serving, that when he talks to the news media, he’s long forgotten that you’re not suppose to hold them in utter contempt, when in a paid position such as his.
(Report comment)
Don’t see what the big deal is. I’m sure he made a comment that expressed his outright honesty to the situation, albeit a little blunt.
I’m sure there are many hardworking “working poor” who keep their homes clean and tidy. I have a feeling the regular poor, however, i.e. the ones where social workers are forced to make visits, are a different story. Just think of going door to door in South Central or Leavitt Homes. I have been in those “apartments” before and will tell you they lived like animals.
So lets not get our panties in a bunch and remember the bottom line of this story: Some trashy broad left her kids, who we all pay for, in a pile of filth. These people are all around us, and instead of worrying about the poor’s feelings, lets work on a solution to end their poverty, thereby getting them off my tab.
(Report comment)
Jimbo…
I’m not upset that Crow may have expressed honest opinions…
I’m upset that he doesn’t have the common sense to qualify his comments, rather than make a blanket statement, such as, “…poor people have difficulties keeping their apartments clean.”
This person should have enough intelligence to not paint all the poor with the same brush.
He could have said, something like, “In all my years of dealing with the poor, every single one of them I’ve had direct contact with, has had difficulty in keeping a clean house, with absolutely no exceptions. However, I can’t comment on the poor whose homes I haven’t personally had the pleasure to visit. The poor who haven’t had problems requiring our attention. They *probably* live in filthy s**t holes too, but I’m not able to comment on that possibility as if it were a fact.”
Or he could have said, “During my studies in 14 years graduate school, I learned that 99.7% of the poor can’t keep a clean apartment. The other 0.3% kept an adequate environment for their children, but were categorized as rare anomalies, and it was suspected that they were only pretending to be poor.”
(Report comment)
Ok, I before I replied before, I had read the whole article. But people were so up in arms about what he said and with these most recent comments it made me go back and read what he said: “poor people have difficulties keeping their apartments clean.” He didn’t say poor people are pigs, live like filty animals, are disgusting, or anything else of the sort. he didn’t even say all their apartments weren’t clean, only that they had difficulty doing so-I would assume from his experience & my own that this comment comes from all the reasons I previously stated which are that they do not have enough $ to buy cleaning products, other family members don’t have the $ to help or didn’t teach them how to clean, or perhaps depression over their living circumstances and not cleaning due to the depression. Whatever the case, he didn’t say they live disgusting, only that they have difficulties. And the way I read it was with a tone of regret that this was the case, not contempt. He even said right before that that she probably wasn’t living in squalor. I think he was putting that nicely/mildly. Anyway, once again I would like to point out that it is entirely possible that he DID go on to clarify himself and the Chronicle didn’t publish it because of writing limitations, the shock factor of that statement alone, etc. I was interviewed by the news once myself ad the 2 sentences they pulled out of our 10 minute conversation didn’t sound stupid but wasn’t nearly what I had expressed. They quote what they want to get the story they want. Are people really that naive to this fact?
(Report comment)
JImbo-
You should run for Mr. Crow’s job….you think like he does! My daughter lives in Leavitt homes. She is a divorced single mom of a handicapped child, so she cannot work at this time. She raises her children on her child support and her son’s disability checks. Her apartment is probably cleaner than yours. She does not live like an animal.
This just prvoes my point that people should use their brains before they speak!
(Report comment)
klynnharris
Weren’t you that dirt ball that was walking on the train tracks at midnight. What kind of 40 year old lady is walking along train tracks in lorain after midnight.
Were you working or walking sweetheart?
(Report comment)
Jimbo, just think in a few years when you grow up you can call yourself an Adult….
(Report comment)
The fact of the matter remains that these “success stories” of people who do keep their apartments clean etc are anecdotal evidence. For every one good anecdote, I can show you 10-15 who fit the stereotype to a tee and worse than you could imagine.
(Report comment)
Justanothermom,
If you believe people, such as myself, are naive, for taking one quote out of all proper context, maybe I/we didn’t feel like going into detail, of think it was necessary.
But I guess, it is necessary:
The police made their observation.
The paper noted that the caseworker had seen the condition of the apartment a week earlier.
“ELYRIA — A Lorain County Children’s Services caseworker visited the apartment of Melody Reed just a week before police charged her with endangering her four children after finding them alone in squalor.”
Burnett starts the process of a** covering for herself and secondly her department, and is clever enough to not say what the case workers found.
For that matter she doesn’t actually admit to the apartment being inspected a week before.
Now THIS is a person who really knows how to cover her a**.
“Burtnett wouldn’t speculate on what a caseworker would have done if they found the apartment as police described it, but said caseworkers generally work with families and help set up a cleaning regimen to address a situation.
“We check on our children and work with their caregivers to make sure they take care of their needs,†Burtnett said.”
Now along comes Crow, who is making comments of fact, which is a horrible way to cover your a**, and quite probably a lie.
He’s basically blaming the problem on unsupervised kids, stating something to the effect of “things were fine when we inspected the dump!”
“The caseworker out there felt at the time that the environment was typical of folks living in that situation,†said Gary Crow, executive Director for LCCS. “The conditions the police described didn’t exist when (the caseworker) was there. If you leave children unsupervised for an amount of time, conditions can deteriorate rapidly.”
Here he is making up excuses, while he probably knows that a case worker hadn’t been to that apartment in months.
(Report comment)