DEE: Health and Welfare 'cruel'

Katie Kirkbride has written (Readers Write, March 28) of the removal of Dee, a 5-year-old little girl, from foster mother Andrea Butler, the only mother she has ever known. While accurate in every way, Katie’s letter fails to evoke the gravity of the situation.

Dee has now, without any warning, been removed from Andrea’s care. There was no opportunity given for mother and daughter to have time to say goodbye, nor for Dee to take her most valued possessions with her.

Worse yet, Dee is not being allowed to have contact with her mother, nor with what has been her extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends that she has had for the last four and a half years. Nor her pets. Not even her favorite baby doll.

The cruelty inflicted by the Department of Health and Welfare is astounding. Pleas to the director of this department and to the governor have gone, so far, unheeded.

The department has a protocol for the permanent placement of foster children, available online at the department’s website. Repeatedly, it speaks to doing what is in the best interest of the child, and to doing so in a timely manner. Further, the document lists eight factors that should be considered. Of these, six items leave no doubt but to favor leaving the child permanently with her (foster) mother, two probably do apply to this case and none support the department’s decision.

The implications of this case go far beyond the continuing trauma inflicted on this little girl. How many other children have been, are, or will be similarly mistreated? How many potential foster parents will be disgusted and turn away their loving care from children who most need it?

We urge all to contact their representatives in the Idaho legislature to investigate this alarming situation.

A website has been established http://www.bringingdeehome.com/index.html containing much additional information.

MIKE and JUDY CARLSON

Coeur d’Alene