My mother is a Social Worker in the NYC system. From what I gather from her stories it’s a nightmare of low standards and money grubbing union activism. Anyone who gets a MSW, which is like a sociology degree but more mired in neo-Marxism, is eligible to be a social worker. This leads to unqualified people who’ve never worked with children and know nothing about them making life and death decisions regarding them. The results in any big city are predictable, from Missing and Murdered Children:

There are a large number of homeless shelters in the greater Los Angeles area. Many are funded by the United Way and other benevolent organizations. Recently I viewed a commercial on television where they discussed the ‘new’ way of helping people in need of help. Instead of offering a hot meal and a handout they offer a place to stay, counseling if needed and a way to get a job either such as assisting in creating a resume.

Social Workers are a part of that mix of people who are employed at the shelters to assist the people in need.

Ranetta Maxwell was living at a shelter somewhere in Los Angeles with her then 7-week-old baby. A social worker was assigned to the ‘baby’s case’, whatever that means. She was instructed by someone to take the baby from the mother and to a doctor. The social worker decided to go home instead because, well, she had already worked a really long shift without a break.

The baby died of starvation, dehydration and neglect at the shelter.

How could this have happened? It happened because no one was willing to stand up for that baby. No one was willing to make a simple phone call to 911 to get the paramedics out to evaluate the child. Not the social worker assigned to the case, not the people who run the shelter and most importantly the baby’s own mother.

Now the mother is charged with one count of child abuse resulting in death and faces a possible 12 year prison sentence. Of course she cannot make the $130,000 bail that was set for her.

Now the Department of Children and Family Services is investigating whether the social worker did enough to keep the baby safe. Hell NO, the baby is dead, but the social worker had a good night’s sleep. It is more important to have a well-rested social worker.

I suppose the social worker will be able to keep her job because after all she is over-worked and not responsible in the least.

The union generated entitlement culture ensures that people who became Social Workers for the wrong reasons are not only never fired, but are rewarded for acting in bad faith. The L.A. Times gives us a clearer picture of the sense of entitlement fostered in these systems that leads to children dying:

The investigation into the death of a baby at a skid row shelter last month is focusing on a social worker who was ordered by a supervisor to take baby Jasmine from her mother to see a doctor but instead went home because she had worked a long shift without a break.

The social worker arrived early the next morning to find the 7-week-old child dead.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has ruled the death a homicide, saying Jasmine died of starvation, dehydration and neglect even though she had lived all of her seven weeks with her mother at the Union Rescue Mission.

The social worker from the Department of Children and Family Services, whose name has not been released, had checked the child during an emergency visit early on Aug. 9, and had reported that the baby’s face was “narrow and skinny.”

She made an appointment for the child at a nearby clinic but learned later that day that the mother hadn’t kept the appointment.

When her supervisor then told her to take Jasmine to a 24-hour clinic herself, the social worker decided to wait, even though overtime pay had been approved for her to take the child that night, according to county records obtained by The Times.

The social worker logged a message into her department’s computer system saying she was “unable to go back” to the mission because she had already worked “11 hours without a break” and thought she could take the child the next day.

The investigation raises new questions about how Jasmine died despite both social workers and counselors at the Union Rescue Mission knowing about her dwindling size and health. Though she weighed 6 pounds at birth, the infant weighed just 4 pounds when she died on Aug. 10.

And although the county social worker and shelter employees looked into possible neglect, none of them knew enough about the child to know her sex until she died. Before then, they thought she was a boy because the child’s mother often called her Michael Gabriel.

The case has prompted both the rescue mission and the county to consider changes in policy to better protect children on skid row.

But some county officials said Jasmine’s death is particularly perplexing because the county started an extensive program more than two years ago to better serve young children who live in the blight and homelessness of downtown L.A.

“Quite bluntly, we think it’s appalling,” said Roxane Marquez, a spokeswoman for Supervisor Gloria Molina.

“This is the type of work that the social worker is being paid by the taxpayer to do. If she couldn’t do the visit herself, it’s incumbent upon her to find someone who can,” she said.

If Department of Children and Family Services social workers need help, they can call the department’s command post and ask for another social worker to assist.

Juxtapose this to the culture at the non-profit YMCA child care facilities, where when I worked there people were required to report suspected abuse in a timely manner and the organization was full of young dedicated people who would gladly stay after hours to protect a child, even if they weren’t paid. I know, I was one of them and reported several parents for abuse and often stayed pass clock out when necessary.

In fact, if a worker thought that a parent would endanger a child (they were either drunk of abusive) we reserved the right to not release the child to that parent. In short we took the safety of the kids we looked after seriously. The above Social Worker, like so many others, did not.

As long as the United Way and organizations like it depend on government employed union dues paying MSWs these cases will continue to happen time and time again.