Upstate tragedy demands real answers

According the Greenville News, 29 month old Samuri Mayes died last Friday as a result of injuries she received while living in a home that South Carolina Department of Social Services had placed her in. The child had been removed from her parents’ home due to drug issues and placed with a relative. It is in that relative’s home that the child sustained injuries that led to her tragic death.

I hesitate criticizing the Department of Social Services because I know firsthand that there are a lot dedicated people who work in that agency that do thankless jobs for low pay. However, the death of a child in a home that DSS deemed as a safe place has to give pause and demands accountability beyond the usual bureaucratic games played by government agencies. While I do not doubt that the DSS employees involved, the Guardian ad Litem and the attorneys involved are all stricken with sincere grief, again the death of a child in such circumstances deserves answers.

One man can make a call for those answers like no other. Governor Mark Sanford appointed the head of the Department of Social Services and it is within his cabinet. Governor Sanford can demand answers and resignations. For six years, Governor Sanford has told us that giving a Governor more power over state agencies will bring more accountability. If the Governor really means what he says, he should use the power he does have to make people accountable for the death of a child.

I realize that the true person accountable was the person who allowed the child to be harmed in the home. However, the state had its role in the tragedy, in that DSS recommended the child be placed in the setting. I do not know what the answers to such a tragedy are, but I do know than any Governor worth a hoot would at least force the questions.

Again, I state that folks who work for DSS are often hard working and sincere. I know that many attorneys and GALs appointed to such cases are. However, perhaps the Governor should look at the funding and the system that they work within. Something is not working. I realize it is not politically sexy. I realize there are not high paid lobbyists for little kids who are in the DSS system. But, at some point, we have to put all those things aside and just be decent human beings. This tragedy haunts me and reminds me of what Jesus said, “what you did to the least of my kingdom you did to me.”

Those words should haunt the Governor and the high management of DSS and provoke them to getting real answers as to why the agency charged with protecting children failed so.