Two weeks ago we published this cover story. We told you how New Zealanders were very good at killing children. We asked who was responsible for stepping in and preventing the murders. The answer from the authorities: Well, no one, actually. Today, the heartrending story of one family. Debrin Foxcroft reports.
Jeanette Smith* knows she shouldn't be talking to me. But she is angry and frustrated and crying out.
She asks anyone who will listen: who is going to protect the children? Mrs Smith's heart broke after she read our cover story, The Lost Children, two weeks ago. It was too close to home.
For the tragedy of children who miss out on help from Government agencies doesn't end when those agencies are notified of abuse and neglect.
Sometimes that's just the beginning. As Mrs Smith says, lost children can become trapped children.
Mrs Smith has first-hand knowledge. She is a great-aunt to three children known to the Child Youth and Family service. The children, all under 10, have been returned to their mother despite the agency's social workers reporting that the children need care and protection.
The children's mother is in a relationship with Mrs Smith's nephew.
The woman - we'll call her Dana Wilson - had her first child before she was 16, a little girl called Sarah. Sarah now has two brothers. Max is two and Dave is almost one. A fourth child is due before Christmas.
Almost two years ago, Mrs Smith went to visit her extended family. She knew things were bad but the reality was still a shock.
She describes the house as extremely neglected, with dog faeces on the couches, and the children running around unclean and unfed.
She just had to say something. "If I went to a swimming pool and I saw a child drowning, I wouldn't just watch it. I would do something," she says. Mrs Smith did something: she notified Child Youth & Family.
She showed us documents that map the deteriorating situation since that first visit.
CYF made efforts to help Ms Wilson improve her parenting skills, to improve the state of the home and provide for her growing family.
They gave her parenting lessons and clothing vouchers. She was already on the domestic purposes benefit. But Mrs Smith believes that, by leaving the three children in their mother's care, the service left them open to physical injury and preventable disease.
One of Mrs Smith's biggest concerns is not what has happened, but what could happen.
"I am just so frustrated that, though the agencies know what is going on, the mother's rights to have children are still above the rights of her children to be safe," she says.
Mrs Smith has sought Family Court intervention. She has yet to be told of a hearing date.
In the past 12 months, the middle child, Max, has been treated for a fungal skin infection. Parts of his body were covered in boils.
Sarah suffered a dislocated toe after her father tried to force a shoe onto her foot. The two youngest were being bathed at daycare and their clothes washed by their teacher.
Still, the government agency was determined the children should stay with their mother.
CYF says it is unable to comment on a particular case. A media spokesperson at the parent department, the Ministry of Social Development, says each case is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
The spokesperson says when a case requires further action, it is assigned a category to determine the urgency of response. The response times range from 24 hours to 28 days.
In the 2007-08 financial year, CYF carried out 29,717 care and protection notifications.
Until the court decides the children's fate, the family is in limbo. The children's paternal grandparents have cared for them on and off since CYF became involved and would have them in the home long-term. For now, the court has returned the children to their mother.
Until the battle is over, Mrs Smith refuses to read newspaper coverage of the Nia Glassie trial. She says it makes her feel sick.
"No one is interested in the children that are alive. It's only news when they die," she says.
* All names of the family members involved have been changed.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG We know there are more stories like this. We want to hear them. email letters@theaucklander.co.nz
No one is interested in the kids who are alive
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