13 year old boy fatally shoots 12 year old girl with gun he found in home.

Courtesy of Chron: 

A 13-year-old boy deliberately shot and killed a 12-year-old girl outside a foster home in rural southwest Missouri where they both lived using a gun he had taken from the house, the local sheriff said Friday. 

Officers tried to revive the girl, Teresa J. Potts, but she died Thursday evening near the town of Jasper, which is about 130 miles south of Kansas City, Jasper County Sheriff Randee Kaiser said. 

Kaiser said the boy ran into the nearby woods after shooting the girl and he was arrested there. He is being held by the Jasper County Juvenile Office, Kaiser said at a news conference in nearby Carthage, adding that the boy is expected to be charged in the shooting soon. The sheriff's comments were reported by The Joplin Globe and Springfield, Mo. TV Station KY3. 

"It was not a situation where they were playing. It does not appear to be a situation where it was an accident," Kaiser said.

The report goes on to say that the two children lived in the foster home, and that the father was home.

There was more than one weapon missing when the search of the home started but now all have been accounted for.

Currently there is no information of whether or not the boy took all of the weapons, how many times he shot the girl, or the nature of their relationship.

It is conceivable that they are both foster children unrelated to each other, biological siblings, or that one is  a foster child and the other the father's biological child.

What the police seem to be saying is that the boy shot the girl intentionally with a weapon that he found unsecured within the home.

These incidents are happening with such frequency that it is becoming difficult to keep up.

And that may be one of the saddest things I have ever typed. 

Christian couple sue Massachusetts because the state won't let them adopt foster children to beat.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A Massachusetts couple claim they’re victims of religious discrimination because the state won’t allow them to adopt foster children because they spank their own kids. 

Gregory and Melanie Magazu sued the Department of Children and Families after their application was rejected because they admitted to using corporal punishment. 

“It’s been hard because (being a foster parent) is something that’s been in my heart, that I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” said Melanie Magazu — who grew up in the foster care system herself. 

She and her husband, who are members of Grace Reformation Bible Church, were turned down in 2013 because the state does not allow foster parents to use corporal punishment, as the Magazus do with their own three children. 

“Because of the significant trauma children in DCF care may have experienced, Department policy requires that foster parents agree not to use physical punishment as discipline,” said department spokeswoman Andrea Grossman. “This couple was denied as foster parents based on their use of corporal punishment on their biological children and the negative effect that could have on foster children.” 

The state argues that many foster children come from abusive homes, so exposure to spanking and other corporal punishment could be traumatizing — but Gregory Magazu said that’s how he shows his Christian love.

You simply do NOT get to use corporeal punishment against children placed in the care of the state, which is exactly as it should be. 

And if you want to adopt children, and your go to punishment is to hit them, then you are unfit for the job. And if that is against your religious beliefs than you REALLY need to think about changing your religious beliefs.

As I have mentioned before I work with some of the most challenging young people you can possibly imagine and if I even made a fist in response to one of their behaviors I would be out of a job. Period!

Many of these children have been horribly abused and neglected, and it really takes very little to re-traumatize them.  Which is something these two ignorant morons seem unable to grasp.

I have also worked with families who thought that the way to deal with escalating behaviors was to escalate the severity and frequency of the beatings. And yes some of them used their religion as as excuse for the beatings.

Yeah those people do not even SEE their children anymore.

Rachel Maddow reports on the devastating consequences of parental consent regulations for one pregnant sixteen year old foster child in Nebraska.

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Too young to be trusted with the decision to terminate her pregnancy, but not too young to give birth and raise a child. That is some fascinating logic there Nebraska.

Of course the Fundies will helpfully suggest that this young woman simply carry the child to term and then give it up for adoption, thereby reducing her to breeding stock and providing yet another poor innocent mind for the religious zealots to mold and manipulate.

I think Michele Bachmann might be full of shit when she claims to have "raised' 23 foster children.

Courtesy of CBS News:

After her speech at the Republican Leadership Conference, I asked GOP presidential candidate and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann about her repeated claims that she has "raised" 23 foster children, a comment she reiterated in an interview with CNN following her speech.

Writing in the Daily Beast this week, Michelle Goldberg quoted Kris Harvieux, who worked as a senior social worker in the foster care system in Bachmann's county, who said at least some of Bachmann's placements were likely short term.

"Some of them you have for a week. Some of them you have for three years, some you have for six months," he said. "She makes it sound like she got them at birth and raised them to adulthood, but that's not true."

According to Goldberg, the Minnesota Department of Human Services reports that Bachmann's foster care license allowed her to care for at most three children at any one time; she had the license for 7 1/2 years.

Asked to explain her situation with her foster children, Bachmann said "we took children in as teenagers."

"Their family was facing a challenge and they weren't going to be able to be at home with their parents and so we took them in as teenagers," she continued. "And our job was to see that they graduated from high school and were successfully launched into the world."

Asked how long they lived with her, she said "it varied."

I asked Bachmann to explain the parameters of how long the children lived with her - was it as short as one week? As long as three years?

"It varied, it really varied depending on the children," Bachmann responded. "And we've never gotten into specifics about the children because we've always wanted to observe their privacy and that of their families. As I'm sure you can appreciate."

Watch her face as the reporter asks her how long the children lived with her.  Just look at her face, she is DEFINITELY not telling the truth and wants to quickly change the subject.

And you know the thing is it's a pretty intelligent lie to tell.  There is really NO way to independently check any records to find our if she is full of shit. Because of confidentiality guidelines those records are completely private, and nobody who has read them is allowed to discuss what is inside of them.

Essentially Bachmann is completely safe from having her lie revealed to the public.

You have to admit it is smarter than faking a pregnancy, but no less disgusting.

She and Palin are both extremely manipulative and devious women who use children as a shield to protect them from criticism and to create the myth of the "Supermom."

Michele Bachmann the living embodiment of everything Sarah Palin pretends to be.

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Now take note, I am about to do something I will likely NEVER do again. And that is to give Michele Bachmann a compliment.

The fact that she took in twenty three foster children is exceedingly admirable in my opinion, since that is one of the most difficult jobs in the world.

My only caveat to this is if she did such a thing to indoctrinate these children into her religious belief, then I take it all back.  I have seen PLENTY of Evangelical types take foster children into their homes and then swiftly impose their own stringent moral demands on them until the kids either run away, and end up back in the system, or buckle under and learn to suppress their individuality in exchange for a warm place to sleep and clothes on their backs.

Now I have no evidence that Bachmann was this kind of foster parent, but from what I know of her, I would not be terribly surprised. (By the way, I am in NO way suggesting that all religious people who become foster parents force their beliefs on the children they bring into their homes. In fact the majority of them take great pains to respect the religious customs that the children they take in already observe. I am speaking of a very small, but very aggressive, group of foster parents who feel that they are called by God to bring new souls to Jesus, and have found foster care a very useful tool for achieving that end.)

But leaving the possibility that there is something admirable about Michele Bachmann aside, I have to say that EVERYTHING else about her should scare the hell out of anybody who thinks she might have a real shot of making it to the White House. 

Which she doesn't by the way.

Another indication of how the Republicans despise the poor and disadvantaged.

Courtesy of Michigan Radio:

Foster children in Michigan would use their state-funded clothing allowance only in thrift stores under a plan suggested by State Senator Bruce Caswell.

Caswell says he wants to make sure that state money set aside to buy clothes for foster children and kids of the working poor is actually used for that purpose.

He says they should get "gift cards" to be used only at Salvation Army, Goodwill or other thrift stores.

"I never had anything new," Caswell says. "I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was -- and quite frankly it's true -- once you're out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes."

I almost don't know what to say about this.  I am stunned at this man's complete lack of compassion and empathy for the foster children in his state.

I don't like to talk about what I do for a living, but let me just say that I often work with disadvantaged children, including some in the foster care system, and I know first hand what kind of stigma these kids deal with every single day.

They are ripped from their families, often through no fault of their own, and find themselves bouncing from one foster home to another for years, feeling unwanted and unloved. They can suffer from a crippling lack of self esteem, and find themselves on the outside of EVERY social clique in their school, knowing full well they simply are not like the other children sitting their classrooms.

Why would you make children who already feel like cast offs themselves, walk around in cast off clothing?

Does this sorry excuse for a human being have ANY idea what kind of self esteem boost one of these kids gets from having the opportunity to go to a regular store like Old Navy, or Nordstroms, or even Wal-Mart, and pick the clothes that THEY want to wear? To know that those clothes were purchased JUST for them, and are NOT just something a wealthier kid had no more use for?

Well I have. And I have seen them wear those clothes as often as they can until they have literally grown right out of them. I have seen them crying with concern that their foster parent will not have the money to buy anything so "cool" the next shopping trip. And I have also witnessed the sense of pride they feel as they fold them up carefully and take them to the Salvation Army, so that somebody in a worse situation than they are will have the opportunity to wear the clothes that they took such pride in wearing, and that they took such pains to keep in near perfect condition.

I would suggest that this gentleman go along on a shopping trip with a foster family and see for himself how it can light up a child's face to pick a beautiful dress and know that, unlike most of the things in their lives, it is just for them.  Perhaps it is hard for those of us who can get in our car and buy ourselves a new pair of pants anytime we want, to understand the joy these children feel at such a simple opportunity. But have no doubt that it can do wonders in making them feel special, and loved, and wanted.

(H/T to Rachel Maddow.)

Update: For those who want to e-mail the Senator, and express your thoughts, you may do so here: SenBCaswell@senate.michigan.gov