What about when MOM is the abuser?

Another sad story. If the allegations are true it makes me wonder just how many other of the foster children she had over 22 years were abused. Here are some excerpts:

Chicago Tribune

3 sisters told DCFS of years of abuse
Girls related beatings, threats by child-welfare advocate they lived with

Three Rosemont sisters said they were not just physically abused by their mother, a prominent child-welfare advocate who has been a foster parent for 22 years. The girls said they also were beaten by her adult biological daughter and sexually abused by her adult son, according to state records.

Both Patricia Cooper, 67, and her biological daughter would beat the children and douse one of the girls, who has a skin disorder, with bleach "as a means of discipline," according to the child-welfare records.

When one of the sisters confronted Cooper about the sexual abuse, the mother allegedly insulted the girl and did not believe her, the records say. The girl began running away, even staying with her biological mother, whom the child-welfare system had deemed unfit, according to the records.

On Wednesday, Cooper—a leader of the Illinois Council on Adoptable Children, an advocacy group that has advised the state on adoption laws—was charged with two counts of permitting the sexual abuse of a child, authorities said.

One of the sisters who allegedly became pregnant because of the abuse and was forced to get an abortion was at times not let out of the house, according to the records. Cooper "poured a solution of water and Pine-Sol cleaner over the head" of another daughter "when she did not clean to her standards," the records say.

"These children are threatened to not tell," the documents say. "Ms. Cooper feels that the children should be grateful for her taking them in and should not complain when others in the home abuse them."

"If they do not comply with her wishes she takes them out of school and keeps them locked in the home," one report says. Cooper allowed one sister to return to her biological family "if they promised to keep her quiet about the abuses," the report says.

Cooper's biological daughter beat the girls "with belts, wooden spoons and shoes if they were disobedient," the records say.

Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris said the case illustrates "the reluctance we see in investigations to make sure the kids are safe as opposed to trying to maintain the family at all cost."

You can read the entire article here


That last sentence is something I think to be true and one of the core issues with Children's Services around the country.