OKDHS

OKDHS certainly has a number of problems. Most are in the Child Protective Services area, although I personally am more upset with problems in the Adult Protective Services area.

When news stories of problems with OKDHS appear, news forums frequently have posts from people saying similar things happen in their area. A good journalist would need to do some investigating to verify the accuracy of those reports, but some could easily add confirmation and additional examples to a news story of the latest OKDHS scandal.

• Commerce
• McIntosh County/Mayes County
• Porum
• Rogers County
• Seminole
• Tulsa County
• Yukon

Some aggrieved people even create websites with info that can be very useful to journalists

• Rogers County Grand Jury
• Kelsey's Purpose
• OK_DHS_Victims

or bloggers like myself, may just blog about it, like this, this, and this, and some even create Forums where other people can add their experiences. These should be a goldmine for journalists wanting to flesh out a story.

• Kelsey's Purpose
• Abuse Stories in Oklahoma
• Lawsuit Filed
• DHS abuse report
• OK is not the only state with stupid CPS decisions. Here is one from Detroit

As asm from Broken Arrow put it Those same Workers then DO NOT follow the Oklahoma or Federal Laws. They think that they are above the law. To a great extent I believe that is true. From my experience, dealing with the APS side of OKDHS, I don't think they care what the Governor thinks, what the legislature thinks, what the law says, what the court thinks, or what the general public thinks. Eventually the Governor and the legislature will both need to concern themselves with what the general public thinks (like in November), and I am hoping that the legislature will consider changes to the law before November. Rep. Richard Morrissette wants to break OKDHS into several smaller agencies. I am not convinced that is necessary or even appropriate, since we culd end up with several agencies that don't care what the Governor thinks, what the legislature thinks, what the law says, what the court thinks, or what the general public thinks. But I would like to see a law that permits any person to get a complete copy of whatever file OKDHS has on him or on his children, with complete sourcing for all of the information, and I would like to see criminal penalties apply if OKDHS refuses to make it available.