Guys, the supervised visitation facilitator was NOT a social worker, case worker or crisis worker. She was a person from a private facility contracted with CPS to provide monitored visits.
These people have scant training in my experience. Because they are not social workers, they do not receive the intensive training social workers do. They sometimes have a few college units of psychology but mostly, they have a few hours or a day or so of training at the facility. That training consists of basic safety protocols, how to supervise the visit (don't leave them alone), how to take notes, what to do if the parent appears intoxicated (stop visit), abuses the child (stop visit), or says inappropriate things to the child (redirect parent and if it continues, stop visit).
I complained about this before this happened. When I read that the coward had supervised visits but the kids were coming back sullen, from those visits, and with attitudes, I wrote on Susan's thread how they do not receive enough training to spot subtle manipulation. They often have vague info about the case. They do not receive a case file beyond basics. They have no declarations, no psych reports, no letters from people, nothing. Their case file contains names, ages length, of visits, type of restricted visitation and basic allegations (Domestic violence, e.g.).
Of course, even if this lady had had TONS more training and knew everything there was to know about a crisis, etc., she would not have been able to help here. Listening to the 911 tapes, she seemed sharp, spoke calmly even though you know she was terrified (as she could not initially find the address), etc. She tried her best to impress upon the 911 operator the seriousness of the situation. I would not have been as calm as she was. I felt she was as professional as possible.
I just wanted to clarify that this lady was NOT a trained CPS worker or anything close. I mention this in case there are people who think she should have known more or done more. I have friends who are or have been monitors and I deal with monitors all the time with my work. I know exactly what they need to supervise a case and it is almost nothing.
As for the first 911 operator, I'm sorry. He was cruel, bothered her with unnecessary nonsense, was NOT listening to her and then was sarcastic with her, almost mocking, when he tried to point out her "foolish" answers, which were not foolish at all, had he been listening to her calmly given info.
I know that it is unlikely that a faster response would have helped. The coward was determined and had planned this well. I also know that 911 operators have to deal with a ton of nonsense, excitable people misusing the system, excitable people who cannot help the 911 operator, etc., which can cause them to be frustrated at times. But this was NOT one of those situations and does not excuse this operator, IMO.
I think he enjoyed the power he had over the caller. His last sentence to her about sending cars quickly only to life threatening emergencies really showed that. The sneer in his voice as he said that was very obvious to me. He was belittling her and her situation and had he listened at all, he would have known this was serious. He was very unprofessional and should be fired, IMO. How that poor lady felt after that call, I can only imagine. She did everything she could and had to hang up with the feeling that she wasn't taken seriously, and with the knowledge that the two little lives she had been entrusted with were in a house that smelled like gas, with a murder suspect. She was more professional than I would have been. I would have screamed at that operator.
God bless that poor lady.
