BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

CANTON – Several foster parents shared stories of alleged corruption at the St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services and called on legislators to address the problems.

However, despite the public outpouring, St. Lawrence County Legislators did not discuss the issue at the county meeting Monday.

At a recent meeting, county Administrator Ruth Doyle said she was preparing some information for the board which was to include but not be limited to the rates being paid to foster parents and the method for determining rates, but she was not present Monday.

Among the speakers was Francine Griffin of Madrid who said that she’s faced retaliatory action from the DSS for making complaints about alleged wrongdoings. She said she would continue to be vocal until the “corruption” ends. She went as far as to call for Legislator John Burke’s resignation for his recent defense of the county employees.

She said she wanted answers and accountability from the county and said she would not relent until something was done.

Griffin was one of at least 12 foster parents who submitted letters to the legislators on June 7 alleging a wide-range of misconduct by DSS employees.

Allegations in the letters include ethical concerns such as DSS employees and agents fostering children and collecting boarding rates that are disproportionately higher than what many foster parents who do not work for the department receive.

The letters share stories about children being taken from presumably fit and capable relatives who are seeking custody of their family members only to lose them to DSS employees seeking to foster them instead.

Allegations made in the letters also allude to retaliatory actions taken against those who have spoken out against issues they’ve seen take place and failure to provide help to families reaching out for safety concerns.

One letter alludes to an incident in which a DSS employee allegedly admitted to destroying evidence that a DSS attorney alleged he had reviewed.

On Monday Melody Pike shared her story of her attempt to gain custody of her nieces who were removed from her sister’s home. She said her attempts to gain custody of the children have been thwarted by St. Lawrence County DSS and said an employee of the county is currently fostering them.

Rachel Raven, a nurse practitioner and former pastor, who says she fled an abusive husband with her children only to have them later taken away and returned to the same man, also shared her story.

Raven said she fled with her children to Montana to stay with family, but was then targeted by St. Lawrence County DSS, who worked to strip her of custody.

She says she is now only allowed to have supervised visitation of her children. Raven said she’s done everything that’s asked of her by caseworkers. She said she’s attended counseling, but has faced continual pushback for her religion. She says she’s only allowed contact with her children for three hours a week.

She said has been cleared of nearly every allegation alleged against her, but one that remains is the fact she gave $700 to a person in need while in Ohio. She said DSS employees turned the generous gesture into an indication alleging that it hurt her ability to care for her children.

She said as pastor and someone with a six-figure income, she often helps others in need.

A letter from Jeffe Yette of Richville was also read aloud at the meeting.

He said that he has had some positive experiences with DSS having been a foster parent along with his wife for six years but said in some cases it seems that the child’s best interest isn’t the primary goal of the agency.

He said that DSS and its agents have not followed court orders or visitations scheduled, ignored reports from foster parents regarding concerns of the wellbeing of children, allowing biological parents to self-report on their progress and a failure of DSS to be involved.

“We have my wife’s young cousin in our foster care who just turned five-years-old this past March. At the time of this writing he has been in our home for one thousand, six hundred and seventy-three days. That’s exactly four years and seven months, well past the 15-month mandate to file a termination of parental rights,” he said in the letter.

Yette added that he and his wife have already adopted the boy’s younger half-sibling and wished to do the same with the boy.

However, Yette says the child is forced to visit his biological grandparents despite protests, which include crying and screaming.

“After we physically forced him to go on one occasion, we reported the incident to his Fostering Future’s case planner who told us we were absolutely not to force him to go in the future – to report it to the FF and they would cancel the visit. Yet less than 2 months later, a FF transport/visitation supervisor came to pick up the child who refused to go again, and she was then instructed to do whatever it took to get him to go, including bribing the child with a treat or extra play when her returned to our home after the visit,” he wrote.

Yette added that the biological father is a registered sex offender who self-reports that everything is going well with mental health counseling and probation. Yette says the man’s parents are allowed to serve as supervisors for visitation and that the DSS plan continues to call for the child to be returned to the biological parent.

Also speaking at the meeting were Mary Catherine Skelly who shared the story of her daughter who she says was abducted and trafficked and William Roome, who says he’s faced retaliation for speaking out publicly against sexual abuse in the county.

Other speakers included Casey Whitcomb who said she pleaded with legislators three years ago to take action on the problems taking place in DSS and Mindy Woodruff who said that county has delayed far too long in dealing with issues at DSS.

“The idea of what we think is happening is not what is happening,” she said. “It seems to be easier to not do your job than to do your job,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff said she wanted some confirmation that legislators would take action.

“I want to hear what you are going to do to make the changes,” she said. “ I don’t want to hear anymore, I'm sorry,” she said.

Also attending the meeting was Courtney Fantone, a two-time Clarkson University graduate and director of Community Helping Individuals Living in Distress (CHILD). She formed the group following a “horrific and traumatic ordeal” she experienced as a foster parent in St. Lawrence County.

Fantone is urging anyone who wishes to share a story or provide further evidence to email childhelp.director@gmail.com with their complaints or call 1-518-572-8169.