Say NO to foster children's exposure to familial violence and case management deception!

The President of "Children's Home and Aid Society" (Nancy Ronquillo) has confirmed the following policies:

1) CHASI will not expose children in foster care to repeated unnecessary violence of any form.

2) CHASI will not manipulate any judge’s decision for placement by intentionally hiding documentation of violence in any form or deliberate exclusion of information in formal reports to the court.

3) CHASI will not subject any child to facing their abuser or expose them to any situations that may be harmful or frightening to the child.

I have evidence that CHASI is in violation of their own policies and demand the immediate dismissal and reprimand of all colluding employees and urgent reform of their policies.

I have had temporary custody of my Granddaughter (Amya) since September 13, 2005. During that time, I have noticed some highly disturbing dysfunctions and been threatened both verbally and provoked physically with violent encounters by Amya's fathers family members. Amya has herself been caught in the cross fire of her fathers violent attacks on his family members which has caused Amya a great deal of unnecessary fear, pain and suffering. I have documented in detail all the events that prove his home (he still lives with his parents) is not a safe or healthy environment for Amya and she herself is not comfortable there in his presence.

All of this documentation has been provided with 100% immediacy to both the caseworker (Vershon Allen) and her supervisor (Laurel DenHartog) and now also to the Illinois State's Attorney's office.

Laurel DenHartog has continued to force me to send Amya back into this risky environment against Amya's own wishes and in violation of my rights as a Foster Parent. I am not obligated to coordinate these visits, nor be the brunt of their harassment, threats and physical provocation. All of this occurs in front of Amya and their hostile negativity and mind games with her continue after I’m gone.

I asked Nancy Ronquillo (President and CEO of CHASI) for the review of my documentation because both I and the State's Attorney's office felt that Laurel DenHartog was not serving the best interests of the children her organization is supposed to protect, serve and facilitate healing for. I felt that once Nancy reviewed this information, she wouldn’t even want an employee such as Laurel in her organization. To date (12/10/05), she’s never even requested or offered to read any of it.

I also told her that Laurel DenHartog is not able to make personally impartial decisions about where she wants children to be placed and failed to include even one word of the extensive documentation I've been providing on the repeated violence in an attempt to manipulate the judges decision towards Laurel's "personal favorite". Laurel has also demonstrated unethical "positioning" of my purpose as a foster parent to other family members and personal deceptiveness in her activities as my Granddaughters case supervisor.

Nancy Ronquillo deferred me to Bill Rodman who failed to give adequate attention to this matter before the pre-trial. Had I not taken appropriate action on my own with the State's Attorney's office, my granddaughter would have been placed in a home of violence.

Then she referred me to Warren Heinke (Regional Manager) whose response to me was "You don't tell CHASI what to do!" and he further said they were going to maintain their position with Laurel DenHartog as an employee.

Here is a list of the actionable items I presented to Warren against Laurel DenHartog:

1) Neglecting her responsibility to protect: a ward of the state from unnecessary stress, violence and pain by putting her directly in the line of fire.

2) Intentional Manipulation of the judges’ decision making ability during a pre-trial by hiding and failing to disclose a large and significant amount of detailed documentation. Documentation included pertinent reporting of the stresses, violence, undermining of child’s emotional healing process and development by paternal family as well as key points about child’s mothers’ high level need for counseling as soon as possible and other related compounding strain and emotional pain Laurel continued to expose the child to which often cause the child’s healing to regress.

3) Violation of foster parent rights: by forcing foster parent to deliver child to extended family members of the paternal family after hostility, violence and an undermining of child’s emotional healing process and development had been reported.

4) Deliberate misrepresentation: of her purpose for visiting paternal family members to advocate for foster parents’ obligation to document.

5) Failure to provide “trauma education” to paternal family members.

6) Failure to effectively coordinate and complete mothers’ assessment in a timely fashion so that counseling could have began for child’s mother before pre-trial.

7) Failure to provide a complete “Child’s Folder” with necessary forms (birth certificate, social security number, etc. to child’s foster parent) Items still not received to date.

This outright ignoring and excusing of these harmful practices should be a crime against the children who are entrusted into CHASI's care as it leaves them vulnerable to the unstable whims of individuals who are not required to follow even their own organizations' policies. If CHASI employees want to accept a high level of dysfunction or violence in their own homes as normal that’s their business – but NOT for these children!

When I asked Warren, if even though it is not CHASI's policy to deliberately withhold information from a judge, and having been given proof that Laurel has done so, why does his position remain that no action is needed? - he said he hadn't even seen the report yet but yet came to the conclusion no action against Laurel was necessary!

My Granddaughter and ALL children have the right to be safe from people and organizations that intentionally or negligently put them directly in harms way, in spite of violations of their own organizational policies and should never EVER have to be forced to face the people they fear in any situation so that their "reaction and fear can be documented by the organization".

Laurel also wants to yank Amya out of school twice a month so that a case aid can be alone with her for 4-6 hours during visits with her sister and pull her out of school once a week to force her to visit her father who she fears and in no uncertain terms - does not want to see!

Therefore I pray for the immediate dismissal of Laurel DenHartog for:

1) Her negligence to my Granddaughter and the children of Rockford under her supervision.

2) Her intentional act to manipulate the court by hiding evidence.

I pray for Warren Heinke to be removed of position as Regional Manager for allowing Laurel DenHartog to continue these harmful practices.

I pray for Nancy Ronquillo to be required to rewrite CHASI's policies to protect the children in her organizations' care in it’s entirety from these acts of deception, enabling of deception, tolerance of violence and dysfunction these children are subjected to and favoritism.

I am not asking for any action to be taken against Vershon Allen (the caseworker) because she is new and we are her first case family. Everything she does is subject to Laurel's approval.

All signatures that accompany this petition request these actions be carried out with urgency and are furthermore the signatures of independent people with a common love for the safety and healing of all children - who will not quietly allow organizations or “corporations” who are supposed to be PROTECTING children – to cause them further unnecessary, pain, suffering or harm.