A.M. Tampa Bay (Monday - Friday: 5am-9am)
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The Department of Children and Families in Florida are taking the heat. 2 children have died, and case workers have taken the fall. This past week a case worker and 2 supervisors were fired. Will that make a difference? No.

You see, each case worker is seeing an average of 40 kids, the fired worker had a caseload of 50. It’s not like giving the workers a pay raise will make a difference. It takes a rare breed to take this job. Money is not the factor.

Case workers make an average of $25,000 yearly to deal with a constant dose of abuse. Abused children, abusive parents and calls at all hours of the night because yet another child ran away from home. Guess what, you have to get out of bed and travel to the seediest sides of town to start the process of finding the runaway. Could you do this ? Not many of us can.

Was Erica Jones wrong for falsifying records? You bet she was, should she have been fired? Yes, she should have been. Her boss, Robert Mistretta, that seems like a different story to me. Young, and inexperienced as a supervisor, Mistretta makes up for it in heart and devotion.

Until the State decides children are worth more, we won’t see this problem solved. It takes more than money to solve this issue. If we treat it with just more money, we would be treating the symptom and not the cause.

We need to change hearts. We have to keep young people from making babies they can not and will not take care. Grand parents should not be raising grand children. They have already had their turn. We need responsible parents. Parents who will put their children first, ahead of any selfish desire Mom and Dad may have.

That's how I see it!