Child Protective Services officer encourages at-risk teen to become a prostitute

This isn't a story about bad reporting but rather, a really terrible person that I can't believe was in her paid government position with an attitude like this. In case you are unaware, Child Protective Services or CPS is an organization that is in the United States that is charged with looking after children whose parents are either unwilling or unable to look after them on their own. Of course this is prominently in poorer areas of the country. They also attempt to find homes for orphans and attempt (poorly) to ensure that families receiving government financial assistance are actually using that money to look after their children.

It's social work and it doesn't pay very well so it is no real mystery that the people that would be best at these jobs don't work there. Encouraging kids to get into prostitution to solve their financial woes is some 3rd world shit though.

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This happened in Texas and before any Texans try to shout at me for belittling their state know that I love Texas and if my situation in life ever points to me having a chance at living there I would jump at the opportunity to move there. I love the place but that doesn't mean that there is nothing shady going on in the ranks of the government.

While the CPS worker's identity has not been made public - which is a shame because something like this does in fact deserve attention, the word is that the staff member was identified and fired. I would like to believe that there would be some sort of investigation into whether or not behavior like this was widespread or if the perpetrator had done it before. If it was found to be true then she should be prosecuted for sure. I'm not a big believer in government handout programs anyway so I'm quite certain that most of the people in these positions do just enough to not get fired, no more, no less.

The ludicrous nature of this story doesn't just end there though. The girl in question secretly taped the CPS agent giving her the "get into prostitution" advice and shortly thereafter the girl's mother acquired an attorney and went public with the information. So, to me it kind of looks like this could be a setup to sue the government for a bunch of money. The story is too small to actually be followed and I'm relatively sure that the Houston government wouldn't put up much of a fight but would simply pay some money to make it go away.

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The young girl in question was not named in police reports or any other reports because she is a minor, but her mother, Keisha Bazley, has been on the news portraying an upset and upstanding member of the community. A single mother of 9 children, most of whom are reportedly running away from home frequently and getting into trouble at school, doesn't really have a moral high ground here and I would find it absolutely despicable if she tried to turn this into personal financial gain. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

In the meantime CPS is just another government organization that is sucking money from the public fund IMO. I am sure they do end up doing some good and yes, children should be protected. I just don't think the government is the right people for the job. Almost anything that the government does ends up being done in the most expensive and inefficient way imaginable and in this particular case they are doing precisely the opposite of what they actually should be doing.

I think I'll sign off here before I end up going on an anti-government rant :)