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Child-welfare worker Viola Mason, who removed Emily from her parents' house, is concerned that the family may again slip out of the control of social- service authorities. The department wants the court to place Emily in a foster home.
This court, as parens patriae (literally father of the country), spends a lot of time trying to salvage children's lives and build new homes for them. But a climate of increased litigiousness and confrontation, along with a lack of money, has made the task tougher. In addition, the overburdened Baltimore ! city social-services department has pathetically inadequate means to care for the children after they are removed from their homes, a situation that undermines the department's mission from the start.
Before Emily's hearing begins, her Legal Aid Bureau lawyer, Joan Sullivan, takes her by the hand and walks her upstairs to a quiet corner. She asks Emily how she feels in her foster home. "I'm still scared," says Emily. "At night I see shadows on the wall. Monsters." The social-services department wants to place Emily with a cousin, but the young girl wants to live with her grandmother. No matter how Sullivan feels about the matter, she is obligated to express to the court whatever Emily, her client, wants. And that may not always appear to be the best solution.
Sullivan asks if Emily knows why she had to leave home. Emily says she does not, and then she spontaneously recants her claims of abuse. "That wasn't for real," she says. "I lied." But her denial rings hollow.
"Do you like your dad?" Sullivan continues. Yes, says Emily. "He gives me money." She adds that her father promised to give her gifts and a party when she comes home.
As often happens in these circumstances, the lawyers cannot agree on a solution for Emily. Since the girl has recanted and no physical evidence of abuse exists, it appears she may go home with her parents. "It's an injustice," observes child-abuse expert Betsy Offerman, who has followed Emily's case. "It seems that no matter what we know, there is always a loophole that means the child will go back into the situation, and the cycle continues." Offerman explains that there is a tremendous incentive for children to deny sexual abuse. "The message kids get is, 'If I say something, I will go to court and get taken away from my family,' " Offerman says. "They start to think it is better for them if they keep their mouths shut." Offerman used to be a therapist in the social-service department's sexual-abuse-treatment unit, which was closed in 1990 because of budget constraints.
As the lawyers continue to argue in a corridor, Emily falls asleep on her cousin's shoulder in the courtroom. Then Master Walker arrives. At first things go badly for the social-services department. Emily's lawyer prompts a social-services worker to concede that the allegedly filthy house had been cleaned in time for a later scheduled visit. The attorney for the child's mother then gets the worker to admit that Emily's older sister Tracy has denied all charges of sexual abuse. Under questioning from the father's lawyer, the worker acknowledges that there is no physical evidence of sexual abuse.