A tragic case of child abuse has gotten the City of New York
in hot water over its allegedly inadequate protections for foster children.
The suit centers around Judith Leekin, a 64-year-old who is
now thankfully behind bars for exploiting the city’s foster system to get rich.
After learning how much the city would pay her to adopt children with physical and
mental disabilities, Leekin adopted 11 children under four different aliases,
and then moved to Florida with them.
The approximately $800 to $1,300 per month per child that the city paid
Leekin is hardly a windfall for any responsible parent caring for a child who is
need of special education. But Leekin spent hardly a dime on the children, keeping them locked—and, in some cases, tied
up—in her home, with no access to education, adequate food, or health care. By
the time her evil scheme was discovered in 2007, Leekin had collected $1.68
million in government money.
Her former foster children (one of whom is pictured), are now in their teens and
twenties and are in foster care and group homes in Florida.
The federal lawsuit contends that the city failed to
adequately background check Leekin or to monitor the children under her care.
But the Administration for Children’s Services argues that Leekin was masterful
at defrauding numerous agencies and professionals, and points out that the city did
everything in its power to prosecute Leekin and offer the foster children
care and resources after the abuse came to light.
While there must be government accountability for this unthinkably
terrible crime, I don’t think that a lawsuit is the answer. Taking money away
from New York’s child welfare system, which is already facing severe budget
cuts, is hardly the way to improve it. The best way to serve New York’s foster
children would be public disclosure of how Leekin managed to get away with such
severe child abuse, and a full accounting of the concrete measures the city has
taken to prevent such a situation from ever happening again.
Photo: New York Times
