AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine’s governor said Thursday that an outdated child protection system in his state played a role in the deaths of two children who were abused for months.
Republican Gov. Paul LePage made the comments Thursday before the state’s Government Oversight Committee. LePage, a victim of child abuse himself, said he wanted to “make sure these children did not die in vain,” the Portland Press Herald reported .
LePage’s comments stem from a report by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, which presented findings last week to the Government Oversight Committee about a pair of child abuse deaths. The committee held a public hearing on them Thursday.
The report concerns the deaths of 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy in February in Stockton Springs and 4-year-old Kendall Chick in December in Wiscasset. The report centered on Maine’s child protection system and cited poor job performance and lack of supervision by the state Office of Child and Family Services. It did not say which case suffered from the mistakes.
LePage said the state statutes should be changed so priority is placed on the interests of the child as opposed to on family reunification. He said the state must also replace an outdated computer system so it can provide better communication and greater access to case histories.
LePage said he also plans to ask the Maine Legislature once again to criminalize failure to comply with the state’s mandatory reporting statue. He said enforcing mandatory reporting is important in cases where there is “any reason to suspect that a child is being abused.”
Parents and caregivers face criminal charges in the deaths of Marissa and Kendall. The cases are currently in the court system, and the defendants have entered not-guilty pleas. A broader report on the state’s child protection system at large is expected from the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability in the future.
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