Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Very young riders in AERC rides

Hi Truman
I am not getting into the "should very young children ride endurance"
issue; as I don't ride endurance, that is not my expertise. Having been 
a social worker in two different states in two different era's, I will 
tell you that issues re: child welfare laws change from year to year, 
administration to administration, and INTERPRETATION of those laws 
changes RADICALLY from county to county, never mind state to state. For 
example, there was a BIG difference in policy just between San Luis 
Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties AND there was an ongoing "war" between 
the social workers in the two counties as a result of it. Santa Barbara 
thought San Luis removed kids at the drop of a hat, disrupting families 
without enough cause. San Luis saw Santa Barbara social workers as 
"close your eyes and hope the problem goes away" workers resulting in 
very little cooperation between the agencies. I'm not even getting into 
the war between Mental Health workers and social workers in my dept. 
Mental health defined cruelty and inadequate parental care FAAAAR 
differently than we were TOLD to do. And then there was the war between 
our own intake dept. and the Emergency care workers who generally made 
the call as to whether to remove or not. The intake was far more in 
favor of removal and the field workers saw intake as "pretend.. wanna 
be" social workers-- even though many had the same credentials.
Soooo you are NOT going to be able to determine this issue on legal 
grounds unless you take one state, one county, then narrow it to one 
department, and, finally, one particular social worker. And then you are 
just talking about one point in time, as there was a radical change in 
our dept. when the judge changed--- VERY different philosophies. the 
latter judge even violated federal mandates resulting in risk to our 
funding due to her strong feelings that addicts should be allowed a 
longer time frame to rehab before severing parental ties (she used to 
adjudicate drug cases and knew the time limits were unreasonable for 
rehab'ing druggies who loved their kids but needed time to get clean). 
So here was someone administering the law who was ignoring parts of law 
in her legal decisions.
No, I'm afraid you are going to have to base your position on 
medical/emotional/moral grounds with the emphasis on emotional/moral. If 
medical issues determined how laws are passed, would we have banned 
saccharine while allowing cigarettes??? ;-)
Bette

Truman Prevatt wrote:
> Yes and any one of these jurisdictions could potentially make trouble 
> for the AERC much in the same way the state of FL has made trouble for 
> the amusement parks in FL. This issue is a complex multifaceted issue 
> that should be examined using logic rather than emotion. I sure would 
> rather see policy decisions made based on as many factual inputs as 
> possible. I would rather see policy decisions made using a realistic 
> assessment of the risk and consequences of a particular action rather 
> than based on emotion.
>
> It's just too bad that just about every issue on this forum deteriorates 
> into an emotional debate.
>
> T
--
Bette Lamore
Whispering Oaks Arabians
Home of 16.2h TLA Halynov
who lives on through his legacy
Hal's Riverdance!
http://www.arabiansporthorse.com


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